The Stranger Journal #9 Final Thesis

Camus uses the little robot woman as a foil to Mersault to emphasize his ability to act on a whim by ignoring society's rules, while she is a controlled product of those rules.  Through this, Camus emphasizes that one cannot have freedom of actions until society's rules are removed.

The Stranger Journal #8 Personal Response

The first read on The Stranger was incredibly boring.  I could not wait to finish the book about the creep with no emotions.  The second reading was much more interesting since I was finding more demensions to Mersault.  It was very interesting to see the exestentialist and absurdist influences in the book, and see how similar it was to the myth of Sysiphus.  However, it was still an unexciting read that I couldn't wait to be done with...To me a great work of literature is a book/novel/poem/what have you, that demonstrates an important life lesson, but is suddle about it.  It also should be an entertaining read that makes the reader want to read the book.  My favorite english book ever is The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  Excellent one liners, interesting plot, and a story that still manages to shed light on the important things in life...However, a book's entertainment value will vary from reader to reader, so it would not be a consistent rubric.  I still consider it important though.  While The Stranger does reveal some life lessons suddly, it has zero entertainment value.  It should be saved for analyzation in college level classes for those that are all gung-ho about English...

A side note about what should be considered good literature: The author needs to have purposely put the life lessons in the book...The Lord of the Flies author conducted an interview where he clearly states that there was no purpose or moral to the book, he just wrote it for the story line...And the poor sophmores have to analyze for weeks looking for lessons on true human nature...

The Stranger Journal #7 Topic, Quotes & Thesis

Topic: The little robot woman as a foil to Mersault

Quotes:

The below quotes emphasize the "robotness" of the little women when she is first introduced.  She is a preprogrammed robot of society, she come to eat lunch, performs a mundane task while waiting, eats and then leaves.  There is no freedom about her

• "Her gestures were jerky" (43)
• "...she checked off almost every program.  Since the magazine was about a dozen pages long, she meticulously contined this task throughout the meal."  (43)
• "The she stood up, put her jack bock on with the same robotlike movements, and left." (43)

There very next quote emphasizes Mersault's freedom to make his own decisions...

• "I didn't have anything to do, so I left too and followed her for a while." (43)

And then again the preprogrammed woman.  She is on track to her next destination:

• "She[...] was making her way with speed and assurance, never one swerving or looking around."

More of Mersault's freedom.  He thinks it is odd that someone would be so stiff and unwilling to move outside the routine, but he soon forgets her:

• "I eventually lost sight of her and turned back.  I thought about how peculiar she was but forgot about her a few minutes later." (43-44)

Then Mersault sees her again in the courtroom.  She is stiff as ever and watching, judging him.  She represents society's judging of him while he is on trail.

• "I recognized next to her the little woman from the restaraunt, with her jacket and her stiff and determined manner.  She was staring right at me." (86)

Then Mersault soon forgets her (society and it's judgement) because they trial starts.  He is more impartant to himself than what society is thinking about him

• "But I didn't have time to think about them, because the presiding judege started speaking" (86)

Mersault again is confronted with the women (and society's judgement) when the trial is adjourned for the first time.

• "The young reporter and the little robot woman were still there. [...] they were still watching me without saying a word." (88-89)

The woman and her representation of typical society begins to bother Mersault because society is now in control of his actions, not him.

• "I wiped away the sweat convering my face..." (89)

Well....I only have ten qoutes, I will try to pull more in class tomorrow...


Thesis:  Camus uses the little robot women to represent a "programmed" person that was created by, and represents the rules of society, which acts as a foil to Mersault's freedom that is created by his non conformity to society's rules...

Yeah...that needs some work too...

The Stranger Journal #6 Questions and Answers

1. Why does Marie laugh so much and have so little dialogue? Is it because she is a flat character or it is to perhaps emphasize her lack of thought?

2. Why does Camus describe the scenery so vividly and the characters so little?

3. Does Camus use the "little robot woman" symobolize anything?

4. Why does Camus use the motif of heat in the courtroom?

5. Does Camus use Mersault's lawyer's line of "everything is true and nothing is true!" (91) to parallel Mersault's world view of absurdism?


Comment on Kevin's blog:
“Does Camus imply that everyone judges each other?”
I don’t think that Camus is implying that everyone judges everyone, I believe that he is trying to deindividualize the people of the court room and create essentially a mob that is against Mersault. All people at the hearing are reffered to as a crowd, or spectators, not individuals. The only individuals pointed out are those close to Mersault that understand him. Camus uses the deindividualization of the crowd to represent the society as a whole that is against Mersault’s world view.

Comment on Isabel's blog:
Camus portrays women and Arabs in an unflattering way to express through the book the time periods sexist and racist views.

Comment on Nikki's blog:
Camus is expressing his existential belifs about the pointlessness of life through Mersault's carelessness for his mother.

Comment on Jarrad's blog:
Camus expresses a racist tendency when refering to the Arabs as a group, rather than as individuals.

Comment on Isabella's blog:
Camus uses the newspaper article about the Czechoslovakian to furhter reiterate Mersault's exestential/absurd view that decisions in life are pointless as the outcome is death, regardless.

The Stranger Journal #5 Part 1 vs. Part 2

I think Camus split the book into two parts in order to empasize Mersault's new view of life.  In the first part of the book, Mersault focuses on the pointlessness of physical things and decisions.  In the second part Mersault begins to focus on the pointlessness of life itself.

Some supporting quotes from Part 1:

"...he  had a habit of finishing everything he said with "and I'd even say," when really it didn't add anything to the meaning of his sentance[...]I didn't pay any more attention to this mannerism of his" (50)  Mersault points out that Masson has a habit, but then goes straight to ignoring it, emphasizing an unnecessary feeling about it.

"It was then that I realized that you could either shoot or not shoot." (56)

"To stay or go, it amounted to the same thing." (57)
Both quotes give the feeling that no matter what the decision, there is no meaning in what you decide.


Supporting quote for part 2:

"Nothing, nothing mattered[...]What did other people's deaths or a mother's love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we're all elected to the same fate" (121)

Mersault focuses on the pointlessness of life, how no matter how we live our lives, we all die in the end...

The Stranger Journal #4 Chapter 6 Questions

1. Why does Mersault point out Masson's habit of saying "and I'd even say" and immediately disregard it?

2. Why is the color red brought up so frequently in this chapter?

3. Why does Marie laugh so much and have so little dialogue? Is it because she is a flat character or it is to perhaps emphasize her lack of thought?

4. Can the sentence "to stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing." be used to reflect or support a larger theme of futility?

5. Why does Mersault talk Raymond out of killing the Arab, when ultimately he kills him instead?

6. Why does Camus describe the scenery so vividly and the characters so little?

The Stranger Journal #3 Personal Philosophy

Realaxism

1. If you believe in God or a god, wonderful. But do not spend your entire life trying to convert others that don't want to be converted.

2. If you don't believe in a higher being, great. But don't spend your entire life berating those that do.

3. Spilled hot coffee on yourself? Tough, it's not the restaurants fault you're a klutz with your extra hot no whip soy latte.

4. Someone wish you a merry holiday that you don't believe in or celebrate? Smile and say "you too."

5. Some people consider curling, ping pong, and math sports. Leave them be, they're probably happier than you and your unfulfilled NFL dreams

6. Yes stereotypes are wrong, but they are out there and unavoidable. Get called on doing something stereotypical for you group? Laugh it off, roll your eyes, do anything but get mad. Thats usually what the jerk calling names wants. And again, remember that you are happy in your group and that is all that matters.

7. Kid got picked last for the dodgeball team? Instead of banning dodgeball or putting him in private school, realize you got picked last too once and you're still alive.

My philosophy summed up is let people live the way they want to. Don't get to worked up over a difference of opinion because there is ALWAYS going to be someone that doesn't agree with you. Why waste you time tearing them down when you could accept that they are happy with what they believe. I dunno, maybe it sounds too hippy-ish but I believe everyone needs to take a giant chill pill and get along.

The Stranger Journal #2 Translator and title

Part 1: personally I prefer Matthew Ward's translation. This could be because it is the first version I've read, but I find the other translator's style to be too choppy. While I understand that choppy was a feeling that he was trying to create, it is hard for me too read. The writing also has a more formal feeling to it. While Meursault is not necessarily a computer that you can connect with, the formality of the language puts him at more of a distance than he already is. Again, the translator could want this effect, but I don't care for it.

Part 2: I find "unconnected" to be the most fitting title for the book. While the other titles fit the book well, I think unconnected fits the best. Throughout the book, the reader has a feeling that Meursault is unconnected to any emotion, and only focus' on the present. Later in the book it could also represent his lack of connection to society's standards.