The Stranger Blog # 4

"Happiness doesn't mean that everything is perfect; it just means that you have decided to look past the imperfections."

This quote can be related to Mersault's life in prision in the first chapters of part two. After Mersault kills the arab at the beach, he is sent to prision and an case is open to see wether Mersault is guilty or not. During this time, Mersault narrates how depressing and boring jail is. "There are some things I've never like talking about. A few days after I entered prision, I realized I wouldn't like talking about this part of my life."Pg. 72. He then says that his first days are terrible, but then he starts to accomodate to the circumstances and this is when I decided to relate this quote to the book.
"The first months were hard. But in fact the effort I had to make helped passs the time." Pg. 77.
Mersault here shows how he doesn't see the hard things anymore, he has decided to look past the imperfections of being in jail and shows the posititve side and tells how he learned to pass time to make his stay at prision more pleasant.
Once again, Mersault shows his "positive attidude" in the following passage. "Appart from this annoyances, I wasn't too unhappy. Once again the main problem was killing time. Eventually, once I learned to remember things, I wasn't bored at all."Pg.78. Mersault looks past the imperfections and shows how he invented activities to make time go faster. This occupied him, making him think in other things besides prision. With this attitude Mersault in a way forgot how depressing jail could be and he learned to look past the imperfections to be happier.

The Stranger Blog #3

Marie's "Guidance"

Throughout chapters 5-6, Marie becomes an important character in Mersaults's life. More than a company, she is some kind of a guidance for Mersault. Since the beginning of the book it has been clear that Mersault is a stranger to life, and he shows his ignorance towards many things. Marie, in way, teaches Mersault to see life differently and shows him several aspects of life that are unexplored for him. This makes Mersault to depend on Marie's company, for example, the day they go to the beach with Raymond, Marie is the one who wakes him up and packs for Mersault.
Marie, also makes Mersault aware of what he wants. "I got up right away because I was hungry,but Marie told me I hadn't kissed her since that morning. It was true, and yet I wanted to." Pg. 51. This passage shows how Mersault does not have the initiative to kiss Marie although he wants to. But it is Marie that makes him aware of what he wants. In this chapters Marie becomes an important support to Mersault who changes his way of life in a good way.

The Stranger Blog #2

Ignorance vs. Honesty

Ignorance and honesty can be associated in the story in relation to Meursault. Throughout chapters 1-4 this character is shown as a truly honest person in every sense, but there are several events that make me doubt if Meursault's honesty is because he is saying the truth or simply because he is ignorant to many situations that happen all the way through the first chapters. The first event that makes us realize this "aspect" of Meursault is when Marie asks him if he loves him.
"A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so." Pg. 35. Mersault is very honest with his answer to Marie's question yet his ignorance is clear when he says "it didn't mean anything but.." because he is not aware of the real emotion that implies. Meursault then narrates that Marie was sad with his response, but eventhough he is aware of Marie's emotions it seems he doesn't seem to care, but this is because Mersault ignores the importance of Marie's question.
Another event where Meursault's ignorance is present is when Raymond, Mersault's neighbor, is attacking his mistress. "Marie and I went to see, too. The woman was still shrieking and Raymond was still hitting her. Marie said it was terrible and I did't say anything. She asked me to go find a policeman, but I told her I didn't like the cops."Pg. 36. In this case, Mersault shows his ignorance to the serious situation that is going on. The woman is being beaten up and Mersault shows no reaction at all, if he would be aware of the seriousness of the situation he would have gone for a policemen eventhough he didn't like them. His response, once again shows his honesty but his ignorance at the same time, because he says the truth about not liking cops but under those circumstances there is no such excuse as "I didn't like the cops."
With these two situations Mersault uses his honesty, showing that he is not honest because he wants to but because he is ignorant to many things in life.

The stranger Blog # 1

The beggining of "The stranger", reminds me of a funeral I went some time ago. The vigil before the day of the funeral, where the friends of Madame Meursault go and mourn for her, reminds me how in the funeral I assisted, several loved ones of the defunct also went to the vigil. Even though it reminds me, it is ironic, because the book describes the situation as a very easy one where none of the charactes appear to be very sad as of the funeral I went people were very sad and were giving support to all the relatives of this person. Although the circumstances are different, in the book, Mesieur Meursault is the only relative present in the vigil and none of the friends of Madame Meursault are giving him support. It is surprising how one can take the death of a mother so easily, in other cases the mourn and the vigil would have been different mostly because the different relationships people can reach with their "Maman". Comparing this situation with the one I lived, I have started to realize the main character, Mesieur Meursault, is a complete stranger to the reader and in a way to himself.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Juliana Andrade, I am a 12th grade student in CNG in Bogota, Colombia. The purpose of this blog is for everyone to comment on different books and to learn how to enjoy literature. I hope you enjoy this blog.