Sunday, October 28, 2012
Our Stranger Meaning
In class we are reading a book called the Stranger. The main character is a man named Mersault. He does not seem to care about much that goes on life. For example, at the beginning of the book his mother dies and he doesn't even know how old she is. He doesn't even cry at her funeral. He is a very strange man to say the least. However does he represent our stranger meaning? Is Mersault actually normal while we are the ones who are weird? Being normal is not something that can be defined. Everybody is normal and yet nobody is normal. We all have our own little quirks that make us just as weird as anybody else. So is what Mersault does normal? I think that it is. For him it is normal. Normality is just something that is perceived and it is different for everyone. So in a way this is our stranger meaning. We all have a little weirdness in us and we will all make questionable choices. I think Mersault represents our stranger meaning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I really like your question "Is Mersault actually normal while we are the ones who are weird?" Throughout the book I kept thinking this. What he does is actually appropriate for his every day situation. When we are repelled by the times he acts "weird" like not crying at the funeral, we must actually ask ourselves "Why do we do this?" And eventually I think we all realize that though we all do this, there is no logical reason for the behavior.
ReplyDeleteSo it's about perception and analyzing ourselves before trying to "fix" others. I got that impression when the magistrate was asking "Do you want my life to be meaningless?" And I disagree with what he does is normal because then that would imply that what he does is right but we can't really judge what is right and wrong because of our flaws. I think what he does is different which is why it's scary to everyone else who reads it because as Julia said, it makes us question our actions.
ReplyDeleteLife is about finding a way to cope with life, is the idea I came away with. It's not wrong that Mersault deals with her death that way. It's strange, but it's not wrong. And we all have those strange coping mechanisms.
ReplyDelete