Friday, April 11, 2014

Literary Analysis #5: The Stranger

General: 

1. The novel begins with Meursalt's mother dying and this starts the plot of the book. The main plot though is when Meursalt kills another man and is sent to prison. I felt like this was really unfair for Meursalt because it was for his friend Raymond. Raymond's ex-girlfriend cheated on him which caused him to assault her. When he did this he didn't think about what her brother would do to him when he found out. Later in the book Raymond runs into the brother and they get in a fight. Because Meursalt was with Raymond the brother attacked him which caused Meursalt to shoot him because the brother had a knife and it led Meursalt to go to jail.
2. I think the theme of the novel is that life is in a way pointless if we all die in the end. He realizes this when he is in prison about to die and remembers his mom died so that there was no purpose in life.
3. The author's tone was kind of emotionless. The main character seems as if he has no feelings or emotions at all. He wasn't emotional about his mother's death and he wouldn't ever say that he loved his girlfriend. When his girlfriend asked if he wanted to marry her he told her that it didn't matter to him, but that they could if she wanted. Finally he had no emotion about killing a man when he should've at least felt sorry.
4. The actions of Meursalt  were done in a way that he knew what he did, but didn't exactly feel bad. For example when he killed the brother he thought it out again after it happened and was more concerned that he ruined his day instead of him taking someone's life. He also uses flashback when he rethinks of his mother's death and funeral. This only happens a couple times in the book when he explains why he put her in an old people home. Also the dialogue because this is how you feel Meursalt's sense that he doesn't care about anything by the way he talks to other people. I noticed this a lot when people told him sorry about his mother and he would reply like it was nothing to him. Another element is that the story is told through first person. Albert Camus tells his story through Meursalt and the whole story is focused on him as the main character. With him being the main character all of the point of views are through him. You can hear into his thoughts and what he thinks. For instance you can read his thoughts of why he doesn't want to go in Celeste's because he doesn't want to hear them ask about how he is dealing with his mother's death.

Characterization:

1. The author uses mainly indirect characterization in this story. I didn't really notice any direct characterization. He uses indirect characterization though in showing that Meursalt has no emotions. It is shown in him not caring about his mom's death and not caring if he married the girl he really liked. It's never stated that he doesn't care just shown. There's also indirect characterization when Meursalt realizes life is pointless. He thinks of how people just die in the end so whatever he did wouldn't even matter.
2. I didn't really notice a change in syntax or diction because the main character is so plain to me so the diction is just normal the whole time.
3. The main character seemed to be static because he never forms emotions for life. He just realizes his life is pointless, but he pretty much seemed to know that fact all along.
4. I felt like I'd met a person after this book because I truly felt for the guy. He seemed like he didn't fully enjoy life and it made me think from his point of view which caused me to also think what's the purpose of life. Hearing his thoughts is what brought me to think this because I felt as if he was trying to explain it directly to me.

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