First paragraph:

Monsieur Meursault’s lack of personality is purposefully displayed in order that the reason question his every decision and lack of emotion overall.  Meursault’s complete lack of emotion after learning his mother (Maman) expresses the fact that he simply does not know how to act properly as a human.  At times, it feels like he is programmed like a robot to tell the reader his every activity, regardless of whether it seems trivial or not. Meursault goes off on many a tangent like this:  “The sky was green; I felt good.  But I went straight home because I wanted to boil myself some potatoes,” (pp. 26).  It seems as if Meursault is attempting to overcompensate for the time he previously spent traveling to his mother Maman (whom he had put in a retirement home over two hours away) by noticing every tiny detail in life, instead of doing what any normal human does after a death to a close loved one or kin, and that is to GRIEVE!  While every human is entitled to grieve in any way that he or she pleases, Meursault attempts to go back into his daily routine as if “nothing had ever happened.”  He chooses to worry about his boss might be irate that he took so many days off from works, instead of worrying about seeing his mother’s face for the last time ever.  Meursault’s lack of emotion comes off as disrespectful to his mother’s legacy, as it seems he is more concerned about how the coffee at the vigil tastes than how the actual funeral procession is going.