The Meursault Investigation: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Harun insists that he’s not telling the interlocutor about his crime in order to relieve his conscience. He’s not afraid of going to hell. Harun then continues his story.

The day after the murder, everything seems the same. The only new development is Harun’s conviction that he has condemned himself, without the aid of “judge nor God nor the charade of a trial.”

In fact, Harun wishes he could go on trial now, as Meursault did. He’d like to see a crowd of people looking at him, and for Mama to be incapable of defending him. In his imagination, Meursault is the protagonist and questions him about his family history. Joseph, the Frenchman he has killed, is there, as is Harun’s Koran-reciting neighbor, who visits him in jail to preach about God. However, Harun says he can’t be accused of anything—he was just serving his mother, and in any case so many people have died in the lead-up to Independence that no one would consider it important.

Harun says that his life has been more tragic than Meursault’s. In his memory, he acts out every role in the story, from the Musa’s part to that of “the stranger” (Meursault) to the judge at the trial. This constant performance doesn’t change after his revenge; it’s still a “curse” to him.

Again, Harun says he wishes he could stand trial. However, he blames Mama for his crimes. She was the one who held his arm while he shot, “while Musa held hers.” Harun knows that he is philosophizing, but he says that Meursault did the same in his book. He points out the sky outside the bar is darkening. He loves the beginning of night, since it always reminds him that night’s darkness allowed him to commit his crime.

Harun remarks that the interlocutor seems surprised by his articulate French. Harun says that he learned at school, by teaching himself, and through Meriem. She was the one who introduced him to French literature and Meursault’s book. For Harun, French became “the main tool” of all his investigations into Meursault.

Harun knows that the only trial he’ll ever have is the one he performs in this bar, so he wants to return to the story of his murder. After he kills Joseph, he doesn’t wish for his lost innocence but rather misses “the border that had existed until then between my life and crime.” Now that he has killed once, it feels increasingly possible to kill again. He imagines killing everyone from his neighbor, who pretends to be a resistance fighter but is really a crook, to an old uncle who never pays Mama the debt he owes her.

Moreover, the crime forever alters Harun’s ability to love. After talking one man’s life, life itself is “no longer sacred” to him. He can never again appreciate the sensuality of the female body. Every time he desires a woman, he also remembers that “life reposes on nothing solid.” He says that there’s one verse in the Koran he likes, which states that “if you kill a single person, it is as if you have killed the whole of mankind.”

This morning, Harun read an article about an Indian man who has kept his right hand raised for the last thirty years, after receiving a commandment from God to do so. Harun feels that his arm is still raised to shoot. His whole body has shriveled and stiffened just like the man in the article, and Mama’s has as well. Now, she’s more like a statue than a person. Now that she has compelled Harun to execute Joseph, she has no more reason for existence.