"Killing an Arab" is the first single by the Cure.

It was recorded at the same time as their

first LP in the UK, Three Imaginary Boys (1979) but not included on the album. However,
it was included on the band's first US album, Boys Don't Cry (1980).[1]

Part one[edit]
Meursault learns of his mother's death. At her funeral, he expresses none of the expected
emotions of grief.[3] When asked if he wishes to view the body, he says no, and, instead,
smokes and drinks coffee in front of the coffin. Rather than expressing his feelings, he only
comments to the reader about the others at the funeral. He later encounters Marie, a former
employee of his firm. The two become re-acquainted, go swimming, watch a comedy film
and begin to have a sexual relationship, despite the fact that his mother's funeral took place
the day before. In the next few days, he helps his friend and neighbour, Raymond Sintès,
take revenge on a Moorish girlfriend suspected of infidelity. For Raymond, Meursault
agrees to write a letter to his girlfriend, with the sole purpose of inviting her over so that
Raymond can have sex with her but spit in her face at the last minute as emotional revenge.
Meursault sees no reason not to help him, and it pleases Raymond. He does not express
concern that Raymond's girlfriend is going to be emotionally hurt, as he believes Raymond's
story that she has been unfaithful, and he himself is both somewhat drunk and
characteristically unfazed by any feelings of empathy. In general, he considers other people
either interesting or annoying or feels nothing of them at all.
The letter works: the girlfriend returns, but the situation escalates when she slaps Raymond
after he tries to kick her out, and Raymond beats her. Raymond is taken to court where
Meursault testifies that she had been unfaithful, and Raymond is let off with a warning.
After this, the girlfriend's brother and several Arab friends begin trailing Raymond.
Raymond invites Meursault and Marie to a friend's beach house for the weekend, and when
there, they encounter the spurned girlfriend's brother and an Arab friend; these two
confront Raymond and wound him with a knife during a fist fight. Later, walking back along
the beach alone and now armed with a revolver he took from Raymond so that Raymond
would not do anything rash, Meursault encounters the Arab. Meursault is now disoriented
on the edge of heatstroke, and when the Arab flashes his knife at him, Meursault shoots.
Despite killing the Arab man with the first gunshot, he shoots the corpse four more times
after a brief pause. He does not divulge to the reader any specific reason for his crime or
emotions he experiences at the time, if any, aside from the fact that he was bothered by the
heat and bright sunlight.
Part two[edit]
Meursault is incarcerated, and explains his arrest, time in prison, and upcoming trial. His
general detachment makes living in prison very tolerable, especially after he gets used to the
idea of not being able to go places whenever he wants to and no longer being able to satisfy
his sexual desires with Marie. He passes the time sleeping, or mentally listing the objects he
owned back in his apartment building. At the trial, Meursault's quietness and passivity are
seen as demonstrative of his seeming lack of remorse or guilt by the prosecuting attorney,
and so the attorney concentrates more upon Meursault's inability or unwillingness to cry at
his mother's funeral than on the actual murder. The attorney pushes Meursault to tell the
truth but never comes through and later, on his own, Meursault explains to the reader that
he simply was never really able to feel any remorse or personal emotions for any of his
actions in life. The dramatic prosecutor theatrically denounces Meursault to the point that
he claims Meursault must be a soulless monster, incapable of remorse and that he thus
deserves to die for his crime. Although Meursault's attorney defends him and later tells
Meursault that he expects the sentence to be light, Meursault is alarmed when the judge
informs him of the final decision: that he will be decapitated publicly.
In prison, while awaiting the execution of his death sentence by the guillotine, Meursault
meets with a chaplain, but rejects his proffered opportunity of turning to God, explaining
that God is a waste of his time. Although the chaplain persists in attempting to lead
Meursault from his atheism (or, perhaps more precisely, his apatheism), Meursault finally
accosts him in a rage, with a climactic outburst on his frustrations and the absurdity of the
human condition and his personal anguish at the meaninglessness of his existence without
respite. At the beginning of his outrage he mentions other people in anger, that they have no
right to judge him for his actions or for who he is, and no one has the right to judge
someone else. Meursault ultimately grasps the universe's indifference towards humankind
which allows him to come to terms with his execution.[4]

Sartre, An Explication of The Stranger, in the same essay, de facto summarized for us the
life story of Meursault when he raised the question: How do we to interpret this character
who, the day after his mother‟s death, “went swimming, started a liaison with a girl and
went to see a comic film,” who killed an Arab “because of the sun,” who claimed, on the eve
of his execution, that he “had been happy and still was,” and hoped there would be a lot of
spectators at the scaffold “to welcome him with cries of hate.” “He‟s a poor fool, and idiot,”
some said; others, with greater insight, said, “He‟s innocent.” The meaning of his innocence
still remained to be understood.

Charles Darwin's Origin of species in the nineteenth century had a profound impact on
mankind, which changed the entire understanding of human existence. Man questioned the
existence of God. Science was paramount while Religion and Philosophy took a back seat.
Moving into the twentieth century the two biggest events to shape the century were without
doubt the two World Wars, which plunged Nations into misery and chaos. The Atom bombs
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki shook an entire generation and faith in mankind was
lost forever. Throughout these two centuries literary works in the form of Poetry, Novels
and Drama have reflected the ideas that have changed the mankind. A closer look at the
literary works would reveal that man's existence and his survival has been a constant
subject of debate and discussion in the second half of the twentieth century. Absurdism, in
The Stranger Camus shows this 'absurd' sensibility by creating a character who makes none
of the normal assumptions about life, a man without social ambition, without belief in any
religious or rational meaning in the universe. Meursault, whose only desire is to live a
simple, sensual life, is led, through a series of chance events, to commit murder, and is
condemned to death. The novel is thus an image of the 'absurd' opposition between man
and the universe. Then we would be getting acquainted with Existentialism, The whole
philosophical movement called existentialism talks about life as meaningless, accidental,
there is no purpose behind it. It's full of anxiety and anguish which are incurable (King,
1980)

A Zen Master was asked, ―What did you use to do before you became enlightened?‖ He
said, ―I used to chop wood and carry water from the well for my Master„s house.‖ The
inquirer asked, ―And now that you have become enlightened, what do you do?‖ He said, ―I
chop wood and carry water.‖ The inquirer was obviously puzzled. ―Then what is the
difference? You used to chop wood and carry water, you still chop wood and still carry water
then what is the difference?‖ The Master laughed. He said, ―The difference is infinite!
Before I simply used to chop wood not knowing the beauties that surrounded me. Now
chopping wood is not the same because I am not the same. My eyes are not the same, my
heart beats in a different rhythm — my heart beats with the heart of the whole. There is a
synchronicity, there is harmony. ―Carrying water from the well is the same from the
outside, but my interior has become totally different. I am a new man, I am born again!
Now I can see in depth, I can see into the very core of things, and each pebble has become a
diamond, and each song of a bird is nothing but a call from God, and whenever a flower
blooms, God blooms for me. Looking into people„s eyes I am looking into God„s eyes. Yes,
on the surface I am carrying on the same activity, but because I am not the same the world
is not the same.‖ Start becoming a little more alert and watch things, and you will be
surprised. Life is mysterious, unexplainable — life is absurd. You cannot prove anything for
or against.

It is said that when Hotei attained enlightenment he started laughing. He lived at least
thirty years afterwards; he continued laughing for thirty years. Even in sleep his disciples
would hear him giggling. His whole message to the world was laughter; he would go from
one town to another just laughing. He would stand in one marketplace, then in another, just
laughing, and people would gather. His laughter had something of the beyond — a Buddha„s
laughter. He is known in Japan as ‗the laughing Buddha„.

An essential part of being human is being constantly aware of ourselves in relation to the
world around us. In The Stranger Meursault refuses to give himself an 'essence' as a 'loving
son', or as a 'criminal'

The Meursault Investigation (French: Meursault, contre-enquête) is the

first novel byAlgerian writer and journalist Kamel Daoud. It is a retelling of Albert Camus's
1942 novel,The Stranger. First published in Algeria by Barzakh Editions in October 2013, it
was reissued in France by Actes Sud (May 2014). Its publication in France was followed by
nominations for many prizes and awards. Meursault, the protagonist of Camus' novel The
Stranger, murders a character known only as "the Arab," claiming, in his trial, that the
murder was a meaningless gesture caused by sunstroke or God's absence. Camus left
Meursault's victim nameless, but Daoud gives him a name: Musa. The Meursault
Investigation revisits these events, but from the point of view of Harun, Musa's brother.

“I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about
what didn't.

I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.”

“I had only a little time left and I didn't want to waste it on God.”

“I had only a little time left and I didn't want to waste it on God.”

“If something is going to happen to me, I want to be there.”

“It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing
up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my
heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.
To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that
I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to
hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and
that they should greet me with howls of execration.

Have you no hope at all? And do you really live with the thought that when you die, you die,
and nothing remains?" "Yes," I said.”
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

She was wearing a pair of my pajamas with the sleeves rolled up. When she laughed I
wanted her again. 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. She looked sad. But as we were fixing lunch, and for no
apparent reason, she laughed in such a way that I kissed her.

Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.”

I realized then that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years
in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored”

Maman used to say that you can always find something to be happy about. In my prison,
when the sky turned red and a new day slipped into my cell, I found out that she was right.”