Should Meursault be sentenced to death?

From the start of the book, we realize that Meursault is not a typical protagonist. He seems to be a nice guy but without a lot of emotion. As the book goes on we follow Meursault on his journey from living an ordinary life to being sentenced to death. Meursault obviously killed an Arab which is a terrible thing, but did he deserve to be killed?
The case for Meursault
Meursault is more complicated than what he may portray at first glance. Although he did not act to sad about his mother's death we can see that he processes events and emotions differently. Meursault focuses on the facts. He never shares how something makes him feel, or any of his emotions toward anyone or anything. Meursault also lives in the present. If he wants to go for a swim, he does so. If he feels like spending an entire day sitting on his balcony, he does so. Because of this, to me, his reaction to his mother's death is expected. The bad things start happening to Meursault when he talks to Raymond. The pressures of society and friendship made Meursault feel forced to comply with Raymond and write the letter. The same can be seen at the beach scene. Meursault did not want to kill anyone and even told Raymond to give him the gun. The reason that Meursault ended up killing the Arab was his reaction to the sun. The killing was more of an impulse rather than a conscious decision. I think that Meursault's lack of emotion is different but innocent, that Raymond is the one that got Meursault into a mess, and that Meursault did not have the intention of killing anyone. Therefore, I think that he should not be sentenced to death.
The case against Meursault
Meursault is crazy, and his lack of emotion makes him a threat to society.  Nobody in the right mind would go on with their life the day after their mother dies. It is obvious that Meursault has a hard time displaying any emotion, but how do we even know that Meursault has any emotions. How could the sun be a valid reason for killing another person? Even if it was, the first shot that Meursault took could be justified as an impulse, but there is no explanation to why Meursault would take 4 more shots after the initial one. Not only that but after Meursault commits his crime he does not feel phased or has any guilt about what he has done. Meursault's is dangerous to society. He does not believe in God, does not provide any compelling evidence to why he kills the man and has a serious lack of emotion. All these factors make death the viable option to make sure that Meursault does not continue being a threat!

I want your thoughts! What side do y'all agree with!?

Comments

  1. CatalinNovember 10, 2017 at 9:01 AM

    I don't think that Meursault should have been sentenced to death. His inability to communicate his feelings doesn't make him a threat to society and it is clear that he didn't just kill the Arab because he wanted to, but there was more to that situation. I agree with your point that Meursault didn't have the intention to kill the Arab when he walked down the beach, which doesn't make him innocent but also changes the circumstances around the crime. I also don't think that after the whole court ordeal, Meursault would just go out and kill someone else, so I think a more lenient punishment would have been better.

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  2. UnknownNovember 13, 2017 at 11:49 AM

    I think his punishment is meant to be absurdly severe in Camus' narrative, to make a point about society's views and the justice system. I think that Camus wanted to make the court system and capital punishment seem immoral and absurd, by writing the novel through Meursault's perspective in order to get the readers to sympathize with him and view his sentence as absurd. If the novel were written from the Arab's point of view, and the situation was described as a "cold hearted man senselessly killing an Arab out of sheer capriciousness", we would have a harder time arguing for a lesser punishment.

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  3. tina wayneNovember 16, 2017 at 8:22 PM

    Meursault did not deserve the death penalty. If not for his persona then because it was a one-off and not premeditated. However, he did kill another human and thus needs to serve some sort of punishment. I agree with you that Raymond and his presence in Meursault's life was toxic, but Meursault was complicit in all Raymond's crimes; for me, he is not innocent but is also not deserving of death.

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