(Apologies in advance for the morbid use of the Dr. Seuss phrase).
One of the many debated aspects of Meursault’s crime is the fact that he shot, not one, but five bullets into the Arab. Moreover, he paused between the first and second shot, as if he were to stop, but then continues shooting the already dead man. “The trigger gave; I felt the smooth underside of the butt; and there, in that noise, sharp and deafening at the same time is where it all started...Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace. It was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness” (59). Now, first, the way Meursault explains the start of the event that ‘the trigger gave”, implying that is wasn’t really his intent to shoot the gun, the trigger just moved that way. By not saying ‘I pressed the trigger’, he directs the blame/ intention away from him. Now, knowing Meursault, this account is probably true. He most likely didn’t have any intent of killing this man, the trigger most likely literally gave under his fingers, causing him to shoot the Arab.
So there was one shot...and then four more. Now, in the court’s perspective, this kind of action shows that Meursault was probably knowingly killing this man. The first shot could have been played off as an accident (since the court already seems to be searching for some way to prove him innocent already), but once the four other shots came into play, things began to go south for Meursault. None of the court officials are able to grasp why Meursault would fire the last four shots. (To some extent, Meursault doesn’t even know why he did it either). But, after being with Meursault for basically eleven chapters, I would think that we know Meursault better than anyone else alive in the book. (Well, we know him as well as he chooses to share, since he is the narrator). It’s Meursault’s child-like behavior that pushes him to shoot this man five times. Once he shoots the gun once, being his first time firing a gun (we assume), he is overcome with this a new kind of feeling. He hadn’t felt different when Maman had died, but once that trigger gives and the bullet leaves the gun, things have definitely changed. The harmony of the day has been interrupted and there’s no going back.
Now, as Mr. Butler has stated multiple times in class: you give the people something, and they end up wanting more. Meursault has just felt this powerful feeling of change and reversal, something he hasn’t felt in a long time (maybe even never before). And so, being so fascinated with how the firing of the gun made him feel, he fires again, and again, and again, and again. He wants to feel that exhilaration once more. But, as he states, firing those last four shots felt like ‘knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness’. He is unhappy because, even though he felt something powerful the first time, it’s something that can’t be reversed and will only lead to complication and unhappiness in the end.
The number of shots Meursault fired is an interesting topic since the court and Meursault himself aren't sure why he did it so many times. I think you pointed out an important aspect of the situation--that of Meursault knowing the shooting "can't be reversed." When he first shoots, Meursault knows that he's interrupted the peacefulness of the day. He also knows that nothing can be done to bring that peacefulness back, so he shoots again because in his mind it doesn't change anything. As you put it, "there's no going back." This fits in with Meursault's previous behavior we've seen, like his indifference to Marie asking if he loves her.
ReplyDeleteThe four shots after he's already dead were probably the most surprising part of the book to me. Up until this point, I actually sort of liked Meursault despite his lack of real emotion, but it was this that really made me decide that there was something seriously wrong. I think that it was these shots that doomed him in the trial too, as besides those, the whole thing could have been legitimately called an accident. And, although they don't end up convicting him for the murder as much as for his personality, it was the detail of the extra shots that helped tip the court off in the first place that there was something off about him.
ReplyDeleteOddly, Meursault realizes he's "shattered the harmony of the day" after firing those last four shots. Here, he's perfectly aware of social conventions and he almost feels something close to remorse for ruining his happiness as well as the happiness of other people. But, earlier in the novel he hasn't felt there's anything wrong for not feeling anything at his mother's funeral or when Marie asks him to marry her. Maybe it's that exhilaration that makes him realize he's done something wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for Meursault's four shots even after the first seem to result from, as you indicated, this feeling of power and exhilaration that Meursault was afflicted with after the first shot. For someone that is so indifferent to nearly everything, the adrenaline rush that he got after firing the first bullet and killing a man must have been gargantuan when compared to his normal state of nonchalance. This is why Meursault fires again, he wants to experience and hold this feeling of power. The variable that represents consequences doesn't come into the equation until after the four extra shots, which is why Meursault took the shots in the first place, even though he realized immediately after what wrong he had done.
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