Post #4

Absurdity has played a huge role in the Stranger. The most significant parts of the books were completely absurd and help contribute to Camus philosophy of absurdism. First, Meursault never gets upset when his mother dies and instead worries about trivial things like how making the trip to the old persons home is hard, "And also because it took up my Sunday-not to mention the trouble of getting to the bus, buying tickets, and spending two hours traveling" (5). In addition, Meursault goes out with a girl the day after his mother dies, "she seemed ver surprised to see I was wearing a black tie and she asked me if I was in mourning. I told her Maman had died. She wanted to know how long ago, so I said, yesterday" (20). Then Meursault agrees to help Raymond get away with beating his mistress and shows no remorse, "Since I didn't say anything, he asked if I'd mind doing it right then and I said no" (32). When Meursault shoots the arab and goes to court, he is not put on trial for shooting a person, like one would expect him to. He instead is largely put on trial for not treating his mother right. The prosecutor's entire case is that Meursault shouldn't have put his mother in old person's home but should have taken better care of her. In fact the prosecutor goes a step further and argues that people like Meursault ruin society by making it seem ok to mistreat people. Basically the entire book is completely absurd. This absurdity; combined with a motif I discussed earlier, sleepwalking through life; was put in the book the express Camus's philosophy of absurdism. The philosophy is basically a school of thought which states that the human efforts to find meaning in life will fail, because there is none. This is essentially the theme of The Stranger. As I talked about before, Meursault went through life in a kind of daze, not really caring about anything. This was because he had no purpose, he had stopped trying to find the purpose in life. The rest of society refused to accept this though. They technically punished him for the way he treated his mom, but what they were really punishing him for was stopping to find the purpose in life, stopping to succumb to the absurdity that is this human condition.

Post #3

Although Violence does not show up very frequently in the Stranger by Albert Camus, it certainly plays a large role. The two main types of literary violence, as talked about in Foster’s book, are both brought up. There is character violence and there is accidental death and suffering. Some examples of character violence are as follows; Raymond beating his mistress, "He'd beaten her till she bled" (31). and Meursault shooting the Arab. There is also some death and suffering, like when Meursault’s mother died. Both of these types of violence play major roles in the book. The significance in the different types of violence within the story lies in the characters reactions to each type of violence. The character violence, the one that has an actual perpetrator and would actually be seen as a specific person’s fault, doesn’t get nearly the same kind of attention and punishment that it usually would. For example, Raymond never really gets in trouble from most of society for beating his mistress. In fact the main character of the book helps Raymond get away with it, "Since I didn't say anything, he asked if I'd mind doing it right then and I said no" (32). In addition, Meursault never really gets punished or blamed for shooting the Arab. However, the accidental death and suffering evokes the opposite reaction from society. Everyone is incredibly judgemental of Meursault for his supposed mistreatment of his mother. When he is put on trial for murdering the arab, he is actually convicted because of the way he treated his mother and because he didn’t really feel that sad that his mother died. Both of these types of violence help to portray the absurdity that plays a huge role in the Stranger. The point of this absurdity is to help prove Camus philosophy of absurdism.

Post #2

Meursault continues to float through life as the story moves on in The Stranger by Albert Camus. He is continually encountered with situation after situation that would make a normal person heartbroken or horrified, yet he never once reacts. He goes out with Marie the day his mother dies, "she seemed ver surprised to see I was wearing a black tie and she asked me if I was in mourning. I told her Maman had died. She wanted to know how long ago, so I said, yesterday" (20). When his mother dies he says, "I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed" (24). He sees Salamano beats his dog and doesn’t have any reaction, in the conversation between him and Raymond, "And once he said to me, talking about Salamano, 'If that isn't pitiful!' He asked me didn't I think it was disgusting and I said no" (28). He agrees to help Raymond trick his mistress whom he had been beating saying, "Since I didn't say anything, he asked if I'd mind doing it right then and I said no" (32). He says he doesn’t care one way or another whether he marries Marie. When Raymond is injured by the Arabs he simply smokes a cigarette and looks out at the Sea very calmly. This trend is clearly a huge part of the book. Combined with the fact that he is probably sleepwalking through life, as I talked about before, it seems that Camus is trying to make a point. The most obvious meaning that comes to my mind is that Camus is trying to tell us that there really isn’t any point to life, that nothing really matters. The way Meursault goes through life not caring about anything makes his life seem pointless and without a purpose. Seeing as how the life of the main character of Camus book has no point, it stands to reason that Camus is trying to argue that life itself has no point.

Post #1

Through the first couple of chapters of The Stranger by Albert Camus, sleep seems to play a large role in the storylines. Meursault falls asleep at several points throughout the story, and the times he goes to sleep seem to be emphasized. For example on page 4, “ and on top of that bumb ride, the smell of gasoline, and the glare of the sky and the road, that I dozed off. I slept almost the whole way.” He dozes off likes this several other times. Describing the time he fell asleep while keeping vigil over his mother, "It was pleasant; the coffee had warmed me up, and the smell of flowers on the night air was coming through the open door. I think I dozed off for a while. It was a rustling sound that woke me up" (9). Saying how he was looking forward to sleeping, "the incessant drone of the motor, and my joy when the bus entered the nest of lights that was Algiers and I knew I was going to go to bed and sleep for twelve hours" (18). One interesting thing about the way sleep is introduced in the story is that every time very specific descriptive language is used. Language like "smell of gasoline, coffee warmed me, and incessant drove of the motor", is used. One thing that this use of sleep and descriptive language could mean is that Meursault is in a way sleep-walking through life. This conclusion is backed up by his incredible lack of empathy and emotion in the first two chapters. When he learns his mom dies he has very little emotion.  In fact he only seems to care about very trivial yet practical things. I believe that this, connected with the frequent use of sleep as a motif, could be trying to say that Meursault is sleepwalking through life. Life doesn’t seem to have a lot of meaning or impact on Meursault, he just seems to be going through the motions. The way Salamano and his dog interact also provides more proof that Camus is trying to portray this image of Meursault going through the motions of life. Salamano is very cruel to his dog, like some argue Meursault is cruel to his mother for not taking better care of her, but when his dog disappears he actually finds that he really misses it. . His intense reaction to his missing dog provides a contrast to the way Meursault reacts to his mothers death.