Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Stranger (Continue)

As I keep reading this book, I really start to realize what kind of society they were living in, in the years when "The Stranger" was written. The prosecutor, and the jury, who are supposed to judge Mersault because he killed a person, did not actually put much effort into the crime that Mersault commited. Moreover they were judging and accusing him of his personality and his "strange" behavior. He was being accused all the time because of his own feelings, because of his cold heart, his indifference on the death of his mother, rather than the fact that he actually murdered an "Arabian". To the society of that time it wasn't really important whether a so called "dirty" Arabian was murdered, more that the real feelings that Mersault had and the impact of these feelings in the society. I keep reading the book and the case becomes more and more complicated. I can't wait to finish the book and see if I can find the explanation of Mersault's behavior.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Stranger Chapter IV, V, and VI.

I really hoped that by reading the book further something would happen, and I would realize what makes Mersault behave like this. He is so cold, he does not show any sign of warmth within his heart. However, there is something that makes me think that he has a little bit of emotions, even though he does not express them. The appearance of Marie in his life, and the feelings that he expresses (but not quite often) make me believe that still, he has something in his heart, not only coldness and darkness. Still, he does not seem to care much for Marie, to him it is really the same whether he marries her or another girl. He does not even care about the fact that he actually killed someone, to him it was all calm, like something that life gives you everyday and not a murder of a human being. He seems to be the kind of person that does not doubt much about what he does, and what his future would look like. He lives for today, and takes the things as they come.
I really wonder what kind of person he is, because from what I read until now, it seems like he has a very disordered personality.  

Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Stranger


I consider "The Strager" written by Albert Camus as one of the strangest novels that I have read. The fact that Meursault is so indifferent when hearing about his mother's death, and the fact that he did not want even to see her face in the last moments of her life, at first made me a little bit upset. My first impression was that Meursault is a person who does not care for anything, including here his own life as well. However, after reading the story further, what really confused me was the fact that he was helping his neighbors by listening to their problems. Later on, the author of the book compares the character of the human being with a character of an animal (in the case of Salamano and his dog). Albert Camus uses different ways to express and portray to us a "selfish" and "cruel" world.
I found the first three chapters very interesting, and I am looking forward to continue reading the book and see what happens further.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Trans-Siberian Prose and Little Jeanne De France by Blaise Cendrars

The poem that we read today in class, was one of the most wonderful pieces of literature I've read so far. The way how the author, Blaise Cendrars (which is not the authors real name), has written the poem and described his trip in the train is very interesting. He has seen so much things and so many cities during his voyage! Another interesting detail that I noticed while reading the poem today was that he has used a lot of contrast in the poem. Once he talks about beautiful and romantic things, he immediately skips to some really dark and scary details i.e. he mentions love and death one following the other.