My Only Thoughts Were Those of a Prisoner

Life in prison, for Meursault, doesn’t seem to affect him all that much. It’s interesting to see that he lives in prison the same as he lives out of it since the way he acts shows the same indifference and carelessness he had before. I’m annoyed by the fact that prison has not changed him in any way. For example, he doesn’t appreciate Marie going to visit him; the only thing that concerns him in this instance was that the voices of the people around him were making him sick. “I was feeling a little sick and I’d have liked to leave. The noise was getting painful.” (Pg. 75) He still acts upon his immediate urges without caring about the people around him. In this particular scene, I noticed how he describes a man beside him who stares at an old lady in front of him without saying anything. It seems weird, since a regular prisoner would ask a lot of questions and be worried about how life is on the outside. It got even stranger when they say goodbye, “‘Goodbye, Maman,’ and she reached between two bars to give him a long, slow little wave.” (Pg. 76). I don’t really understand the meaning of this, but there has to be a connection between this old lady and Meursaults mother.

During this chapter I noticed how Camus emphasized on Meursault’s thoughts. “…the hardest thing was that my thoughts were still those of a free man.” (Pg. 76) It was interesting to see how Meursault, using his mind, could escape the prison and imagine himself being inside his room and seeing every little detail. Meursault used this ability to kill time, since that was his only problem. “Once again the main problem was killing time.” (Pg. 78) Reflecting about how he can wander off into his thoughts he comes to a rather astonishing conclusion. “I realized then that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison. “ (Pg. 79) With this quote we see that amount of information that one can get from one experience could outlast a lifetime.

In the last couple of pages we obtain a very disturbing comment made by Meursault. After finishing the story about the Czechoslovakian, he adds: “… it was perfectly natural. Anyway, I thought the traveler pretty much deserved what he got and that you should never play games.”(Pg. 80) I totally disagree; no one deserves death for trying to surprise his/her family. That’s a messed up way of thinking.