' His reaction to the burning whiteness comes after he has smoked a cigarette and drank a white coffee, things which are said to be hugely disrespectful to do beside the dead, a societal norm which Meursault acknowledges yet chooses to ignore, because he likes white coffee and likes to smoke after drinking coffee, they are rational things to do. He is a man who likes to appease his external self and so when he can ˜smell flowers in the night air,' it is pleasurable to him, it seems a sensuous existence provides the ability to find comfort in places which are morbid and somewhat depressing and it is ultimately his ability to find comfort in an estranged position that he is condemned for. Every one of us on the planet, in some way or form has connections and relationships with other forms of life, most commonly in humans, but others bond with animals and other aspects of nature which appeal to their personalities most. Meursault is no exception and throughout the novel Camus uses these characters as blank slates onto which he has projected his philosophical ideas about many different things such as, mortality and moral judgement in Raymond and the loss of ones humanity with Salamano and his dog. ˜They look as if they belong to the same species.' And the automatic woman who is meticulous and machine-like. Camus can then have Meursault, the representation of the absurd man interact and involve himself in conflicts, introducing disorder within Meursault's harmonious, nihil existence. Camus is telling the reader that life is too unpredictable for harmony to be achieved, the universe works for and against you simultaneously. Marie, to me is Camus' representation of what love and attraction is. Although Camus and in turn Meursault do not believe in love as a concept, they recognise the physical and mental attraction that two people can have for each other and that institutions and conventions such as marriage, which are said to render that attraction sacred and eternal are essentially futile as one could easily have the same animalistic, bovine affinity with another person.