Meursault’s mother has died within the last few days, but when he arrives for the funeral, he’s more worried about the pain in his back from sleeping at the vigil. He doesn’t believe in all these social conventions and doesn’t understand why people are following them. They don’t seem to make sense to him as he says, “To my great surprise, they all shook hands with me- as though a night spent in silence together had put us on intimate terms.” He still finds it a bit hard to believe that people are not all like him.
Meursault sees everything, as he is extremely observant. He is almost hypersensitive towards things that are physical i.e. the colors of the sky, the sun and heat, the weather and he even notices when the screws on his mother’s coffin had been tightened. He doesn’t want his mother one last time in her coffin and from looking and listening to him it seems like a regular day for him You wouldn’t know it was his mother being buried. He may not be focused on what many others will have their attention on, but when something matters to him, it really matters and it’s important. Meursault’s whole attention is taken up on his physical stats and everything happening “right now”.
On Page 17, after stepping outside, he says the walk would have been nice if it wasn’t for his mother dying, implying that it was her fault and that she could has postponed or prevented it. He lets his mind wander to other things that are irrelevant to the funeral
