The Sun becomes one of the most of import motives in Albert Camus’ “The Stranger” . The imagination Camus uses when depicting the Sun sets the phase for the flood tide of Mersault’s slaying of the Arab. More than anything the Sun is depicted as a distraction to Mersault. It causes him to make things he would non usually do and overcast his opinion. doing him to perpetrate a serious offense which will do his ain decease. The Sun is in a manner a representation of the restraints society topographic points upon Mersault. The consequence the Sun has on Mersault that consequences in decease is a parallel to the consequence of society on Mersault. which besides consequences in decease.
In the pages taking up to the slaying of the Arab. the Sun is the driving force of Mersault’s actions. “The Sun glinted off Raymond’s gun” ( 56 ) when Mersault took it from him on the beach. “We stood there motionless. as if everything had closed in around us” ( 56 ) . This gives the reader a sense of premonition and the first glance that the Sun will play an of import portion. along with the gun. in the remainder of the chapter. The Sun and its heat cause Mersault to make up one’s mind to go on walking on the beach instead than go up the stairss of the cottage. Though he says the Sun was “making it difficult for me to travel on” ( 57 ) . Mersault continues walking on the beach towards the spring. where he anticipates being able to chill off.
The slaying scene itself is rich in solar imagination and the Sun is depicted as the cause of the slaying. “It was the same Sun. the same visible radiation still reflecting on the same sand as before” ( 58 ) . This quote suggests that the tenseness that existed antecedently during the confrontation with the group of Arabs was still present and that in a manner nil had changed. When it becomes clear that if he stayed any longer there would be struggle. Mersault knows that all he has to make is turn around. All he has to make is walk off. “But the whole beach. pounding in the Sun. was pressing on my back” ( 58 ) . He takes a few stairss towards the Arab. the blaze of the Sun going physically painful. and after a few more stairss the Arab draws his knife. The Sun flashes off the knife. blinding Mersault. his perspiration in his eyes forestalling him from seeing. the light scorching and stabbing at his eyes. “The trigger gave” ( 58 ) and it was all over for Mersault.
The imagination that Camus uses of the oppressive Sun parallels the subjugation that Mersault endures from society. Society overpowers Mersault and bears down upon him. Just like the Sun does to Mersault throughout the class of chapter 6. society clutters and suffers those who refuse to conform. Society. by and large thought to be a good thing. is made sinister in the novel. merely as the Sun which gives life to the Earth causes such devastation. The heat of the Sun represents the force per unit areas of society. which hates Mersault because he refuses to absorb. He refuses to shout at his female parents funeral. he refuses to demo compunction for the decease of the Arab. he is non “normal. ” These are society’s justifications for its intervention of Mersault. indifferent to his humanity merely as the Sun is.
The Sun motive in “The Stranger” is the most important one in the novel. It causes the major action of the novel to happen and provides the most graphic imagination Camus nowadayss. The analogues that one can pull between the Sun and society depict what Camus was seeking to convey about society. Society oppresses and overpowers those who refuse to absorb and encompass “normality. ” Mersault is the prototype of abnormalcy and is therefore the chief mark of society’s. of the sun’s. wrath. After the decease of the Arab. Mersault “shook off the perspiration and the sun” ( 59 ) . This is the perfect quotation mark to stop the first half and present Mersault’s doctrine for the 2nd half of the novel. He shakes off society like he shakes off the Sun. finally coming to the realisation that life means nil. and this realisation finally frees him.
