Killing time with memories...

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Part Two

Chapter I - Chapter III 

       The way the second part of the novel begins, directly into Meursault’s interrogation, we are again acquainted with the self-centered Meursault. He does not even mention the other people on the beach as they did not have the littlest impact on him. In the first book we learned that Meursault is honest to himself, indifferent, and nonjudgmental. In the second book Meursault is the object and it is society now which is deciding for the fate of this unconventional man. Till now Mersault was living a quite unexaminable life; however, now he is examined by the society. The scene where he is being interrogated reminds him of old crime story novels; that is how unserious the case seemed to Meursault. Meursault’s desire to shake the guard’s hand shows the reader the simple human interactions and when someone is kind. Meursault is just living the moment and does not concern about the past or future. He is still thinking as a free man and not understanding the severity of killing a human being. The lawyer is very concerned with Meursault’s inablitiy to lie about his feeling during his mother’s funeral. In this part now Camus asks all sort of questions that we as the audience asked in the first part. The questions were asked by the lawyer, the interrogators, the magistrate, the judge, and so on. With the meeting with the magistrate we see Camus revealed identity too. Camus being an existentialist does not believe in god, and with the scene where the magistrate shows the crucifix to Meursault,we see a sort of Camus mocking of the religion and religious symbols. Meursault does not even feel sorry for his actions. The magistrate gets very frustrated because he does not understands Meursault’s worldview. When the narrator starts to describe the details of the prison, the reader immediately starts to realize that now Meursault is not thinking anymore as a free man. He is conscious about the things he is deprived of, and that makes him unhappy.

The meeting he has with Mary before receiving that last letter is confusing. The room is filled with Arabs who are characterized as space consuming and loud. Meursault is more focused on his surrounding than in Mary ( for whom he was thinking a lot lately). The reasons why he is able to get over the longings for the sea when he can view the waves from his window, and sex, and cigarettes is time and memory. He realizes that no matter how tormenting the faces of woman he constructs in his mind are, they still work to pass the time and kill his boredom. He slowly learns to live without any physical stimulation besides that which he is able to create within his mind. Meursault quickly learns how to kill time. He also admits that he is not so unhappy. With his killing time methods a year goes by very fast. The hot summer is again present, and Meursault trial too along with the blazing hot sun. When Meursault arrives to the trial, the lawyer says the trial will go quickly since it is not the most important case. There he sees a lot of people who are there just for him but he does not seem to understand it since he thinks his behavior is perfectly normal. He also feels like a stranger there. We see how the author portrayed the society of that time very narrow-minded and judgmental, and Meursault very different from the society. What bothers Meursault the most is being watched from the others – now he is being examined. Each moment proceeds as always with Meursault's life, until time slows when the subject of Maman is broached. Hardly ever affected, this line of questioning highly irritates him. Still, he answer honestly as always without leaving out details that may upset or disturb the jury. The witnesses called against Meursault are only from his mother's home and based on the one day they met Meursault, at his mother's funeral. Does not it seem ironic that the trial of the case does not have one witness who in any way pertains to the actual crime? This seems as a trial for lack of morals and refusal to participate in a moral code, and not for killing the Arab. We also get acquainted with the first emotional moment of Meursault; when he “feels like e he could cry”.
The defense does little to help justify Meursault’s actions. The witnesses just gave comments such as Celeste’s idea of bad luch or Raymodn saying that it was all chance. This is ironic too because shooting a man five times is no bad luck or chance. In his way back to his cell he falls back in reminiscence of the happy summer of the last year. Meursault realizes again that the paths of life could lead as easily to a life of innocence or crime. Where the path leads is not important. 

Knocking on the door of unhappiness...

The Stranger by Albert Camus
Part One

Chapter IV - Chapter VI

    Camus now does not need to show us other in the routine anymore. At this time the week flies away. Now again Meursault goes for swimming with Marie, and again we find Mersault arrested in his behavior by a physical sensation. Swimming and absorbing the salt leads to the sexual act back at Meursault’s place. For the first time the harmony between these two is noticed. However, the next morning this harmony is ruined by the ugly fight between Raymond and his girl. The fight comes right after the moment that Meursault states that he does not love Marie. It is visible that he is not involved in emotional boundaries. After the fight Marie insists in calling the police but Mersault does not want to because he does not like police. This reply is selfish, and it discloses the nature of human stupidity.
When the police come, the true identity of Raymond is revealed. Raymond is not the tough guy anymore; he is in fact trembling in front of the ‘’tougher’’ guys.
After the fight is over, Meursault and Marie return to lunch. Marie has lost her appetite whereas Meursault eats all of his lunch. This also tells us how indifferent is Meaursault toward other people’s issues.
How Salamano is portrayed at the end of the chapter is much different than the previous portrait. Although still acting the part of the hating dog owner, his compassion and love for the dog can be seen. While Salamano’s grief Meursault suddenly thinks of his mother - yet he falls asleep without eating. It is the first time that Meursault gives up a physical pleasure for emotional pain.
Meursault’s indifference continuously shows up. When Meursault’s boss offers him a job in Paris, Mersault apathetically answers “ it was all the same to me”. There comes a point where Meursault’s ambitions as a student are discovered. It is implied that something happened to him that vanished his dreams – yet he continued to live that routine life of his. Meursault continues to not participate in the society’s expectations. Everytime Marie asks to marry her he gets annoyed that she questions his reasons. This also connects to how now Salamano is portrayed as a truly pitiful creature left without his companion. It is also very ironic how the loss of one’s dog is more exaggerated than the death of the other’s mother. Is this son a monster? But then again he feels compassion toward Salamano’s loss ; which could be Camus definition of a meaningful life.
The scene where Meursault is walking with Marie immediately tells us that this leads to the novel’s climax. Once he reaches the street, the sun does not have the normal soothing effect on Meursault but instead slaps him on the face. If the sun is represented in a negative way by Camus, it is an indication for catastrophic events. Arriving at the beach, the atmosphere is still highly negative. Even though on the surface, one might think that is is very positive. Marie’s joy is heavily contrasted to Meursault’s darkness. The fact that this is the first time Meursault seriously thinks of asking Marie to marry him stimulatingly makes the reader believe that something will be drastically changing in Meursaults life. While talking to Raymond, who is now playing the role of the leader, Mersault’s indifference marks his decisions. It was easiest to agree. So Meursault agrees to stand aside in case the third Arab comes. The fight leads to a superficial wounding of Reymond and him acting like it is the end of the world. This again shows us the fearful character of Reymond. Meursault follows Raymond back to the beach even though he furiously insists to be left alone. The sun is still becoming hotter and more overpowering. When Raymond reaches toward his pocket for the gun, Meursault tries to stop him. We see Meursault here trying to do something conventionally moral. Does this reveal the moral makeup of Meursault or is he reacting to the situation objectively?
They finally leave the Arab. After that Meursault decides to go back to the beach because “ to stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing’’. Arriving there the sun has become more and more sharp; symbolized as a knife. It is implied that Meursault acts instinctively. And this is the begining of the climax – Mersault brutally kills the Arab. He shoots once and he realizes that that action was a path to being doomed. The 4 consecutive shots are the peak of Meursault’s life. He knows that by shooting the Arab 4 more times “he is knocking on the door of unhappiness”. So why does he shoot 4 more times? Is Meursault a mad man? Or is he just strange/unconventional and he has a different meaning of happiness? 

Nothing changed...

The Stranger by Albert Camus
Part One

Chapter I - Chapter III

     Mersault is a young shipping clerk living in Algiers. This very incomparable novel starts with the death of Mersault’s (the narrator) mother. What immediately reveals the  personality of Mersault is the next immediate thought after he read the first sentence of the telegram “Mother died today”.”Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure”; the details of the telegram which he does discuss only concern his uncertainty of the date. He does not mention any emotional effect on him. The simple action verbs Camus uses reflect the detached personality of Mersault. It is very fascinating how the structure of the novel made me feel as I was inside Mersault’s head. His paradoxical decisions and thoughts very often resemble to a human being that just exists – nothing else. Through the first three chapters Mersault’s personality is exposed more and more. The fact that he tries to excuse himself for his mother’s death is a very meaningful detail. This detail reveals a common flaw of human nature – pointing the finger to someone/something else to clear one’s consciousness. Many times through the first chapter Mersault falls asleep. This shows Mersault’s passiveness during a moment which can happen to anyone yet he experiences everything with very little emotion. In his mother’s funeral a woman friend of hers and M. Perez are the only ones who cry. The images Camus creates stimulatingly form a picture in the reader’s mind. Mersault is melted by the hot sun more than by the funeral of his mother. This strengthens my conviction on Mersault’s personality. Consequently, Camus introduces the regular Saturday and Sunday of Mersault. The tone used in these three chapters represents the sameness and indifference of Mersault’s life. The fact that Mersault focuses only on his physical environment rather than on the emotions derived from the death of one’s mother show us the character of a man without hope, vision, or future. On the first day after returning from his mother's burial, he is right back into his ordinary life and chooses swimming as his first activity. This is where we get introduced whith Marie; a former typist at Mersault’s office. We learn only superficial traits of Marie - she was a typist. The social interaction of Marie and Mersault is explained very coldly and shortly. On the next day Mersault is only concerned with the fact that it is Sunday and not that Marie has left. Mersault’s Sunday is portrayed as a very long day accompanied with Mersault’s thoughts of people outside of his window. The emptiness of his Sunday is written all over. Before that Sunday ended Mersault realizes that the death of his mother changed nothing; everything is still the same. We also get introduced to a typical work day of Mersault; the littlest details of an everyman job are publicized. The moment where Mersault does not know the exact age of his mother reveal a lot to the reader; a typical son would know his mother’s age. Through the third chapter we get introduced to two new characters; Salamano and Raymond. Salamano is an old neighbor of Mersaults who has been living with his dog since his wife died. This clearly exposes human’s fear of being or dying alone. Raymond is another revolting type who does everything to show off as a tough guy. The simplified explanation of Mersault and Raymond social interaction is that Raymond talks to Mersault because he listens and Mersault listens to Raymond because he cooks him dinner.  Even though Mersault is never portrayed as a ‘’bad guy’’, the moment that he helps Raymond into manipulating his mistress raises a paradoxical issue. Throughout these three chapters colossal questions about the human nature and existence are raised. I believe that Camus does this intentionally because he clearly is an existentialist. 

Life through a railway...

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

“I used the word 'prose' in the Trans-Siberian in the early Latin sense of prosa dictu. Poem seemed to me too pretentious, too narrow. Prose is more open, popular.”

         The prose visibly introduces modernity in 20th century poetry. Modernity is all about mobility and the erosion of time. Cendrars drags us through the longest virtual journey; the journey of life through the Trans-Siberian railway. Cendrars did not write about the joy or the displeasure of the long trip - he wrote a narration of life itself. This attempt to narrate life’s smallest details leads to author’s declaration that “he is a very bad poet”. When it comes to life, heart, or emotions everyone is a bad poet. In a way Cendrars shoves every little memory or thought about love, hate, war, sex, peace, remembrance, affection, perversion, and greed in this prose. The prose is written in very vivid stanzas which make the reader feel Cendrars’ hurt or bliss. The author continuously jumps from time to time, city to city, country to country, or continent to continent ; Cendrars travels throughout time and distance in a single train.

Here is a page where today’s Trans-Siberian railway can be seen:

http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm