A few times in class, the topic of Meursault's actual arrest has come up. The reason for that is it isn't actually narrated in the book and the situation of his arrest is unique. As we have talked about several times, the only witnesses to the shooting are the Arab, who is dead, and Meursault. With the exception of them, there was no one else on the beach. This raised two big questions about the arrest for me. Who called the police, and what did Meursault do while the police were coming?
As for the question of who called the police, there are really two options. One is someone who heard the gunshots called the police and told them. At first, this seems very likely. Some concerned individual heard gunshots and called the police. But the more you think about, it the less sense it makes. If they're on a beach with no other people on it, it is probably far away from any houses. So if someone heard the gunshots, they wouldn't be sure where they heard them from. The other option is that Meursault called the police. While he clearly shows no care about telling the truth about what happened when the police question him, his said earlier that he didn't like the police so why would he get them involved voluntarily.
As for what he did before the police arrived, I can think of two possibilities. One is that he stayed in the sun which he was so vehemently complaining about and caused his to shoot the guy earlier . But that really makes no sense. If he was complaining about it, why would he stay? However, the only other option would be to go into the shade next to the Arab he shot. We know he stayed because the police arrested him, and with no witnesses, he could have walked away he would have been okay. Overall nothing makes sense about how he was arrested without is being explained, so by adding the gap in narrative there, Camus adds to the absurdity of the novel.
This post is really interesting because I never considered what Meursault's arrest actually looked like. Knowing his character, and how willingly he confessed to shooting the Arab, I think that it is plausible that Meursault ended up calling the police himself. I like the point you made about this all adding to the absurdity of the novel, because the closer you read the book and think about what's happening the more absurd it gets.
ReplyDeleteIt's intriguing to ponder about the gap in narrative that you mention. I feel like it would fit with the character of Mersault from part 2 to simply turn himself in. In part 2, Mersault was blatantly honest with his trial to the point where he earned his own death penalty. Normally, people would lie to survive and be declared innocent, but not Mersault. Camus makes it obvious that Mersault is someone different from the beginning of the novel. Therefore, if Mersault were the one that turned himself in or waited for the police to come, I wouldn't be surprised. It seems like an odd thing that he would do.
ReplyDeleteIt is really strange that we never hear a single detail of this crucial sequence of events. Even if Meursault doesn't narrate it directly, it's surprising that the police narrative isn't more of a part of the prosecution's story--usually, a case will detail the circumstances of arrest, what the officer's witness when they arrive at a crime scene, forensic evidence, etc. I agree that it adds to the overall sense of absurdity to have none of these details included--none of the arresting officers called as witnesses--but we've got extreme due diligence when it comes to seemingly every employee of the retirement home. The prosecution can call the "robot woman" as a "witness" (to what??) but ignores the circumstances around the arrest.
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