Journal #17: Topic, Quotes, and Thesis

Topic: Erratic use of dialogue
Quotes:

1. "I even said, 'It's not my fault'" (Camus 3).
2. "I said, 'Yes,' just so I wouldn't have to say anything else'" (Camus 4).
3. "'Madame Meursalt came to us three years ago. You were her sole support.' I thought he was criticizing me for something and I started to explain. But he cut he off. 'You don't have to justify yourself, my dear boy'" (Camus 4).
4. "The director spoke to me again. But I wasn't really listening anymore. Then he said, 'I suppose you'd like to see your mother'" (Camus 5).
5. "He looked at me and then asked, 'Why not?' but without criticizing, as if he just wanted to know. I said, 'I don't know'" (Camus 6).
6. " I said to the caretaker, 'Have you been here long?' Right away he answered, 'Five years'---as if he'd been waiting all along for me to ask" (Camus 7).
7. "After that he did a lot of talking. He would have been very surprised if anyone had told him he would end up caretaker at the Marengo home. He was sixty-four and came from Paris. At that point I interrupted him. 'Oh, you're not from around here?'" (Camus 7).
8. "After a long pause he explained, without looking at me, 'She was very close to your mother'" (Camus 11).
9. "'Before I do, would you like to see your mother one last time?' I said no" (Camus 13).
10. "'It's more humane that way,' he remarked" (Camus 13).
11. "'Here's the priest from Marengo already. He's early.' He warned me that it would take at least three-quarters of an hour to walk to the church, which is in the village itself" (Camus 14).
12. " As we approached, the priest straightened up. He called me 'my son' and said a few words to me" (Camus 14).
13. I turned a little in his direction and was looking at him when the director started talking to me about him. He told me that my mother and Monsieur Perez often used to walk down to the village together in the evenings, accompanied by a nurse" (Camus 15).
14. The man from the undertaker's said something to me then which I missed[...] I said, 'What?' He pointed up at the sky and repeated, 'Pretty hot.' I said, 'Yes'" (Camus 16).
15. "Except for one thing: as we entered the village, the nurse spoke to me. She had a remarkable voice which didn't go with her face at all, a melodious, quavering voice. She said, 'If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church'" (Camus 17).

Dialogue is used at random in this novel. It seems that some dialogue is used to create an emphasis of how Camus is trying to depict Meursalt. Other times dialogue is used to portray Meursalt in a certain way.
Thesis: Camus uses dialogue sporadically to expose and/or emphasize certain qualities of Meursalt such as his indecision and personal philosophies.