Religion: His mother is not religious. She is not an athiest, she just never really cared about religion, although she wanted her buriel religious. This is explained on Page 6, "One last thing: it seems your mother often expressed to her friends her desire for a religious burial. I have taken the liberty of making the necessary arrangements. But I wanted to let you know.' I thanked him. While not an athiest, Maman had never in her life given a thought to religion."
Meursault: This character seems to be under a lot of stress. He also seems to not really care about his mothers death. The narration is very short, which I find that to mean something. Although I am not quite sure what that "something" is.
In the first paragraph I noticed the sentences were very short. He does not seem to care about his mothers death by the two sentences, "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." A person would think, or even care when the death of their mother was. This really astounded me. I feel that their relationship was not so great or he is just selfish. He did not cry when he was at her funeral, he did not even want to see her in the casket. When a woman started crying he did not want to hear it. You would think he would be crying due to the death of his mother; But he is not.
I have noticed eight events that reoccur in a short amount of time. Although these may not particularily have any significance, I feel that I should brainstorm with them.
Smell: Meursault is very in tune with what he smells.
".... the smell of gasoline..." (Pg.4)
"....and the smell of flowers on the night air is coming through the open door." (Pg.9)
"I breathed in the smell of fresh earth and I wasn't sleepy anymore." (Pg.12)
I feel that this man is very in tune with what is going on around him. He puts his senses to good use and I feel that this protrays his character to be intelligent. I am not quite certain if the meaning is what the author would like me to realize though.
Sky: Meursault seems to always know what the color of the sky is.
"...the glare of the sky..." (Pg.4)
"Darkness had gathered, quickly, above the skylight." (Pg.8)
"Dawn was creeping up over the skylight." (Pg.11)
"...the sky was streaked with red." (Pg.12)
"The sky was already filled with light." (Pg.15)
So on and so forth. I have realized that the sky helps settle the mood for the reader. When an event is upsetting, the sky becomes darker. When Meursault seems to be in a happier mood, the sky is lighter.
Sleep: Meursault is always tired and seems to sleep quite often.
"....that I dozed off." (Pg.4)
"...the white walls were making me drowsy." (Pg.9)
"I think I dozed off for a while." (Pg.9)
"Then I dozed off again." (Pg.11)
"I was tired." (Pg.12)
He is a very tired man. When someone is upset or depressed they are most likely wanting to sleep all the time. I feel that he is in a depressed state. This may also explain the reason why he is very short answered and the narrator is speaking with short sentences.
Eyes: Meursault pays attention to other characters eyes very often.
"He looked at me with his clear eyes." (Pg.4)
"Maman used to spend her time following me with her eyes...." (Pg.5)
"He had nice pale blue eyes...." (Pg.6)
" ....She had a bandage wrapped around her head just below her eyes." (Pg.7)
"I'd had my eyes closed..." (Pg.9)
The eyes of the character show something about the character itself. I think the eyes show who a person really is.
Crying: There is a lot of crying through out the first couple of chapters. This is because of his mothers death. Although he does not cry. He only seems to be thinking about her death, but not about her, herself.
"A few months later and she would have cried if she was taken out." (Pg.5)
"Soon one of the women started crying." (Pg.10)
"....and went on crying as much as before." (Pg.10)
Neck: Meurasult's neck hurts quite a bit. When you are tense about something, your neck tenses. He seems to be very stressed.
"...breathing down my neck...."(Pg.7)
Coffee: When people are overly tired they drink coffee.
"....to bring a cup of coffee....."(Pg.8)
"I have to get some chairs and some black coffee." (Pg.9)
"....the coffee had warmed up...."(Pg.9)
Smoking: He has a bad habit of smoking too.
"Then I felt like having a smoke." (Pg.8)
"I offered the caretaker a cigerette and we smoked." (Pg.8)
"I smoked a couple cigerettes..."(Pg.22)
"I wanted to smoke a cigerette." (Pg.24)
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