Throughout the whole of The Stranger, we see various instances of heat and the Sun appearing wherever Meursault goes. One way to look at the way the Sun plays a role in Meursault's telling is that it represents inward stress and feelings that are boiling up to critical.
The first time that we see any occurrence of this amount of intense heat is at his mother's funeral. He mentions that as they walk to the cemetery, the old man that is with them faints, and there are tears of sweat streaming down his face. These things are obviously present in the world - the man wouldn't faint otherwise - but they also have a symbolic meaning for Meursault. He is trying to suppress the emotions of loss and sadness through various means, but that merely stresses out other feelings in his body, such as his heat sense and sight.
The second time we see this idea appear is whenever he, Raymond and Masson go to confront the Arabs and fight them. Once again, we see the Sun play a role in the events. He first remarks how the Sun is just unnaturally bright as they walk up to the Arabs. It isn't incredibly intense, just there. This represents the fact that Meursault's overall calmness hasn't been overly violated as he doesn't even participate. When he and Raymond return, however, Meursault has made the conscious decision to return, threatening his overall neutrality. The Sun is shatteringly bright, demonstrating Meursault's crumbling wall of neutrality. As they stand, confronting the Arabs, Meursault offers to take the gun, and the Sun glints off of it. This action and its subsequent glint show that he is starting to take sides.
Finally, he confronts the main Arab head-on going completely against his impassive nature, and as he walks the whole beach seems to be on fire with the Sun being blindingly bright. When he finally meets up with the Arab, who is relaxing in the shade (away from the Sun, the exact place Meursault mentions he wants to be), the Arab eventually pulls out the knife which glints in the Sun, representing the fact that if he follows through with anything other than walking away, it means the end of his neutrality. Meursault makes the decision to stay, and with that comes an explosion of heat and blinding sunlight, during which he pulls out the gun and fires, sealing it.
The final times we see the heat appearing is during his trial and at the very end. During the entire time Meursault is in the courtroom he mentions the enormous amount of heat, especially after the break and being confronted by the prosecutor. This represents the fact that he has many emotions, just like at his mother's funeral that he is keeping down, as he even says that there are times when he wants to cry or jump up and say something, but stops himself. At the end of the book, he goes off on the Champlain and he is taken from him. In this moment, he has this revelation of the way the world works that embodies his feelings, and the cell suddenly feels cool, as he has burned off all of the bottled up emotions, as he says has happened, and he is totally psychologically calm.
The Sun, sunlight and heat are things that have symbolic meaning for Meursault. They represent repressed feelings and ideas that threaten his overall neutrality and calmness. Only in times where those feelings have been vented can he feel the coolness of the area around him.
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