Journal #4

Meursault becomes much more aware of his feelings in part two than he was in part one. He is more open to talking about his emotions (although not extensively, but definitely more than previous chapters). "What I can say for certain is that I would rather Maman hadn't died" (Camus 65).

Meursault is also suddenly more aware of the feelings of others. In part one when describing other people, he only stated facts of what they were doing, not recognizing what they were feeling (or maybe recognizing but ignoring their feelings). Now, when interacting with people, he notices their feelings and more often shares them with the reader: "He left, looking angry" (Camus 65), or "He seemed to be very tired" (Camus 69).

A third difference I noticed in Meursault from part one to part two is that he very slowly starts to reveal things about his Maman. In part one, he seemingly avoids describing her or even mentioning her life much at all, leaving the reader with an ambiguous view of his Maman. Now, he talks about her, not just her death, for one of the first times in the whole book. "Anyway, it was one of Maman's ideas, and she often repeated it, that after a while you could get used to anything" (Camus 77).