The answer is yes! Meursault embodies traits of all three of these characters, mixed into one, plunged into a slightly Kafkaesque setting. And why shouldn't he? All of these characters are similar before you even start reading the books; they're young men, around 25-30 years old, they work in an office doing work that they're not super passionate about (maybe not Septimus, as he's more than slightly incapacitated), and they don't really react to things in a normal way, yet people seem to want to be around them (again, maybe not Septimus...but hey). On a deeper level, through my reading of The Stranger, and through class discussions, I picked up on some specific examples of how Meursault is all of these characters combined.
Jake is the first comparison I'll make. I believe somebody in class came up with this one, and it stemmed from somebody else's comment that Meursault really doesn't give us much in the way of editorial comment during his narration. He observes, records, and sometimes says whether or not he likes something, but he never delves into his feelings. We don't get a lot of insight into the things he discusses in the book, and we're almost left to fend for ourselves with regards to interpretation. The book could be read so many different ways; take the first paragraph for example. "Maman died today [...] yesterday" p. 3. You could read that as the most ambivalent reaction in the world, and could rephrase it as "Yeah, I'm not exactly sure, but it doesn't really matter, it's not like I liked her that much to begin with." Or, you could read it as somebody going through extreme shock from a traumatic experience. "I don't even know what's going on anymore, I can't figure out when she died, I'm just a nervous wreck." Or it could be somewhere in the middle. Either way, we have no idea! The whole book is like this, how you could read it so many different ways. During class, I was even thinking that a cool project could be to compile a series of videos of people reading this book with different intonations and facial expressions, etc., to show how many different meanings the text could have. But I digress. Jake is much more revealing than Meursault as a narrator, and though he too observes and records, we get more of a sense of his feelings towards what he's discussing. With Meursault, we get none of that. This sentence could mean one thing, or it could mean the exact opposite.
Next, is the Septimus connection. This comes in the form of Meursault's distance towards humankind as a whole. He seems utterly baffled by everything that happens at the funeral, he seems dumbfounded at his interactions with his boss, and just generally confused by life and the people who live it. As Mr. Mitchell put it, "Humans: what do they want?" and I think that sums it up nicely. Septimus seems to have an incredible distance between himself and the world around him. They don't get him, and he sure as hell doesn't get them. Meursault is perhaps a little more acclimated to life, as he is able to work and function in a relationship (of sorts), but there is a definite parallel.
The last character that Meursault reminds me of is Howie, especially in the beginning of chapter three, where he starts talking about how much he enjoys washing his hands at lunchtime, but not so much in the evening. He cites the reason for this as being that the towel is too wet by the end of the day, and says that he has, in fact, confronted his boss about it. The boss, to say the least, seemed nonplussed. I love this little detail about Meursault! We already know he's kind of a quirky guy, and this fact just sent me right back to The Mezzanine with Howie's many stories about the bathroom, and how he is grateful to his boss for continuing to stock the more expensive brand of white paper towels in their bathroom. This scene could easily have been an excerpt from The Mezzanine, and Meursault, with his watching the sky for hours and taking pleasures in the small things, definitely has some Howie qualities.
And, to connect this to the last book that we have read this semester, mix all of those character-traits into one person, and put him in a Kafkaesque situation. Meursault's mother has died, he has to go to this random nursing home, and attend a funeral that he doesn't understand. The people during the vigil stare at him, or fall asleep, and at the beginning, Meursault feels like they are going to judge him. I think it's safe to say he feels uncomfortable during the whole first chapter, and he feels like he's partaking in a worthless ritual that he can't quite get a grasp on, no matter how hard he tries. Nothing appears to be how he wants it, or expects it, to be, and everything at the beginning of the book (and also in snippets throughout, such as Raymond's continuing conversation with Meursault) is a little bit bizarre, a little bit Kafkaesque.
QED, the above equation just got proved right, ya'll.
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