I may come back to this if I find more direct parallels later on in the book, but I've been thinking about Salamano and Raymond. Specifically, in chapter 3 when Salamano says "He's always there" as his explanation of what the dog did to warrant his abuse (not that the dog actually deserves to be abused obviously, this is the character's justification) and how that's also what the stories Raymond tells to explain why he beats/fights people kind of boil down to.

I feel like there's strong parallels between both Raymond and Salamano and between the (as of pg 50) unnamed woman and Salamano's dog. Like how Salamano mistreats the dog but is distraught at the thought of the dog being taken away from him and how Raymond seems so preoccupied by the idea that this woman is cheating on him (aka is being taken away from him by another man) despite the fact that he abuses her and that at the end of chapter 4 both the dog and the woman have taken steps to escape that abuse.

This feels like a book about relationships to me so far, as I'm noticing a lot of the dynamics of power, care, and obligation in the relationships between man and woman, employee and boss, parent and child, man and dog, police and civilian. Maybe that's just my reading, but I do think Camus is saying something about love and possession in these chapters, especially since the moment where Marie asks Meursault if he loves her and he says "I told her it didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so" is sort of sandwiched in between the stuff with Raymond and Salamano in chapter 4. That moment provides contrast, but also feels related (in a way I'm not sure I'm fulling grasping at 2:30am).

(Edited to add "paragraph" breaks to my giant block of text and give this post a title.)