Editing The Stranger (Camus novel) (section)

===Part 2===
Meursault is [[Imprisonment|incarcerated]]. His general detachment and ability to adapt to any external circumstance seem to make living in prison tolerable, especially after he gets used to the idea of being restricted and unable to have sex with Marie, though he does realize at one point that he has been unknowingly [[Intrapersonal communication|talking to himself]] for a number of days. For almost a year, he sleeps, looks out the small window of his cell, and mentally lists the objects in his old apartment while waiting for his day in court.

Meursault never denies the murder he committed, so, at his trial, the [[Prosecutor|prosecuting attorney]] focuses more on his inability or unwillingness to cry at his mother's funeral than on the details of the murder. He portrays Meursault's quietness and passivity as demonstrating his criminality and lack of remorse and denounces Meursault as a soulless monster who deserves to die for his crime. Although several of Meursault's friends testify on his behalf and his attorney tells him the sentence will likely be light, Meursault is sentenced to be [[guillotine|publicly decapitated]].

Put in a new cell, Meursault obsesses over his impending doom and appeal and tries to imagine some way in which he can escape his fate. He refuses to see the [[Chaplain#Prison|prison chaplain]], but one day the chaplain visits him anyway. Meursault says he does not believe in God and is not even interested in the subject, but the chaplain persists in trying to lead Meursault away from [[atheism]] (or, perhaps more precisely, [[apatheism]]). The chaplain believes Meursault's appeal will succeed in getting him released from prison, but says such an outcome will not rid him of his feelings of guilt or fix his relationship with God. Eventually, Meursault accosts the chaplain in a rage. He attacks the chaplain's worldview and patronizing attitude and asserts that, in confronting the certainty of the nearness of his death, he has had insights about life and death that he is confident are beyond those the chaplain possesses. He says that, although what we say or do or feel can cause our deaths to happen at different times or under different circumstances, none of those things can change the fact that we are all condemned to die one day, so nothing ultimately matters.

After the chaplain leaves, Meursault finds some comfort in thinking about the parallels between his situation and how he thinks his mother must have felt when she was surrounded by death and slowly dying at the retirement home. Yelling at the chaplain had emptied him of all hope or thoughts of escape or a successful appeal, so he manages to open his heart 'to the benign indifference of the universe' and decides that he has been, and still is, happy. His indifference to the universe makes him feel as if he belongs to it. He even hopes there will be a large, hateful crowd at his execution, which will bring everything to a consummate end.