I was struck by how sincere he seemed, but I had had enough. It was getting hotter and hotter. As always, whenever I want to get rid of someone I'm not really listening to, I made it appear as if I agreed. To my surprise, he acted triumphant. 'You see, you see!' he said. 'You do believe, don't you, and you're going to place your trust in Him, aren't you'"(Camus 69).In the passage, the magistrate engages Meursault in a conversation regarding Meursault's faith in God. The magistrate proves persistent in forcing his values on Meursault, showing incredible sincerity, which oddly triggers something in Meursault. Meursault mentions that "it was getting hotter and hotter" as a result of the magistrate's presence. Meursault's indication of the temperature and its effect of causing him to "want to get rid of [the magistrate]" correlates with the incident on the beach with the Arabian. It seems that when Meursault feels bothered, annoyed, angry, or any combination of the three towards someone, it becomes hotter and hotter. This warm sensation of heat causes Meursault to act only with regards to make the heat, or whatever causes the heat, to go away. It causes him to feign agreement with the magistrate, when he usually just says things as he sees them. In a way, this situation with the heat offers an explanation to why he shot the Arabian man, although it does not justify it. In the sense that heat, warmth, anything that causes it: the sun, other people, etc., causes Meursault to act improperly and illogically.
1 comment:
I chose The Stranger Journal Entry as my Notebook Entry, as it propses an interesting theory about Meursault, and involves connections throughout the novel. Meursault is too interesting to not write about, and I feel that I wrote a decent entry.
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