Who Is This Guy???

I wouldn't say that "The Stranger" by Albert Camus is a bad book because I do enjoy reading it. However, the main character Meursault frustrates me. His lack of emotion, and the attitude he has towards what is happening in his life makes me wonder what made/ makes him act this way? Does he really have no feelings, or is he just afraid to express them? After spending a sunday at home, Meursault says " One more sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed" so nonchalantly. He doesn't care that he just had to bury his mother, that he's alone, or that he has a life that seems so insignificant. If he doesn't care about these things that would seem significant to an average person, what does he care about? Trying to understand what he is really feeling is the frustrating part because I truly don't know.

I think I feel so strongly about this because I am an emotional person, the total opposite of Meursault. Maybe I let too many things affect me, but thats something I feel comfortable admitting. The fact that he doesn't care about anything is what gets me. I would care if my mom died, even though I'm still young, I do care/worry about being lonely. He shows that he likes the girl from his job Marie, but he doesn't really do anything about it. He doesn't care that they had sex and she left, that she didn't really want to be around him. He doesn't seem to care that he has no one to bond with and is truly alone, when I'm only 16 and already thinking about it.

Even though Meursault is portrayed as an emotionless person, it seems as if a lot of people aspire to be like him in some way. Lately, I've been hearing people say "I don't care what people say about me", or " I don't let stuff like that get to me". Even my best friend brushes things off just by saying "It's like that sometimes". When people say this, it makes me wonder why don't they want to care? it seems liek they would rather not have certain emotions rather than being able to care/feel everything. I think that people want to be this way because they think they would be less likely to get hurt. There's a smaller chance that they would feel disappointment, sadness, anger, embarrassment, or betrayal, if they put up this imaginary "wall" that Meursault does in "The Strangers".