As Part 1 nears a conclusion Meursault finds himself in a completely unnecessary altercation. Raymond, a neighbor of Meursault invited him over to his friends lake house. Raymond has tensions with a small group of Arabian men. Raymond physically assaulted his girlfriend when he found out she was using him, and one of the men is her brother. When on the beach near the man, Meursault says “It occurred to me that all I had to do was turn around and that would be the end of it. But the whole beach, throbbing in the sun, was pressing on my back. I took a few steps toward the spring” (58). Meursault is choosing at this point to cause problems by approaching a man equipped with a pocket knife. Meursault, however, has a gun so is at the advantage. It is puzziling why Meursault is putting himself in this situation to begin with. All for a neighbor he is barely friends with.

Meursault continues to walk towards the Arabian man. As he nears him, he gets sweat in his eyes which prevents him from seeing. Meursault then gets slashed in the face by the man. He says “The light shot off the steal and it was like a long flashing blade cutting at my forehead.” What Meursault does next I found to be quite shocking. Rather than walking away from the situation, he chose to fight back but in the more extreme way. Meursault fired the gun at the man. He says “Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace” (59). I am uncertain what the result of this will be, but I can not assume it will be good. The next few chapters will definitely be some interesting ones, and I look forward to reading them and finding out.