The Stranger

Meursault, a young Algerian pied-noir, hears news of his mother's death. He receives this information with mild annoyance. He must now ask his boss for two days leave in order to attend the funeral. It is the custom, in his culture, for the bereaved to sit all night in vigil by the coffin of the departed loved one. At the vigil and during the funeral the following day he shows no grief, sadness or even regret. He only feels the physical inconvenience of sitting through the vigil and the heat of the sun during the funeral procession to the cemetery. At the funeral he makes mental notes of the physical objects that strike his eye; shining screws in the walnut coffin, the colours on the dresses of the nurses and the large bellies of the elderly mourners.