“And it was like
knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness” (Camus 59).
Mersault makes the above statement
after killing the Arab; it is a fair claim to make after killing someone.
Mersault does not follow through with the emotion of being unhappy, because he
shows no feelings in the beginning of part two of the book. In fact, he reminds
himself on two different occasions that he is a criminal. First, when he wants
to shake his lawyer’s hand and then again, when his reaction does not fit the
typical reaction of other criminals. He illustrates disconnect from society,
because he only seems to believe that his actions are wrong because of the
rules that society has put in place. Mersault acts the opposite of how most people
participate in life: “that my nature was such that my physical needs often got
in the way of my feelings” (Camus 65). Typically many people believe that their
feelings get in the way of their actual needs, and in some cases, that an individual
has too many emotions. A person cannot act on all of their emotions, whereas
Mersault appears to not be able to act on any, because he has none. Mersault is
not capable of processing his emotions like an average individual, which makes
him appear to be an awful person, because he is unable to respond to events.
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