"The sun glinted off Raymond's gun as he handed it to me. But we just stood there motionless, as if everything had closed in around us. We started at each other without blinking, and everything came to a stop there between the sea, the sand and the sun, and the double silence of the flute and the water. It was then that I realized that you could either shoot or not shoot. But all of …showed first 75 words of 580 total…

…showed last 75 words of 580 total…also shows the reader that Meursault shows no indifference between shooting and not shooting a man, which gives on a deeper look into his mind. Both men then leave this encounter at peace and easily forget about it after the Arabs slip behind a rock. This passage is important to the story because we get a quick look at the minds of Raymond and more importantly Meursault in the moments leading up to the shooting.