“The Sun Made Me Do It”
An analysis of how colors, temperature, and the sun influence Meursault, the protagonist in Albert Camus’ The Stranger, to commit the unpremeditated murder of the Arab.
The environment has an enormous effect on human behavior. Various environmental factors, such as colors, sunlight, and temperature possess the ability to influence human motives, emotions, moods, and actions. Meursault, from Albert Camus’ The Stranger, exists as an element of nature whose environment dictates his actions and behavior, which ultimately cause him to commit involuntary manslaughter.
The colors of Meursault’s surroundings, dependent upon whether the colors are warm or cool, determine his moods and emotions. Meursault frequently describes his environment using colors. Colors have long been identified with various moods and emotions and, in fact, “Different colors have different meanings that are universal. Colors can express blue moods. On the other hand, there could be moods of tranquility or moods of conflict, sorrow or pleasure, warm and cold, boring or stimulating” (Nasrine, “Color”). Meursault mentions the color green, a cool color located on the blue side of the spectrum commonly associated with tranquility, when he says, “The sky was green; I felt good” (Camus 26). Even though the line seems rather vague, Meursault clearly states that he is in a “good” mood and the green coloration of the sky can make him feel that way.
Red, a warm color located on the red area of the spectrum, evokes feelings of hostility and anger in Meursault. He mentions seeing red at the beach not too long before he notices the Arab in the distance when he says, “There was the same dazzling red glare. The sea gasped for air with each shallow, stifled wave on the sand” (Camus 57). Red, a very powerful color, can have several meanings. According to Nasrine, “Of all colors, the most conspicuous is red. The color red can be violent, aggressive, and exciting. The expression ‘seeing red’ indicates one’s anger in most parts of the world” (Nasrine, “Color”). The red coloration of the beach triggers Meursault’s aggressiveness by stimulating his mind and body by increasing his blood circulation, which in turn leads to high blood pressure. High blood pressure presents as an indication of stress and anger. Meursault displays his hostile feelings that the red coloration of the beach influenced by describing the sea as gasping for its breath with every wave, implying the violent act of suffocation.
Colors are not the only aspect of Meursault’s environment that precept his state of being. Meursault lives in sunny Algiers where his constant exposure to the harsh effects of the sun and heat affect his physical and cognitive functions. Before Meursault spots the Arab, he says, “All that heat was pressing down on me and making it hard for me to go on. And every time I felt a blast of its hot breath strike my face, I gritted my teeth, clenched my fists in my trouser pockets, and strained every nerve to overcome the sun and the thick drunkenness spilling over me” (Camus 57). The heat is so heavy it weighs Meursault down and makes it difficult for him to continue moving. He also mentions that the heat strikes him in the face. The word “strike” implies the use of sudden force. Meursault indicates that he feels as though the heat has slapped him in the face, which causes his entire body to react to the pain he endures by gritting his teeth and clenching his fists.
The heat further deteriorates Meursault’s physical state by putting him in a state of “drunkenness”. Meursault says that he, “strained every nerve to overcome the think drunkenness” (Camus 57). Fatigue, like the feeling “drunkenness” Meursault experiences, presents as a common symptom of heat exhaustion. Sweating, a mechanism the body uses to cool down when exposed to high temperatures, can help prevent the body from overheating but it has its limitations. According to Boyd, “Excessive salt and/or water loss due to sweating account for the symptoms, which include central nervous system disturbances, such as headache, dizziness, weakness, and irritability; and gastrointestinal disturbances such as nausea and vomiting” (Boyd 1300). If Meursault’s physical state deteriorates to the point where he cannot physically function, he must be sweating at a rapid enough rate to cause his body to slowly shut down due to dehydration. Dehydration occurs when the body sweats excessively because the body loses a large amount of water. Meursault becomes dehydrated from losing water through immoderate sweating, causing him to suffer from heat exhaustion. He cannot escape the heat because it holds the power to control him to the point where he cannot properly function.
The heat, which causes Meursault to suffer from heat exhaustion, provokes feelings of ill humor in Meursault which Meursault displays by straining and tightening parts of his body. Individuals who suffer from heat exhaustion tend to exhibit symptoms of irritability, which Meursault exhibits as he clenches his fists and grits his teeth. The behavior of the of gritting teeth and the clenching of fists often serves as a sign that suggests a loss of control. Humans tighten their muscles in response to stressful situations and when experiencing periods of anger and frustration. These emotions are evident as Meursault contracts his hand to form a fist and tightens his jaw. Meursault also mentions he, “strained every nerve” (Camus 57) to overcome the effects of the heat, which implies that he had to exert a lot of pressure and strenuous effort on his body.
The heat accompanied with the sun beating down on Meursault’s head impairs his cognitive abilities. This proves apparent when Meursault says, “I wasn’t thinking about anything, because I was half asleep from the sun beating down on my bare head” (Camus 53). The heat makes Meursault incapable of thought and causes him to become drowsy to the point where he cannot focus. The human body can only withstand certain temperatures and, “moderate heat stress, only a few degrees centigrade above the optimum, has a marked effect on mental performances when temperatures rise slowly” (Wyon 360). The optimal body temperature for humans is around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Meursault never mentions wearing any form of sun protection, such as a hat, and says that his head is “bare”. According to Wyon, “It has been suggested (12, 13) that the effect of moderate heat stress is to lower levels of arousal, while higher levels of heat stress tend to raise arousal. The effect is believed to be a largely unconscious, adaptive behavioral response” (Wyon 352). As Meursault’s body temperature increases, his levels of heat stress increase as well and cause him to become more aroused. Too little or too much arousal can affect physical and mental performance by altering wakefulness, alertness, and attentiveness.
The overpowering sun forces Meursault to continue walking towards the Arab by inflicting pain upon him. Meursault, who remains fatigued and irritable, spots the Arab resting and begins walking towards him. As he gets closer he says, “It occurred to me that all I had to do was turn around and that would be the end of it. But the whole beach, throbbing in the sun, was pressing on my back” (Camus 58). Meursault realizes that he should avoid any confrontation with the Arab, but he cannot stop continuing to advance towards him. Meursault says he knows he should turn around but he feels the scorching beach exuberating pressure on his back that seems too intense for him to handle.
The sun proves to be too intense for Meursault and pushes him to continue walking towards the Arab. Meursault cannot handle the intensity of the sun and goes on to say, “It was this burning, which I couldn’t stand anymore, that made me move forward” (Camus 58). He does not mention that he wants to confront the Arab, but rather that the sun burning his skin to the point where he can no longer tolerate it, impels him to continue moving forward in the direction where the Arab rests. The sun exerting pain on Meursault’s body by exposing him to prolonged sun exposure disables his ability to make the decision to turn and walk in the other direction. If it were not up to the irrefutable sun, Meursault would have turned around and avoided any conflict with the Arab because the sun influences his every step.
The sunlight possesses the ability to throw Meursault off-guard by visually impairing him and inducing his loss of his own bodily control. When Meursault steps closer to the Arab, the Arab draws his knife in defense and holds it in the sun. Meursault becomes disoriented when the sunlight reflects off the knife and into his eyes and says, “All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead and, indistinctly, the dazzling spear flying up from the knife in front of me. The scorching blade slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes. That’s when everything began to reel” (Camus 59). Meursault becomes visually impaired when the “dazzling” spear of light injures his eyes and according to Meursault, that caused everything to begin to “reel”. When used as a verb, reel can mean slowly leading up to something or to lose balance and stagger violently. Meursault begins to stumble and falter because the sunlight reflecting off of the knife injures his eyes and causes him to lose his balance and sense of coordination. Meursault discerns that the loss of the physiological control of his own body to the sunlight cannot be good because he has begun losing touch with his environment and anticipates mayhem.
The sunlight reflecting off the Arab’s knife that stings and stabs Meursault’s eyes leads Meursault to firmly grip the gun. While he remains visually impaired, his sense of touch remains intact because he mentions that his body tenses up. This proves evident when Meursault says, “My whole being tensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver” (Camus 59). The body responds to stressful situations such as pain by constricting and tightening the muscles within the body. The sunlight inflicts pain upon Meursault and in response, his hand muscles strain and contract, which lead him to tightly grip the revolver.
The sunlight that causes Meursault’s body to stiffen in response to the pain it imposes prompts Meursault to pull the trigger. When Meursault says, “The trigger gave” (Camus 59), he implies that he did not purposefully pull the trigger but rather that the sun used him to execute the action of pulling it. He realizes that the sun made him fire the gun that he continues to hold in his hand when he says, “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” (Camus 59). The sun not only causes Meursault to lose touch with his environment by impairing his vision, but also takes away his ability to hear when his hearing becomes damaged because of the deafening and sharp noise of the firing gun.
Meursault had no intention of pulling the trigger because he enjoys the peace of the beach that becomes broken when the sun coerces him into firing the gun by interfering with his senses. He realizes that he had broken the silence when he says, “I knew that I had shattered the harmony of the day, the exceptional silence of a beach where I’d been happy” (Camus 59). Meursault finds the silence of the beach to be special and the beach makes him feel content. Meursault did not intend on destroying the harmony of the beach because to do so, he would need to have wanted to fire the gun. However, the sun impels him to break the silence by making him pull the trigger.
The overpowering sun, which drives Meursault to pull the trigger and shoot the Arab, ultimately leads him to commit involuntary manslaughter. An individual can acquire involuntary manslaughter charges when another individual’s unintentional death occurs because of one’s reckless behavior. Reckless implies that an individual’s actions occur without prior thought and consideration of the consequences. Meursault had no real intention of using the gun to kill the Arab. He inherits the weapon from his friend Raymond when he coaxes him into handing over the gun so that Raymond would not use it to seek vengeance on the Arab. Meursault did not want to kill the Arab and he even admits that the sun made him commit the crime when he says, “Fumbling a little with my words and realizing how ridiculous I sounded, I blurted out it was because of the sun” (Camus 103).
Humans perceive their environment by utilizing their sense of touch, hearing, and the environment possesses the ability to control the senses. An assortment of environmental elements, such as color, can provoke certain moods and feelings based on which side of the color spectrum they descend from. Temperatures not ideal for the human body can interfere with thermoregulation. Prolonged exposure to the sun and excessive heat can precipitate illness or impair the body’s regular physical and cognitive functions. Some individuals happen to be more prone to environmental factors and their effects than others. Meursault, from Albert Camus’ The Stranger serves as an excellent example of an individual whose environment prevails his being. Meursault’s moods, conduct, and choices are all controlled by his environment and unfortunately, his environment ultimately leads him to execute the act of involuntary manslaughter by forcing him to pull the trigger that kills the Arab. Meursault has good intentions, but his environment masks them.
Works Cited
Adibe, Nasrine. “Color”. The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda
Wilmoth Lerner, 5th ed., Gale, 2014. Accessed 28. Mar. 2017.
Boyd, Linda T., et al. “Heat and Heat-Related Illnesses.” The American Journal of Nursing, vol.
81, no. 7, 1981, pp. 1298–1302., www.jstor.org/stable/3424757.
Camus, Albert. The Stranger, Vintage International, 1989.
WYON, DAVID P., et al. “The Effects of Moderate Heat Stress on Mental Performance.”
Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, vol. 5, no. 4, 1979, pp. 352–361.,
www.jstor.org/stable/40964796.