The Stranger Second Body

Meursault's complexity is furthermore conveyed through his change in attitude and thought towards his final days in prison. It is evident through Meursault's clearly expressed speech that he finally chooses to become more accepting of what he has done throughout his life, whether it be good or bad. Meursault is able to become so accepting of his punishment and the way that the world is that ultimately he exudes a much more philosophical tone throughout his prison sentence. This idea is most evidently portrayed through Meursault's analysis to the chaplain, "I had been right, I was still right, I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just as well have lived it another. I had done this and I hadn’t done that. I hadn’t done this thing but I had done another. And so? It was as if I had waited all this time for this moment and for the first light of this dawn to be vindicated. Nothing, nothing mattered, and I knew why" (127). Meursault illustrates an understanding of his life through his scene; he knows that he was detached from his mother, or that he killed the Arab, but ultimately to him it does not even matter. He will accept his punishment and whether he was executed today or lived until old age truly was irrelevant to him as he was going to die regardless. Mearsault's verbal fight with the chaplain thus reveals his overall complexity as he effectively analyzes his own life for himself without truly allowing other people's thoughts and words to wholly affect him. Mearsault becomes so entrenched in this philosophy towards the chaplain when he states, "What would it matter if he were accused of murder and then executed because he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral? Salamano’s dog was worth just as much as his wife. The little robot woman was just as guilty as the Parisian woman Masson married, or as Marie, who had wanted me to marry her. What did it matter that Raymond was as much my friend as Céleste, who was worth a lot more than him? What did it matter that Marie now offered her lips to a new Meursault? Couldn’t he, couldn’t this condemned man see" (128). Ultimately to Mearsault every person among all the billions have the same fate, and whether he murders a woman, or a dog dies, none of truly means anything; and to Mearsault, the chaplain fails to see this realization. Thus, Mearsault chooses personally to not believe in God and reject the chaplain's prayers as it truly does not mean anything to him; Mearsault will be presented with the same fate either way. This philosophical realization that Mearsault makes regarding the fate of not only himself and the rest of humanity along with his ability to accept who he is and what he has done with his life clearly conveys his own complexity among a much simpler world.