How does Camus use the sun for symbolism in his novel The Stranger?

The sun plays a critical role in Camus'
The Stranger. It has importance as an integral part the setting. It
has importance as a prime motivator of Meursault's behaviors--one can't really only say
"choices" with great difficulty in relation to Meursault. More importantly, the sun
plays a critical role as a symbol.

The sun dominates the narrative as
Meursault's life is laid open to light. For one thing, events occur on Sunday, the day
devoted in ancient times to honoring the Sun god. For another thing, the condition of
the sun elicits a corresponding physical sensation in and, sometimes also, reaction from
Meursault.

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SUNDAY
the waiter was sweeping up the
sawdust in the empty restaurant. A typical Sunday afternoon. ...

It
occurred to me that ... I’d got through another Sunday, that ... nothing in my life had
changed.

RESPONSES
The sun had risen a little
higher and was beginning to warm my feet.

I was surprised to see how
quickly the sun was climbing up the sky, ... the air had been throbbing ... . I tried to
fan myself with my
handkerchief.

It might be
said that that these responses might all be the referents of the metaphor of his being
"sunburned":

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cool night air flowing over ... sunburned
bodies.

In addition, the sun
is "scorching hot" and associated symbolically with "a din of chains and backfires" that
represent the profound and, it might be said, tyrannical effect the sun has on
him.

The sun performs many functions upon Meursault.
It

1. comforts him: "warm my
   feet"


2. gives him sleep: "warmth of ... the sun, I felt
   myself dropping off to sleep"


3. reveals: "The sun glinted
   on Raymond’s revolver"


4. antagonizes: "the glare of the
   morning sun hit me in the eyes like a clenched
   fist."


5. compels: "[The sun] pressed itself on me, trying
   to check my progress"


6. gives pain: "I felt a hot blast
   strike my forehead"


7. drives him to
   murder:

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[I was] conscious only of the cymbals of the sun
clashing on my skull, and,... the keen blade of light flashing up from the knife,
scarring my eyelashes, and gouging into my eyeballs.
Then everything began to
reel before my eyes, a fiery gust came from the sea, while the sky cracked in two, from
end to end, and a great sheet of flame poured down through the rift. ... I tried to
explain that it was because of the
sun.

These factors, when
added to the factor that the sun dominates Meursault's perceptions and his point of
orientation, indicate that the sun symbolizes the inherent absurdity of the universe and
of life. The sun comforts, torments, pains, compels, and mercilessly drives the very man
it gives restful sleep to. This is absurdity--structure without order, without reason,
without meaning--dramatically resonating in an inescapable presence: the
sun.