"I had only to wish...that they greet me with cries of hate."

By the end of The Stranger, this is what Meursault wants; however, during his trial when he realizes that everybody hates him, he wants to cry. His desire to cry is significant because it is the first real emotion he has shown during the entire book. It seems to me that by that point in his trial, his life has caught up with him, from his failure to completely college to his entire personality being judged as wrong in some way.

Meursault is generally a go-with-the-flow kind of guy. He doesn't care who his buddies are, who he gets married, or even whether or not he gets married. The one thing he does seem to care about is what other people think of him, or at least what his boss thinks of him. Although he may not care much about the thoughts of the other people at his mother's funeral, he cares a great deal about what his boss will think about him missing so much work. He also clearly cares what the jury think of him. When his entire life is set out to be judged, he questions himself. Until now, most people like him (although I'm not sure why, especially in the case of Marie). Being a people-pleaser who is all of a sudden judged as inhuman by other people is something that is very difficult for Meursault to face.

When Meursault receives the death sentence, he changes yet again. Initially, he reacts as anybody would. He hopes desperately for some way out, even though he knows that escape is impossible. However, he soon realizes that everybody must die eventually, and whether he dies now or later, it will amount to the same thing. He is then able to say he is ready for death and he hopes "for me to feel less alone...that they greet me with cries of hate." What snaps in Meursault to make him go from wanting to cry at the thought of being hated to hoping that people cry out at him in hatred? Just before making this profound statement, he reflects on his mother's death, noting that so close to the end, she must have felt free and tried to live as much as possible, which would explain why she "had taken a 'fiance.'" He states that nobody had the right to cry over her. Perhaps this is because he sees her as having been happy at the end? Or he believes that nobody could have possibly understood her? It would make sense that nobody can understand what it truly means to be mortal unless they know they are close to death. Meursault seems to recognize this, and because of it he feels that nobody has the right to cry over people when the die (or maybe just his mother?). At this point, he is certain that he is feeling what his mother was feeling. He does not feel alone in the world. I would even say that he feels that anybody who knows they are going to die feels the way he does. For that, he does not feel alone. He hopes that he will be greeted with hatred on his execution day because he doesn't think anybody has the right to cry over him, since they don't really understand him. Perhaps there is a part of him that hopes people are truly upset that he killed someone. Perhaps he values human life a little bit more now. But this doesn't seem to be about the Arab. It seems more like he's stronger as a person now, and he can take the hatred, because he finally knows that he is not really alone.