Meursault Four Actions Analysis

The four extra shots fired by Meursault were the result of suppressed emotions from Meursault’s life and especially from his mother’s funeral. This can be supported by many things. When Meursault is dealing with the confusing emotions of his mother’s death, he falls asleep which is a sign of hiding emotions. Also, suppressed emotions can lead to outbursts of anger. If he had properly addressed his emotions, he would have never returned to shoot the Arab four more times. And the extra four shots were one of the key reasons why he was caught and convicted. If he had never returned to fire the four shots, people may not have heard the shots and the crime may never have been reported. Also, the four shots proved that this wasn’t self defense or …show more content…
When Meursault killed the Arab, Meursault was in a situation that he had never been in before; he just murdered an innocent person. “Since emotions are automatic responses to previous value judgments, it is possible that the response is not proper. If the original judgment was faulty, the emotion will be faulty as well.” (Landauer 1) According to Landauer, we react based on how we have reacted to the same situation previously or how we have witnessed other people confront the situation. However, if we haven’t seen this situation before, then we have no idea how to react to it. This explains why Meursault leaves the dead Arab only to return later after he decides to act on the situation foolishly. He doesn’t know how to react initially and then comes back later on with his final decision of how to act on the situation. If Meursault knew how to react, he would have shot the Arab again on the spot. But he left because he didn’t know what to do. If Meursault had prior experiences with severe trauma, maybe not as severe as the death of his mother, he would have been able to cope and deal with these complex emotions