Mersault is a character who only responds to his instant sensual needs. He responds to heat, to the sun, to the sea, to sexual desire but is indifferent to any social event. He expresses no sorrow at his mother’s funeral. He admits they had no close relationship and that he did not know his father. When Raymond invited him over and asked to be his friend Meursault said yes because he had no reason to say no. He was indifferent about writing the letter, he was indifferent about getting married and the list goes on. Meursault is the character that goes with the flow and lives in the now. He doesn’t find himself submitting to any of society’s so-called ‘truths’. He doesn’t believe in marriage, doesn’t feel like one has to pretend to be sad when their mother dies etc. This makes him different than everybody else, it makes him a stranger.
Alienating Mersault as a stranger is a tool Camus successfully uses to reveal the hypocrisy of society. Alienating him allows the readers to distance themselves from other characters rather than identify with them: That way we are better able to study and criticize our subjects as outsiders too, thus allowing us to think outside of the box. From that perspective, we see a bunch of ‘specialized’ people whether the lawyers, the judge or the priest all thinking they know the absolute truth but none of them really knows anything. This method thus allows Camus to reveal to, or remind his readers that all truths in the world are man-made.
The alienation effect used by Camus also encourages us as readers to develop a rational view of history of cultures and beliefs rather than perceive them as fated process to which we should passively submit. Cultures can now be perceived as organisms that just like us, struggle to survive. In order to do, so they have developed a system of reward to those who abide, and of punishment to those who don’t. Mersault’s trial was not in any way based on the actual crime, but rather on what he represents. He does not passively submit to society. For example, he is sexually liberated does not wait for (or care about) marriage. He also doesn’t lie and pretend to be sad over his mother’s funeral. Such honesty poses a threat to the status quo. In this case of the examples listed, such behavior threatens the institution of marriage and the order of family in society. He thus had to be punished.
The most obvious example of a system of reward and punishment is the concept of heaven and hell. Those who follow the ‘word of god’ go to heaven and those who don’t are forever penalized. Yet even in his most desperate times, knowing he was going to be killed Mersault did not change his stance on the ethical spectrum. He did not change his values. Most people do submit to social truths as they are about to die, they do so out of fear. They fear they might end up in hell forever. Mersault doesn’t, if anything he comes to the realization that the universe is just as indifferent as he is and thus forms a bond with it. At one point or another, the universe swallows us all. It swallows us with all our beliefs, our morals, our values and our man-made truths.