Stranger Journal 5

In the second part of the book I felt like Meursault was analyzing. I felt like he would notice or observe a character say or do something, such as a witness being interviewed. After he would observe this Meursault would then analyze what happened, give his opinions and feelings on the matter, and say what else he noticed. Thus differs from the first part of the book. In the first part of the novel, Meursault would simply take everything in and analyze it. After that he would make an expressionless remark of some sort. It seems as if Meursault is more engaged during the second part of the book, "There were times when I felt like breaking in on all of them and saying, 'Wait a minute! Who's the accused here? Being the accused counts for something. And I have something to say!'" (98) In the first part of the book Meursault would never express feelings about anything, and if he did they were either about sexual desires or indifference. Meursault showing emotion is a huge change between the two sections of the book and Camus illustrates this change by Meursault's analyzing and internal response to his observations. Camus is able to shove all this interpretation into one section because there are simply lots of characters for Meursault to analyze. There are judges, multiple witnesses, reporters, audience members, jury members, and lawyers. Each of these groups of people are mentioned multiple times throughout the section and Meursault takes the time to analyze each one of them. The numerous characters and the frequency of their appearances is crucial to Camus' attempt to show how Meursault is developing emotions as a character.