Meursault's Morality

Meursault doesn't seem to have much sympathy for anything. This can be evidenced by his lack of opinion on Salamano's treatment of his dog, and also by how the Arab that he murdered never crosses his mind in the second part of the novel. In general, 'normal' people would feel bad for both of those things (in these cases, because they're obviously wrong); maybe "poor dog" or "holy shit I ended a man's life". Meursault doesn't feel bad, and it also doesn't really seem like he can make a distinction between what's wrong and what's not (and to him, maybe it doesn't matter). We can say that he's trying to maintain impartiality, but what if it's not that he's trying, but just that he does? As we've said in class, he's very attuned to the present and his physical comfort, but he doesn't seem to think much more past that. Actually, we're never told that Meursault feels any sort of remorse or guilt for his murder of the Arab, or that he even really thinks about what he actually did.

Because Meursault doesn't seem to have sympathy or the ability to distinguish right from wrong (or at least form an opinion on right verses wrong that he can share with the world), it might be reasonable to say that he doesn't have a very developed sense of morality. Morality, in a quick Google search, can be defined as "principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior". If we take this definition and hold Meursault up to it, the lack of such a thing is pretty consistent with his behavior. Meursault doesn't hold his actions up to any principles that make a distinction between right and wrong or good and bad. He does things because they serve his immediate physical comfort or state of being. He doesn't look at their implications or far-flung effects. He doesn't really think about how his actions may affect someone else (telling Marie that he doesn't think that he loves her, killing another man...).

One thing to take into consideration, however, is that the people that know Meursault don't seem to dislike him for this lack of morality. Marie, Celeste, Emmanuel... They all seem to get along with and like him pretty well. Maybe this is because Meursault has adopted 'normal' social customs (no matter his opinion or lack of opinion on them) and is able to blend in. Or maybe, it's because those people don't really mind, because the contexts in which they've interacted with him haven't been very strenuous. Is it okay to not have a developed sense of morality, as long as you're contained in situations that don't require it?