Stranger-(2/23/09)

Journal 2:
After his mother died Meursault does many things. He first goes to the Home where his mother is and then goes to her funeral. After two days he gets back home in the evening, which he is very happy about, and he sleeps because he is exhausted. The next morning he goes to the beach where he swims and flirts/hangs out with Marie Cardona. They spend the whole day together and then Marie spends the night. She then leaves very early the next morning, which is Sunday. Meursault wakes up and makes himself lunch instead of going to his usual restaurant and then he people-watches all day from his balcony. By the end of the day, he realizes that nothing has really changed since his mother's death, which is very peculiar to the reader.

Meursault's activities seem like distractions. It seems like he never really had a very close relationship with his mother and is therefore not very sad at her death. Because he feels this way/doesn't feel anything at all, he lives life normally; like he would have even if his mother hadn't died. All of his actions make him seem emotionless and very detached.

Camus probably created the protagonist, Meursault the way he did to show a pure example of existentialism, which is what the whole book is based on. Existentialism is the belief that everything in the world is meaningless. This belief can cause a person to show very little emotion towards anyone/anything because ultimately they believe that those things or people are and mean nothing. This sense of awareness is conveyed by the character of Meursault and is what Camus is trying to accomplish.