We Wanted Words But All We Heard Was Nothing

The thing that there is the least information about during this whole story is actually its main character, which is why I imagine this novel is called The Stranger. I would have believed that he is the sort of person that is not able to relate to others due to his blatant diferences compared to everyone else. To be completely honest I found it odd that from the very beginning of the novel  he lacks humanity, literally the first three words are "Maman died today."(pg.3)

I thought that this could really just be him, that this was his true personality and that is what made this book interesting. Yet then again we know nothing of him and his life before his mother died only that he very seldom went to visit her. This observation begs the question, is it really him? Or is there perhaps something that happened in his life that could have made him the way he appears in the book?

Whilst reading the book it is very hard, getting to know much of the character what with his here and now personality. Plus fact that the book is written in first person makes it quite hard to get anything at all out of the character in question, not to mention his indifferent behavior. His inhumanity surprised me   greatly through out the novel "And from the peculiar little noise coming through the partition, I realized that he was crying. For some reason I thought of Maman. But then I had to get up early next morning....."(pg.39).

Primarily this quote shows the way Mersault thinks, how he has an uncanny resemblance to a machine. He only so much as acknowledges his neighbors sadness perhaps recognizes a speck of sadness within himself too before busying himself with the present once more. The first time I read over this passage I thought it was just Mersault doing what he always does, not really caring about anything in general. After, I reread it and something came to mind I thought that just the allowance of a feeling was already a lot and that it seems as if he were running away from the feeling anything at all so he rushes into the "now".

So far none of the questions we want answers to have not been adressed, as I said before there could have been something traumatic in his past to cause him such inhuman carelessness. It is as if Camus is only telling us things on a "need to know" basis, as if all the questions are not important at the moment. Camus could quite possibly be saving all of these interesting facts to culminate the book in an amazing way or not at all. Leaving the unanswered questions to the workings of each of our own imaginations.     

Why do we exist?

We are born into this world, not knowing anything about it, what's worse not knowing anything about ourselves. Thousands have spent their entire lives trying to answer questions like these, what is the reason for my existence? What am I meant to do in this world?

If we are seemingly born to die, what is the point then? Why should we get up each day? It is known that people need a reason to live something to devote themselves to such as religion, music, studying and for some the accomplishment of their dreams. But why should we? Ghandi said "Everything you do in life wil be insignificant, meaningless but its very important that you do it."

In our daily lives we are enveloped in a number of things that seem paramount to us in the moment, causing us to loose sight of what is truly important. When and if ever we do realize that most of the things we do are really unimportant, questions will start popping up, many of which you will find that you have no answer to. However we will get shocked back int our routines without really doing anything about our real thoughts.

Still there are people like Mr. Meursal that have seemingly detached themselves from any of these questions, maybe he just doesn't want to know or he simply doesn't care. "It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed." (pg. 24)
From the  very first moment that Monsieur Meursal is introduced it is very clear that he does not care about any of the things "normal" people would care or grieve about. It would seem as if his mothers death had no meaning at all like its just something thats not important and isn't worthy of his attention. According to him there is no reason as to why his life should change in any way due to his mothers death.


"They're not going to take him away from me, are they, Monsieur Mersault?" (pg. 39)

Old Salamano has lost his dog and now seems to not find anymore meaning in life. He is worried that his dog could be lost from him for ever and instead of worrying for the creature, its himself he worries about. Without his dog he has lost his daily life, since it practically revolved around walking, beating, and cursing his dog. The dog is gone now and apparently so has his will to live. Amazingly Mr. Salamano grieves the loss of his companion, unlike Mersault who didn't so much as shed a tear over his own mother.



The way in which Meursalt reacts or doesn't react is completely astonishing to me, I don't think I could ever just not look forward to something in my life. Simply because quite possibly our lives will have no relevant meaning, to be completely hopeless that way is something beyond me. Most of us have no idea why we are here, but the situation is that we are. So even if my life has no meaning to other people it means a lot to me, because its taken a lot of effort to be where I am now.

Colors and Meanings

The explicit color I choose is green, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us."(pg. 180) I  believe that the green light represented all Gatsby ever wanted, his hopes and dreams. Which were being rich and having the wife he wanted, like his view of the american dream. Although, Gatsby was not all that close to his goal it was within his reach but there was still some distance, which is what the lake represents the distance that Gatsby never crossed to achieve his dreams. The light represented how everything was so close that there was no way that he could fail, yet he did.