The Stranger gets stranger

A theory brought up to me once before was that people relate to other people more easily in times of tragedy. The being because they are vulnerable and more prone to open up.

I had this in mind as I started to read the Book The Stranger by Albert Camus, where in the first chapter, on the first page in the first sentence the main character discovers his mother is dead. Yet it doesn't phase him because, as he stated on the last page of the second chapter

"Maman was buried now, I was going back to work, and that really, nothing had changed."

Meursault is unlike most who has lost a mother because he was unaffected and unemotional about something that is dramatic to most other people.
As the book continues it is clear he is a simple minded man who likes his routine and doesn't need a lot out of like to be content. Its something I've come to conclude he was brought up to believe.

"Looking back on it, I wasn't unhappy. When I was a student I had ambitions like that. But when I had to give up my studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered."
It was discovered later on in the book that it was because of his mother that he had to drop out of school and get a job. He had to learn about the hardship of life in a hard way. Giving up your dreams is like giving up a part of your childhood. For a lot of people dreams is all they have to get through the difficulties of the day because you had something better to look forward to in the logn run.
But that was taken away from him, and he no longer had that string of hope that told him tomorrow would be a brighter day.

In a way, I assumed that would mean he appreciated the things he did have more. But what I came to realize thanks to class discussions and group analysis was that he only truly took notice to the objective parts of his life rather then truly valuing the people in his it. He dismisses Marie's plea that she loves him and that they should get married as if she were talking about the weather. He puts more thought into her physical attributes and how he desires to have sex with her rather then pondering about how nice it is to have her in his life. This attitude towards his life comes up repeatedly as the book continues.

In the last chapter of the first part Meursault had just murdered the man trying to attack his friend Raymond. Although he had no personal motives or reason to shoot and kill this man, he was still charged and taken to jail for murder.

In the second part of the book we have the pleasure of seeing Meursault in a different setting, which helps shed a new light on his personality.
His is locked up in a cell for a year before his trial. While in the cell he must fight the urges of physical desires like smoking a cigaret, going for a swim or having sex. He comes to conclude