Why does meursault go to the beach house

Meursault agrees to be his witness and the two go out. They play pool and drink but Meursault refuses to go a whorehouse. On the way back home they see Salamano very flustered. He explains how he lost his dog at the parade grounds. Raymond tries to reassure him that if the dog is lost he will come back. Salamano is worried the police will get him.

Meursault explains how he can pay to get the dog out of the pound which Salamano finds absurd paying for a dog he does not even like but questions Meursault about it later. Meursault explains how the pound keeps the dog for a short time before deciding what to do with it. Salamano leaves but Meursault can hear him pacing and then crying. The week flies by because now that we have seen a typical workday there is no need to show us others in the routine.

They will each be rather similar. The pleasure highlights are pointed out as Meursault goes to the movies twice and then sees Marie on Saturday. This day is given in much greater detail because the pattern is not quite set and it is a long stretch of time where Meursault enjoys what he is doing. As usual though, he and Marie head first to go swimming. Similar to the act of sex, Meursault's love for swimming hinges much on the feel and taste of the event.

As he had longed for the salty smell of Marie's hair on the pillow after she had left the Sunday before, he likes playing her water game until his mouth stings with "salty bitterness. He is arrested in his behavior by a physical sensation.

The act of swimming and absorbing the salt bring about sex as the two rush back to Meursault's apartment, unable to contain themselves. The cool air on their naked bodies makes him feel good and this is all Meursault needs to feel happy. The harmony of their union is broken by the disharmonious and ugly fight between Raymond and his mistress the next morning. The fight comes right after Meursault tells Marie that he does not think he loves her, but it does not mean anything.

Meursault is not involved in emotional excess or extremes of any sort but that does not mean he does not like Marie. He enjoys her very much. The emotional extreme of hate pours into the hall with the fight and provides the largest contrast and paradox, as Meursault does not judge or care much about either. He feels no need to get the police as Marie asks because he does not like police. This response seems very selfish but in fact his refusal to act is, by nature, the act of not acting and thus he chooses to allow the events to continue because his interference would not change anything.

The cop's arrival does however throw a different light onto Raymond as he is forced to drop his tough guy exterior and ironically, falls to the other extreme of great acquiescence and fear. He later is relieved to find that Meursault was not disappointed that he did not hit the cop back. He had let his exterior persona drop and was scared at showing his inner fear. The pretense constructed by Raymond acts as a synecdoche for the superficial constructs of society in general, establishing an exterior faith in order to avoid facing the absurd existence of living life.

Not surprisingly, once the fight is separated and Meursault and Marie return to lunch she has lost her appetite whereas Meursault eats all of his lunch. He simply does not allow other people's issue to affect him in such a way as a physical aspect of life could. He does not react as expected.

When Raymond visits after Marie has left and Meursault napped, Meursault does not judge his character based on the abusive fight. Meursault agrees to act as his witness and go out with him. The structure of Meursault's thoughts points to his nonchalance concerning the actions of Raymond. Immediately following Raymond's assertion that he was glad the woman got what she deserved, Meursault ironically thinks of how friendly he is and how nice the moment is.

A moment with a person society would likely consider to have poor moral values does not impact Meursault except to relate to him Raymond's attempt at friendship. The portrait painted of Salamano at the end of the chapter is much different than the previous portrait. Though still acting the part of a hating dog owner, his compassion and love for the dog cannot but help to come through. It is a touch of obvious humor that Camus throws in that Salamano was watching "The King of the Escape Artists" when his dog disappears.

And yet does not that parallel imply that the dog is also a king? Near death, Meursault will come to the conclusion that Maman 's or his life are worth no more than Salamano's dog. The loss of Salamano's dog deeply affects and saddens the little man, however. The noise of his crying leads to Meursault's unexpected thought of Maman.

The two have to be connected even though Meursault does not see the link. He says, "For some reason I thought of Maman. The reader must wonder if normal human sensations and societal behavior codes do lie deep inside Meursault or if we are simply reading too much into his behavior because of our own deeply ingrained expectations.

Raymond calls Meursault at his office which annoys Meursault because his boss does not like them to receive personal calls. Raymond tells him that they are invited to a beach house of a friend of his and that he can bring Marie. He also says that a pack of Arabs, one of which is his former girlfriend's brother, had been following him. After hanging up, Meursault's boss calls him but fortunately does not talk about the phone call.

Instead he introduces to him the idea of working for the company in Paris. He thinks Meursault seems like the type who would enjoy the travel and change. Meursault says how he does not really care and is happy enough in Algeria. The boss says he has no ambition. Meursault admits to the reader that he once had ambition but lost it when he had to give up his studies.

Marie visits Meursault after work and asks if he would like to marry her. He agrees if that is what she would like but still says it does not matter and he does not love her. He admits that he would marry another woman in the same situation. Marie finally decides that her liking him for this peculiarity may make him hate her later but she will still marry him. She is excited about the prospect of going to Paris, but Meursault tells her how it is dirty.

They go for a walk and Meursault mentions the beautiful women they see. Marie agrees. A strange little jerky woman joins him at his table. She eats feverishly and meticulously marks a radio program schedule. He follows her for a few minutes when she leaves but then forgets about her. Salamano is waiting outside when he returns. His dog was not at the pound and he does not want another dog since he was used to his own.

Salamano tells him about getting his dog and how nice his coat was before he got sick and old. Upon leaving, he tells Meursault that he is sorry about Maman and how much she liked the dog.

He understands why he sent Maman to the home whereas many other neighbors thought it was cold. Meursault had not known that and justifies his behavior by noting that he did not have enough money. Besides, she had nothing more to say to him. Salamano says good night and wonders what he will do now that his life has been changed.

Chapter Five begins by introducing the reader to a collision of Meursault's two worlds, the world of the work week and of the weekend. Raymond calls Meursault at work and Meursault is annoyed right away. At work, he is in the mode of his pattern in which he wants nothing upset. He is afraid his boss will be mad at the personal call and he does not want to risk that.

Ironically, he does want the balance of his life upset although he believes that individual choices and events do not matter. Just as it did not matter whether Maman had dies yesterday or the day before, the encounters of life occur but do not matter.

In order to keep his work week encounters occurring in the routine he is used to, he does not want to upset his boss. Strangely though, Meursault ends up doing just that when he shows very little excitement at the idea of being transferred to Paris. He states, "it was all the same to me" and means that. He was not unhappy with his life in Algeria so why change it? The boss does not like his idea that one life is the same as another because that disturbs his sense of agency.

The standard human sense that the choices one makes impact the outcome of events and make a difference on the quality of their lives and the goal they are heading toward is a non-issue for Meursault.

We get a strange peak into Meursault's former life as a student when he did have ambition like the boss wishes he showed. It seems almost as if whatever made him give up his studies forced him to realize that nothing he did really mattered. Yet he is not bitter; the notion is that he has matured and now understands the way he must live life.

This highlights that Meursault is capable of change, he is not stuck in a pattern he cannot move from. He simply chooses not to move from it at this point. This tone establishes a precedent, allowing the transformation he will make as he nears the hour of his death.

The reader is further struck by the totality of the theme of Meursault's indifference and apathy during this part in his life when he agrees to marry Marie. Many times, Meursault will make a decision based on the fact that he sees no reason not to act in a certain way though he does not see a reason to either.

He will get married if Marie wants to and he is annoyed that she questions his reasons when it is her idea. Meursault is completely honest in his responses to her questions and it is disturbing to a reader, and obviously to Marie, that he participates so little in the rules of manners. It is not polite to tell someone that he would marry any woman in the same situation but this is not a consideration for Meursault.

He is happy with Marie and likes her but there is no emotional attachment. Detached, ironic, and sober are the tones expressed thoroughly within the tale. This story follows the protagonist, Meursault, and the incidents following. Meursault in all his peculiarness could not have made for a more dulling, yet interesting character. The height of the story starts, when his nonchalant attitude gets him involved with the wrong people by writing a letter to some girl for a friend, both of which, he could probably care less about; the climax then occurs when on a happy day, on a beach.

I predict that his detachment will come back later to bite him. This scene builds character, that Meursault is a very unfeeling person. The novel, The Stranger, written by French author Albert Camus, is a philosophical fiction piece published in This book used both Existentialism and Absurdism to promote Meursault 's problem throughout the book.

Both of these are related to Modernism, which was the aftermath of the industrial revolution. Developed through a presentation of his own thoughts, it grows clear that Meursault is an absurdist. The two Arab men back off holding the knife before them.

Then they run off. The men return to the beach house. The women are upset and frightened. Raymond initiates the fight all on his own, saying the first words and striking the first hit. Though the words are inaudible, they are presumably insulting or combative. The Arab man slashes Raymond in defense. After being bandaged, Raymond insists on going back down to the beach, carrying a concealed gun. Meursault follows. They walk in silence to the far end of the beach where they find the two Arab men lying by a spring, one playing a reed flute.

The two lie calmly watching. Raymond reaches for a gun but Meursault insists Raymond can't shoot unless he is attacked with a weapon, convincing Raymond to give him his gun and "take [ the Arab ] man on man.

He and Meursault head back towards the bungalow. Meursault, level-headed in contrast to Raymond's reckless passion, keeps Raymond from acting rashly. Meursault's realization "that you could either shoot or not shoot" evokes the famous line and philosophical crisis of Shakespeare's Hamlet: "to be or not to be. Hamlet is saying: you could kill yourself or not kill yourself. Raymond is, as usual, protective of his image and only feels better once the Arab men have physically conveyed surrender by backing away.

Raymond climbs the steps up off the beach and goes back to the bungalow. Meursault , though, stands at the base of the steps, head ringing in the intense heat , and feels "unable to face the effort" of climbing up and seeing the women again. He thinks, "to stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing. Heat and the world's brutal indifference continue to overpower Meursault's sense of the world. This relatively harmless glare and "blade of light" foreshadows a fatal blade of light soon to come.

Meaninglessness of Life and the Absurd. At the spring, Meursault is "a little surprised" to see that the Arab man who is Raymond 's enemy has returned and thinks, "as far as I was concerned, the whole thing was over, and I'd gone there without even thinking about it.

Though Meursault may feel "the whole thing was over," the fight actually happened only a little while earlier and must surely be fresh in the Arab man's mind. Shimmer obscures the Arab man, making him look like "just a form," not a full human being. Likening the day to the day of the funeral summons death into the scene right before Meursault shoots. It is heat — or the world's indifference — that makes the usually passive Meursault take action and shoot.

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