The Stranger Part III

In the ongoing chapters, Mersault was arrested for killing an Arab on the beach. But strangely for Mersault it wasn't a big of a problem, for him it wasn't strange but he just reminded the scenes from different movies where someone is interrogated and it wasn't like that either. For me Mersault is brutaly honest! When he is asked by his lawyer, which he didn't thought he needed because his case seemed to him "simple," if he felt sad because of his mother's death, he was caught by surprise. For us it may seem strange that he had felt that way, but he was just direct and honest and justified that his feelings are often impacted by his physical condition; since that day of his mother's death he lacked sleep and was tired. Even later on when he was in a cell full of Arabs and was asked what had he done, he said directly that he had killed an Arab!! Later on, when he was interrogated at the examining magistrate office, he was asked if he believed in God, and also the question that even Mersault couldn't answer: Why did he pause between the first and the second shot!? Mersault was reminded of that hot day on the beach and couldn't find an answer. He was even asked if he regretted what he had done, but he said that it was much less of regret than a kind of vexation..

The days went on, the weeks went on, the months. Mersault even felt that he didn't suffer in the prison as much as the others, what he lacked was women, cigarettes but he realized that those were a part of his punishment. He spend much of his time asleep, or talking with himself, or looking around his cell and observing every little detail. I guess when you have that much of a "free time," that is exactly what you may do, just sit and watch around. When Marie visits him, he even couldn't concentrate totally on her, of course after he looked at her from head to toe, thinking how pretty she looked. Even this time he blamed the sun ( light) because his cell was dark and now the room where he was was light and he felt dizzy.
When the day of his trial started it was a sunny day.He was assured by his lawyer that his case wouldn't last long because there were more important cases than his. When Mersault entered the court room, there was a great crowd. Even Marie, Raymond, Salamano, Celeste, door keeper from the Home were there. He was feeling nervous, and for the first time there are clear signs of emotional expression from Mersault, because he felt that everyone in the court room hated him, and he felt the urge to cry. You see, he is not emotionless after all. He just expresses his emotions in a different way, an honest way.
He was accused for insensitivity because of his mother's death, since it was "highly relevant to his case," because they couldn't understand how he could go and watch a comedic movie a day after his mother died. Marie said: You cannot understand. It is not like that. From this we can see that Marie knew Mersault in another way that the entire court room did. She tried to "defend" Mersault as much as she could, even Celeste from the restaurant, because he was harshly accused for barring  After a while his lawyer said if this was the case of the crime that Mersault committed, or the case of the MOTHER's death. From this part of the chapters, we can see that often times when people judge you they base their opinion on only the "bad" things, as in the case of Mersault; where everyone shaped their opinions based on how he acted on the day of his mother's death.
On the way to his cell, Mersault thought that how a road may lead towards two different paths. Because once he passed that same road with content and freedom, and now he was heading towards a cell where a night of easy, dreamless sleep awaits for him.

The Stranger Part II

Meursault's life was slightly changing even though he wasn't noticing it. Firstly, he "witnesses" an argument between Raymond and a lady, then he was offered a job opportunity abroad in Paris but a change of life didn't appeal to him, then Marie asks him if he would consider marrying her, even though for him marriage was not a serious matter. Meursault is a kind of a stranger in his own life since he discovers something new everyday, like when he dines at Celeste's and a girl, the little robot, sits next to him. He was so curious to know something more about her that he had to follow her when she left the restaurant, like it is described: "Having nothing better to do,[Meursault] followed her but for a short distance." But when she disappeared in the streets, he gave up. Raymond had invited Meursault and Marie to spend the Sunday at a friend's bungalow and they decided to go all together, but Raymond told Meursault that some Arabs were watching on him because of the incident that happened with the lady the other night. When they arrived at the seaside, they met Masson and his wife and they started chattering, they swam on the beach, they ate and then the three men decided to go for a walk; a walk that changed the whole direction of the day that was supposed to be great and pleasant. During their walk, they encountered the Arabs and they started a huge fight were Raymond was injured and stabbed on his arm an cut on his mouth. Even though the Arabs managed to run away, Raymond, being angry decided to go for a walk by himself, but Meursault followed him. As they were walking they met the two Arabs again, but this time Raymond gave the gun to Meursault, the gun that later on would take the life of a human being, take the life of one Arab by Meursault himself. Meursault blamed the sun, because the sun was so hot and he was starting to feel sweaty and strangely was reminded of his mother during the time he was confronting the Arab. Meursault killed the Arab, but the 4 gun shots that were a knock on the doors of unhappiness.
Moreover, I am curious to know that if the doors that will be opened for Meursault will be the doors towards a life punishment or escapement in the unknown, where nobody would know what really happened between him and the Arab.

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Albert Camus's second novel, The Stranger (L'ÉTRANGER), appeared firstly in Algeria in 1942. The protagonist of this novel, Mersault, is portrayed as an emotionless character, who is not very sociable with his surrounding and not even with his own mother. In this novel, we have Mersault as a narrator and he describes things as he sees them, and expresses his own emotional state, truthfully and directly.

The beginning of this novel is quite interesting since Mersault receives a short telegram about his mother's death, from which he couldn't know for sure on which day she passed away: "YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY." He did not have an intimate relationship with his mother, even when they lived together they stood in silence; hence, probably being the cause of why he did not express any kind of emotions once he received the telegram.
Mersault wasn't a very sociable person. He avoided conversations every time he was surrounded by people, or when he was asked something he nodded to "cut things short. [He] wasn't in a mood for talking." Even though his mother died, Mersault continued with his daily life, but of course he went along with the routine of the funeral. In contrast to other people in the funeral that wept about their lost friend, Mersault seemed confused, wondering is his mother actually meant something to them or are they just acting like a person is supposed to act in a funeral.
In my opinion, Mersault is a direct kind of person who acts as he feels, with no pretends. His relationship with his mother, if we can call a relationship since they weren’t close with each other, led to expressing no feelings because he did not see her for a long period of time; and hence, we can conclude that his mother was only a “parent figure” in his life. Moreover, he couldn’t miss or cry for his mother just because she died, because he probably did not miss her when she was far away from him and alive.
Occasionally, Mersault would say to people that it’s not his fault about his mother’s death, by which it may seem that he is feeling an inner guilt and he is an a state of denial that it wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t. He probably feels guilty that he hasn’t been around his mother when she needed her, but rather being far away minding his own business. Therefore, even though he displays no emotions we cannot say that he is completely emotionless, but rather, he displays his own feelings in a strange way. The protagonist tried to avoid other people’s questions about his mother’s death, so in the next day he didn’t went to the usual restaurant, Celeste’s, but instead, he went for a swim where he meets Maria. They spent the day together, continuing watching a late comedic movie, and afterwards, spending the night together. Additionally, we can also see here that the first attraction towards Marie was not emotional attraction, but rather only physical.
When he went back to his apartment, he realized that nothing had changed even though his mother had died. He continued with his routine life, daily, feeling like nothing had occurred. Mersault didn’t know his neighbors very well, and once he met Raymond Sintes, the two started to talk about their own personal life.
I am excited to see where the life of the main protagonist’s goes on, and to see how he confronts the situations with Maria, Raymond, and other characters to come in the novel “The stranger.”

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

Firstly, I found it interesting that the author's name was not really Blaise Cendrars, pseudonym of Frederic-Louis Sauser, and that he was not born in France, and that his entire life experience was made up. Hence, I guess some authors yearned for attention through their illusions about turning their life into an adventure that others may find it out of the ordinary and interesting.
As for the poetry, Cendras tries to portray his life in movement from place to place, describing his own experience through the long journey to Montmartre. I really enjoyed the way Cendrars used metaphors that made the poetry even more interesting, and also the usage of repetition that putted emphasis into some main parts of the poetry.