It is more wrong not to feel anything than to admit that you don’t feel anything. Meursault doesn’t feel anything and is therefore considered an outsider to society, because they expect him to behave/ feel as they do. This difference between Society and Meursault is cause of his death. To not feel anything is to not live life, admitting to not feeling anything is the first step to living your life. Meursault doesn’t show any sign of emotion to his mothers death, he doesn’t feel any love or sorrow for her.
A normal man would feel pain and regret for not being there when she died. He does not even know his mother’s exact age, he says “about sixty” when his boss asks him what her age was. The first example of Meursault not feeling anything was in the very first lines of the book: “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours. ‘ That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday”. Meursault acts the same way at his mothers funeral, he doesn’t seem affected by being near his mother’s coffin.
Meursault even lights up a cigarette in front of her, showing complete disrespect to the person who raised him and gave birth to him. He focuses on himself being physically uncomfortable during the whole funeral. Meursault would rather focus on that than think about his mother. When it comes to love Meursault still does not feel anything. After Marie asks Meursault if he wanted to marry her she then asks that if he loved her, Meursault says that it wouldn’t mean anything and that he probably didn’t love her. Meursault again did not feel anything when he killed the Arab.
