I am going to focus on the relationship between Salamano and his dog and how that relates to Meursault.
“It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really nothing had changed” (24)
“Twice a day, at eleven and six, the old man takes the dog out for a walk. They haven’t changed their route in eight years. You can see in the rue de Lyon, the dog pulling the man along until old Salamano stumbles. Then he beats the dog and swears at it. The dog cowers and trails behind” (27).
“Then he left, yanking at the animal, which was letting itself be dragged along, whimpering” (28).
“He asked me didn’t I think it was disgusting and I said no” (28).
“He asked if I thought she was cheating on him, and it seemed to me she was; if I thought she should be punished and what I would do in his place, and I said you can’t ever be sure, but I understood his wanting to punish her” (32).
“I wrote the letter. I did it just as it came to me, but I tried my best to please Raymond because I didn’t have any reason not to please him” (32).
“Then he explained to me that he’d heard about Maman’s death but that it was one of those things that was bound to happen sooner or later. I thought so too” (33).
All I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears. I stood there, motionless. And in old Salamano’s room, the dog whimpered softly (33).
The woman was still shrieking and Raymond was still hitting her. Marie said it was terrible and I didn’t say anything. She asked me to go find a policeman, but I told her I didn’t like cops (36).
“[…]I saw that he didn’t have his dog” (38).
“Sure, I’ve been meaning to get him a smaller collar for a long time. But I never thought the bastard would take off like that” (38).
“They’re not going to take him away from me, are they, Monsieur Meursault? They’ll give him back to me. Otherwise, what’s going to happen to me?” (39).
“[…]I realized he was crying. For some reason I thought of Maman” (39).
“[…]he told me that his dog was lost[…]maybe it had been run over. He asked if he could find out at the police station. They told him they didn’t keep track of things like that because they happened everyday” (44).
“When she died he had been very lonely. So he asked a shop buddy for a dog and he’d gotten this one very young[…]We’d have a run-in every now and then. But he was a good dog just the same” (45).
“The trigger gave[…]Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where to bullets lodged without leaving a trace” (59).
“Then the judge stood up[…]He simply asked in the same weary tone, if I was sorry for what I had done. I thought about it for a minute and said that more than sorry I felt kind of annoyed (70).
Thesis: Through the relationship between Salamano and his dog in connection to Meursault’s actions Albert Camus expresses the idea that humans will try to suppress their emotions, but once fully suppressed, humans will begin to feel regret and want them back.
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