Camus chooses to use first person narration to create a much more ambiguous character out of Meursault. Because we see Meursault only from inside his own mind, we don't get an idea of how he appears to other people. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, we understand that Janie is very beautiful because of the omniscient narration. In The Stranger, we never once learn what Meursault looks like. We see him as being peculiar just because of the reserved way he narrates from first-person, but we have no way of knowing what other characters think of him or how he is perceived. Knowing how others perceive the main character is important in a novel, because that establishes the position the reader should take on the character. Does everyone like the protagonist? Or does everyone call him a murderous gambling sleezebag? In this case, we can't know because we don't get any insight on how other characters perceive him.
Another interesting way that Camus manipulates the narration is through the reserved way Meursault expresses himself. He's not passionate or very driven about anything. He states what happened and how he felt very flatly. I feel like if there was such a thing as limited-first-person POV, this would be it. And this reservation creates such an ambiguous character! Like we discussed in class, there's two sides you could argue: That Meursault is grieving, or that he's a sociopath. Personally, I feel like he's totally nuts or messed up, but then again, there is evidence to support that he's depressed and grieving his mother's death. There's a lot of back and forth.
Thematically, I think that this use of first-person can be interpreted many different ways. The fact that we can't see the main character through anothers' eyes builds the idea that in life, one is unable to see themselves through another's eyes, and therefore we should not focus so much on what others think of us. Because Meursault doesn't seem to put much thought into how others feel or think in reacting to him, aside from "I thought I shouldn't have said that." The ambiguity around the 'goodness' of the character, or how the character should be interpreted by the reader, lends itself to another theme. Maybe something more along the lines of how one must interpret themselves based their own thoughts and not someone else's, or something around that.
Another interesting way that Camus manipulates the narration is through the reserved way Meursault expresses himself. He's not passionate or very driven about anything. He states what happened and how he felt very flatly. I feel like if there was such a thing as limited-first-person POV, this would be it. And this reservation creates such an ambiguous character! Like we discussed in class, there's two sides you could argue: That Meursault is grieving, or that he's a sociopath. Personally, I feel like he's totally nuts or messed up, but then again, there is evidence to support that he's depressed and grieving his mother's death. There's a lot of back and forth.
Thematically, I think that this use of first-person can be interpreted many different ways. The fact that we can't see the main character through anothers' eyes builds the idea that in life, one is unable to see themselves through another's eyes, and therefore we should not focus so much on what others think of us. Because Meursault doesn't seem to put much thought into how others feel or think in reacting to him, aside from "I thought I shouldn't have said that." The ambiguity around the 'goodness' of the character, or how the character should be interpreted by the reader, lends itself to another theme. Maybe something more along the lines of how one must interpret themselves based their own thoughts and not someone else's, or something around that.
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