7. A Summer Beach Day And Violent Neighborhood Disruptions
L’Étranger — Résumé 🇺🇸 English
Meursault spends his week working, going to the cinema with Emmanuel, and planning a weekend trip with Marie. On Saturday, Marie visits wearing a striped dress and leather sandals, and they take a bus to a nearby beach. In the water, they swim, laugh, and play a game with seafoam before embracing and returning home to spend the evening together. The next morning, as Marie stays over and cooks lunch, loud noises erupt from Raymond’s room as he violently beats his mistress. A crowd gathers on the landing, and eventually, a police officer arrives and strikes Raymond after an exchange of words. The distressed woman leaves, and Raymond is later ordered to report to the police station.
Afterward, Raymond visits Meursault and asks him to act as a witness to prove that his mistress had wronged him, which Meursault readily agrees to do. The two men go out for drinks and a game of billiards, returning later in the evening to find their neighbor Salamano frantically searching for his lost dog. Salamano explains that the animal got away from him at the fairgrounds, expressing anxious fears that the dog will be captured and put down. Later that night, Salamano knocks on Meursault's door to ask anxiously if the pound will return his pet, and Meursault hears the old man crying alone in his room.