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...