The Stranger Blog #2

Ignorance vs. Honesty

Ignorance and honesty can be associated in the story in relation to Meursault. Throughout chapters 1-4 this character is shown as a truly honest person in every sense, but there are several events that make me doubt if Meursault's honesty is because he is saying the truth or simply because he is ignorant to many situations that happen all the way through the first chapters. The first event that makes us realize this "aspect" of Meursault is when Marie asks him if he loves him.
"A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so." Pg. 35. Mersault is very honest with his answer to Marie's question yet his ignorance is clear when he says "it didn't mean anything but.." because he is not aware of the real emotion that implies. Meursault then narrates that Marie was sad with his response, but eventhough he is aware of Marie's emotions it seems he doesn't seem to care, but this is because Mersault ignores the importance of Marie's question.
Another event where Meursault's ignorance is present is when Raymond, Mersault's neighbor, is attacking his mistress. "Marie and I went to see, too. The woman was still shrieking and Raymond was still hitting her. Marie said it was terrible and I did't say anything. She asked me to go find a policeman, but I told her I didn't like the cops."Pg. 36. In this case, Mersault shows his ignorance to the serious situation that is going on. The woman is being beaten up and Mersault shows no reaction at all, if he would be aware of the seriousness of the situation he would have gone for a policemen eventhough he didn't like them. His response, once again shows his honesty but his ignorance at the same time, because he says the truth about not liking cops but under those circumstances there is no such excuse as "I didn't like the cops."
With these two situations Mersault uses his honesty, showing that he is not honest because he wants to but because he is ignorant to many things in life.