Inevitably, the first question that the killing provokes
is, “Why?” But nothing in Meursault’s narrative answers this question. Camus’s
philosophy of absurdism emphasizes the futility of man’s inevitable
attempts to find order and meaning in life. The “absurd” refers
to the feeling man experiences when he tries to find or fabricate
order in an irrational universe. Cleverly, Camus coaxes us into just
such an attempt—he lures us into trying to determine the reason for
Meursault’s killing of the Arab, when in fact Meursault has no reason.
Camus forces us to confront the fact that any rational explanation
we try to offer would be based on a consciousness that we create
for Meursault, an order that we impose onto his mind.
In this chapter, we once again see the profound effect
nature has on Meursault. Early in the chapter, Meursault notes nature’s
benefits. The sun soothes his headache, and the cool water provides
an opportunity for him and Marie to swim and play happily together. Later
in the chapter, however, nature becomes a negative force on Meursault.
As at his mother’s funeral, the heat oppresses him. Camus’s language
intensifies to describe the sun’s harshness, particularly in the
passages just before Meursault commits the murder. His prose becomes
increasingly ornate, featuring such rhetorical devices as personification
and metaphor, and contrasting strongly with the spare, simple descriptions
that Meursault usually offers.
