journal Entry 6 Stranger

Sorry this is late, I was absent from school due to being sick. Told me in class today that I could turn in this journal today.

1. Word Choice- Camus always uses short, and simple words to describe what is going on in the stranger. This helps create a certain pace in the story, since the author doesn't get bogged down in writing down long, descriptive paragraphs. It also shows a little about Mersault and how he thinks. Why doesn't Camus let Mersault have any eloquent, emotional dialogue?


2. Sentence Structure-Camus always uses short, yet descriptive sentences to convey what is going on in the story. This is important, for it helps to keep the story to the point in novel. It keeps the story focused on Mersualt's story, not giving the reader any distracting metaphors or large imagery sentences. It also helps to let the reader make conclusions for themselves. Why doesn't Camus give any longer sentences to convey a deeper meaning.


3. Images- Camus always uses the image of alcohol, lust, and smoking in the story. This helps give a light on the characterization of Mersault. Why doesn't Camus use any lighter images, such as a simple sea or a lovely abode?


4. Symbols-Camus uses the sun through out the novel. It seems that the sun is symbol of pain as it always seems to be hurting Mersault's eyes or causing him irritation. Why does Camus convey the sun as a painful symbol, rather than one that caused romance, or serinity?


5. Figures of Speech- Camus seems to make Mersault the black sheep in the novel, while all the other characters seem similar to each other: they are all more openly emotional and are happy. This helps develop a unique characterization of Mersault as well as a different outlook on life. Why doesn't Camus make a character that is similar to Mersault?


6. Rhetorical Devices- When comparing the narrator, who is Mersault, to when Mersault is actually talking, it seems that there isn't really a lot there, that it is kind of barren of any thought. This helps develop Mersault's character. Why doesn't Camus let Mersault's character deepen a little bit?


7. Patterns- Camus always makes Mersault complain about the sun and how it hurts him. This helps give away a unique metaphor and how Mersault responds to the outside world. Why does Camus make the sun work against Mersault?


8. Narrators-Camus seems to use very little dialouge in the story, and yet Mersault is the one narrating what is happening to him. This helps give incentive as to what Mersault is thinking about various issues, but keeps the other characters secret opinions a secret. Why does Camus let Mersault narrate Mersault's own life instead of telling the story or Mersault himself?


9. Structure- The days in the novel The Stranger are always going by at a rapid pace, usually having muliple days go by in a chapter. this creates a fast paced novel, and shows that it will focus only on the topics that are needed, and won't go into a lot of detail. Why doesn't Camus have a few chapters that slow the day down?

Journal Entry 5 Stranger (+ New Philosophy)

... Since my old philosophy didn't follow the old guidelines, I'll make a new one, (I thought that we could have more fun with it than was told. Forgot to check the blog, since I knew what to do, sorry!).

New Philosophy: Respectism

Note: most of these rules come from the basic foundations of chivalry.

• All who are created are provided with the potential to give respect to others- comes from chivalry, of how everyone should treat people with utmost respect.
• Respect has the power to create a peaceful coexistence. - If everybody respects one another, than there would be no reason for quarrels.
• Respect can be given, or taken - If a person does an inhonorable act, there respect is taken from them.
• The path to redemption is to respect the one who you disrespected - If a person apologizes for something they did wrong, then they can be forgiven by the other person, thus giving his respect back and earning the respect of the other person.
• Being respectful in ones life can grant you eternal peace within ones self - If you are always respectful to everyone, then you don't feel guilty or bad because you do not do any harm to them.
• This peace is the highest degree of respect - The peace created can make a person live a life of ultimate bliss, without a care in the world, since he/she does not have to worry about conflicts with others.
• If this peace is lost, it can never be obtained again. - If someone did a spectacular thing, it is almost impossible to get respect back from others as they would all hate and mistrust the person.
• One must achieve control over their physical and mental desires in order to become truly respected - If a person can't help but do inappropriate acts, then they'll never get any respect from anyone else.

Now, Mersault severly contradicts with the philosophy of respectfulism. For starters, he does not give anyone a heart-filled response, always answering in small phrases like, "I don't really care", (or something along those lines). He is always disrespecting peoples feelings, like Marie for instance, she asks consistently if he loves her and he always say that he doesn't really know. At the very least Mersault can give her a decent response. Another thing that Mersault does is he has no control over his physical desires. I mean really, he openly said that in a movie theatre he fondled Marie, he could have given her more respect and maybe just kissed her and that's it. That is his main physical desire: he lusts for Marie. Those are how Mersault conflicts with the philosophy of respectfulism.

Journal Entry 3 Stranger Philosophy

My philosophy: Gamerism

Doctrines

• All games were created to please the senses of the person.
• All games were created by one large company with different companies as its branches.
• The gamer is just a person pursuing the joy of gaming through any means.
• The gamer can either act independently or can interact with the company or other gamers.
• Even if the company is vast, flaws are still created, the company is not a perfect machine.
• There are often 2 types of gamers: players and obsessors. The players play the game just for fun of gaming, excepting the fact that the system might be flawed. Obsessors play games meticulously, and often try to correct the problems caused by the company.
• All gamers must obey the law of the company by not playing games that are ill suited for them.

Journal Entry 3 Stranger

I will be keeping track of the imagery of the sun as well as the imagery of smoking.

Sun

1. "The office overlooks the sea, and we took a minute to watch the freighters in the harbor, which was ablaze with sunlight." (Camus 25) This passage is used to appeal to the readers senses, and get a feel for the scenery.Emphasizes the harshness of the sun.

2. "We were out of breath; the truck was bumping around on the uneven cobblestones of the quay in a cloud of dust and sun." (Camus 26). This shows that even a goal can be kept from you by other things, such as the dust and the sun clouded the truck.

Smoking

1. "[...] and when I woke up I felt like having a smoke." (Camus 26) This shows that Mersault is trying to comfort himself with a smoke, and is not trying to deal with a problem, but rather find things that will make him temporarily happy.

2."I was smoking Raymond's cigarettes because I ran out" (Camus 31) This shows the continuence of Mersault finding a way to avoid direct ways to deal with problems. It also shows that he will use others to get what he wants.

3.

Journal Entry 2 Stranger

to me, at least, it seems that Mersault is just going and sleeping a lot of the time. Sometimes that's ok, but, at least to me, you would stay awake when keeping vigil over someone. So it just kind of gives me an impression that he just doesn't care about the things around him. Another thing that he did really made me want to be angry with him as well. During the vigil, he constantly complained about a little old lady that was crying because Mersault's Maman was her close friend. He just got really tired of it and wanted her to be quite. When she finnally did quite down, he basically said, 'Finally she shut up.' That made me thing that Mersault doesn't have a heart, but it also makes me feel a little sad for him because he is not being very open with others. One last thing that got me was when Mersault said that it really didn't feel like anything changed after his mother's death. That made me think that he really just didn't care about the world around him.

I think Camus would create a protagonist like Mersault to give the story a more life like feel. Everyone thinks that when a mother dies, the son or daughter is supposed to be the one that mourns the most, and is always seen with a tear-stained face, and sobs for weeks, etc. Camus shows in this that he wanted to create a story that was different then the mainstream fantasy publications. Also, Camus might have wanted to create a protagonist like Mersault in order to convey a certain message about good and evil in that there really isn't any in real life. There are only situations and how a person percieves them and gets threw them.

Journal Entry 1 Stranger

The 2 translations given of the Stranger are both translated in different ways. There are many examples in which the translations are different. One example is how in translation 1, the character states that "I can spend the night there, keeping the usual vigil beside the body, and be back here by tommorrow evening." This gives a more detailed statement of what the character is going to do. It also gives a little bit more insight into what the character thinks, for since he said "the usual vigil" this can conclude that he has either done it before, or has seen it before in his religon. In the second translation though, the character mearly states that "I can be there for the vigil and come back tommorrow evening." This does not give the reader as much detail and leaves more room for specualtion as to what the character is like. It also gives the reader a sense as if the author meant to hury the reader along this segment, maybe passing it by as unimportant.

The effect that the 2 translations give are multiple view points of the story from different translators perspectives. The reason why is because one translator might find one part of the story appealing and emphasize on it, while another mearly looks over it and just writes what is neccessary. This gives the reader a rare insight into what the book could really mean, since the translations are sometimes mearly written based on speculation.

Journal Entry 9

The structure used in Their Eyes Were Watching God is very important to the text of the novel. Take for example the beginning and end of the story. Both use a reference to the sea, in the beginning, it is a boat, in the end a net. The boat represent the beginning of a grand journey, which Janie ended up taking, accompanied by Logan, Joe and Tea Cake. She goes on this journey and endures many hardships throughout the story, from running away from her first husband, to watching her second erode away, to even having to kill her third and final husband. After all of this happend, at the end of the story, the auothor uses the net to convey how the journey finally came to an end. The net is eventually used to take Janie back from her journey and take her back to reality, when she was telling the story. Even though she wanted to stay with Tea Cake, the net shows how even though she did desire to stay with Tea Cake, being with him in her present memories is what suited her best. This is how the structure used in the beginning and end of the novel is very important.