Today we went over part one of Camus’
The Stranger. Meursault is a very
interesting person. Seems to lack a lot emotion. He comes off as detached from the real world
and lives in his own reality. It makes
me wonder how a person can do that. To
not care about the future or the past just the present. To be free of emotion where others find it
mandatory. His own mother’s death doesn't
even seem to faze him. It makes me
wonder if he was always like that. Maybe
the loss of his mother caused him to go into this state of shock where his
emotions, and feelings and cares just, vanished. Losing someone can be a traumatic experience,
and everyone handles it differently. Some
develop depression, others turn to drink.
Maybe this state of detachment is his coping method. But then again maybe he’s always been that way. I feel as if life would be very depressing if
you had an outlook such as Meursault’s.
No emotional attachment to anyone or anything. Everyone and everything just being objects
that don’t mean anything. Seems kind of nihilistic. Believing in nothing. Thinking you have no responsibility for your
actions. You’re born, you live, you die
and nothing more. Meursault doesn't come
off as a good person. He seems selfish
and irrational, maybe even a bit psychopathic. Blaming the heat for shooting
the Arab. A normal, sane, rational person
doesn’t shoot someone because it’s hot. The
first shot may have been somewhat of a self-defense move, but the rest of the
shots? Only a person with psychopathic tendencies
would do that. But maybe he actually
felt emotion when pulled the trigger. The
man did stab his friend. Maybe he feels
emotion he just can’t display it. His mind
could be rejecting emotion so much that it processes the intense emotion only
through the physiological changes, like the heat.
No comments:
Post a Comment