The Use of Motives in The Outsider and Woman at Point Zero
First published in French as L’Etranger in 1942, Albert Camus’ The Outsider is both a cleverly crafted novella as well as a demonstration of Camus’ absurdist world view. Woman at Point Zero is another work in translation, published in 1983 by Egyptian-born Nawal El Saadawi, who candidly discusses and criticises issues of sexuality, social expectations and exploitation among the Egyptian public. Saadawi has become one of the leading feminists in the world, and has been threatened, censored, ostracised and even imprisoned for her beliefs and words. Similarly The Outsider is equally loaded ideologically, and is often referred to as an “existentialist” novel, which is arguably a somewhat far-reaching classification that can have many different meanings to many different people. As a whole however, existentialism refers to the idea that there is no “higher” meaning to human existence or the universe, and that there is no rational order to the events of the world. The nature of this novella however is such that despite the fact that the protagonist Meursault is presented as a monotonous and mundane man, Camus manages to illustrate through this simplistic behaviour an amazingly complex and striking web of issues. A further underlying literary device that acts as connecting tissue throughout both of these novellas is the application of a recurring motif, which is a vital technique that contributes to the development of all prime issues.
Most creative thinkers have used the sun and its comforting warmth as constructive and positive imagery; however the character Meursault once again fails to differ and ironically cannot handle the power that the sun possesses. Camus’ usage of the sun as a motif opposes the archetypical constructive nature of the known symbol and in The Outsider the sun instead represents Meursault’s absent feelings and emotions. Meursault already cannot deal with the sun and its significance from the opening stages of the narrative, as during the funeral procession of his mother “the glare from the sky was unbearable” (21). It is apparent that the sun causes him more grief and pain than the actual thought of his mothers’ death and burial. Furthermore, the sun at the beach particularly torments Meursault on all of his visitations and during his trial he even identifies his suffering under the sun as the key reason for killing the Arab. To Meursault the sun is an overpowering influence that controls all of his senses, as he constantly thinks and refers to the sun when he is actually expected to show some sort of feeling or emotion. The surging sun therefore, acts as a substitute of the feelings that Meursault is socially expected to experience. Similar to Camus’ reversal of the sun as a motif, the application of the motif of eyes in Woman at Point Zero is also inverted. Eyes are typically known as the passage to the soul, in Woman at Point Zero eyes are of great importance and stand for multiple facets, however none of them are remotely positive or enlightening. This selection is the first reference of eyes that immediately relates to one of the overbearing themes of this novella: “Whenever I remember the expression in the eyes of the warder, or the prison doctor, as they spoke of her complete indifference to everything, her attitude of total rejection…the feeling that I was helpless, and of no significance grew on me.” (3) From further events in the narrative we come to realise that Firdaus is constantly preyed on by evil eyes who want to take advantage of her body, have control over her and force her to conform to social expectations. Even as a child, Firdaus looks for comfort in the eyes of her mother: “When I used to look into her eyes I could feel she was not my mother. They were not two rings of pure white surrounding two circles of intense black…as though the light of the sun or the moon kept flowing through them. No light seemed ever to touch the eyes of this woman, even when the day was radiant and the sun at its very brightest.” (18) The feeling of hostility that Firdaus receives from her mother is incredibly hyperbolic, to begin with she cannot even identify this woman as her mother and secondly the blackness of her mother’s eyes is dark, brooding and illustrates the massive void within. Furthermore the crude contrast between the radiant sun and her dark eyes sees for an even darker image The shift of Firdaus’ perception of her mothers eyes occurs right after she is genitally mutilated, posing as a huge critique of this social practice.
