Write about Meursault's philosophical struggle in the final chapter of The Stranger. What is he grappling with? What is he trying to understand? What conclusions does he come to? Post to the class blog.
Meursault is trying to grapple with the idea that he is going to die. He's lived his entire life believing that life goes on whether we die or not (which is discovered in this chapter) and that his life, in the grand scheme of things, is just one small dot in the existence of the human race. He's lived his entire life this way and not only is he now becoming angry about this, but he is also having a hard time living with, and accepting this belief now that he knows he's going to die. He also is struggling with the opposite of this feeling of dying; he wants to live and experience the outside world. He concludes that he must escape if possible, but that this is not a sane or logical conclusion because in the end he would just get killed in the process. He would rather know how and the exact moment he is going to die and not play it up to chance. He also concludes that religion is pointless and that everyone is "privileged" and that everyone, at some point, will die. So he thinks that this would lead him not to worrying about his own death, but he still does. Meursault is now confronted by his own beliefs and realizing, despite their logical nature, when faced with his own inevitability, it's not as simple and clear cut as his mind would make it out to be. He has realized that the world is more then himself and his mind. There are other things going on around him and the rules he has lived by are staring at him in the face and he can't handle it.
I agree with Jon think that Meursault is trying to grabble the idea of his life coming to an end. Through-out his life he has experince death from other people in his life. The way he dealed with death was very nteresting and now that he is faced with death he cannot deal with death the same way, because it is him that is going to die. He comes to a releaize that it is hopeless for him to to try to get out of it, because even if you cheat death once it will come around agin. He states that even if he dies now or dies in twenty years that he will still be dead. he shows a wide range of emotions in this chapter, which is new to us. He gets angry, hopeful, and then hopeless. I think that he is very nervous he says he does ot like suprises so he stays up the whole night waiting for the time to come. I find it very interesting that he rejects the help of God. If he thinks it is hopeless for him to get out of death, then I do not understand why not try it. the only reason why I see him rejecting te help is, because he has so much on his mind and does not want to be bothered with it. Overall, in the end Meursault concludes that his has to accpet death, because there is no way out of it and it will come anyway.
I also agree with Jon in that Meursault is trying to grapple the idea that he is going to die, but I do not think he regrets the way he lived life, with such an existentialist view. Meursault still sees things as pointless knowing the bigger picture, that we are all "condemned" and are going to die. What Meursault was struggling with is not accepting the fact he is going to die, but accepting the fact he isn't going to live. Even in jail, Meursault was not living, he was just waiting to die. He had no option to do anything else. That is why he dreamed of escaping or finding some way out, not because he feared death (although he may have) but because he longed to live life. This is what I think he meant when he said, "I felt ready to live it all again too." Meaursault realizes death is inevitable, the situation would be just as bad now as 20 years from now. I believe that Meursault is angered by the fact that even though he is still alive, he is a dead man walking. No one talks to him anymore, he has no friends or family, and he is just waiting to die. To the rest of the world he’s already dead. I think this is why he wanted a large crowd at his execution, so that people can see that he still is living and that now he is going to die; now the completion of his life can be witnessed.
I agree with everyone above that Meursault is contemplating the idea of dying. However, I do not think he looks at this in a negative way. To me, Meursault is fine with the fact that he is going to die. Throughout the book, he has not cared what way his life turned or how things changed. He would always shrug it off and continue on. I feel he will do the same with death. As Pat talked about, he has an existentialist view on life. He talks about this a lot on page 114. "But everybody knows life isn't worth living." "Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter." He does not look at life the same way that I, along with many others, do. I would be freaking out if I was on death row, praying to live longer. Right or not, I would want every second I could have to live. However, Meursault seems content with however much time is given to him. Death does not seem to freak him out. Although Meursault is grappling with the idea of dying, he is not trying to accept. Instead, he is being very reasonable and looking at the meaning of it. To me, he has already accepted that death will come to him at some point.
Meursault is now very aware of his death. While his conception of “death” is very contradicting to what he had previously thought during the court. To current Meursault, death is the only thing that he is pondering. He can’t stop thinking of death in both positive and negative ways. He knows that death is inevitable for him, however he continually thinks about how he can escape the death, “I’d realized that the most important thing was to give the condemned man a chance. Even one in a thousand was good enough to set things rights.” He wants chance to survive from the inevitable death; he would appreciate even a very little possibility “one in a thousand.” He is now seeking for way to survive, while he knows it’s impossible. Just thinking can make him feel less restricted. He also realizes that the death is nearby, since he for the first time thought of Marie. Although he has hope to live, he also firmly believes that living more days would not change his life, which means, dying now or later would not be matter at all. However by saying this, he is at the same time accepting his guilt that he intended to murder someone. He ultimately realizes and admits that he is socially outcast from “normal” people.
Meursault is trying to come to terms not only with the end of his life, but the recent events in his life and the provocation of these. It seems that prior to the murder, Meursault was not a radically impulsive person, and I think his rash decision still troubles him even after his time in prison. I agree with Evan when he says Meursault is trying to grapple with the idea of dying but not trying to accept it. He understands his punishment, and I think he even knows that he deserves it. The fear in Meursault is trying to shield him from the world he knew that has fallen apart throughout the book. His relationship with Marie, his life, his mother's life - everything he had come to know as familiar was now gone. I think he is feigning interest in accepting his sentence to coincide with his existentialist view of life. He has realized that he hasn't done anything worth preserving in his life, and is struggling with this. He never loved, he never selflessly did anything, he never spoke out. He just lived and took up space. This is something that he knows but doesn't necessarily want to admit to.
I agree Pat when he said Mersault isn't grappling with the idea of dying but the fact that he isn't going to live. Throughout the book Mersault shows very little emotion and then when we get to the final chapter all of the sudden his emotions are spilling out of him. I'm not sure if it is because he knows he isn't going to live and there is no point in concealing his emotions or if prison changed this or if he just decided maybe now its time to share them but I feel because of his lack of emotion his emotions are confusing him now. He acted so apathetic throughout the entire book not caring for anything or anyone and now he regrets the way he lived his life and does not want to die but live longer to be the person he wants to be. In the last chapter he says "he felt ready to live again". I feel this is an example of how you dont know what you've got until its gone and now that he life has been ended for him hes finally realizing he wants to live life better or differently than he did before. I think in court he was finally shown how looked down upon he really was for the way he is and wanted to be different for people.
I believe that there are many things going through Meursault's mind during the final chapter of The Stranger. The thing i thought he was struggling with most was accepting the fact the he was no longer going to live. He does not seem to have that much of a problem with dying, but he does not want to continue thinking about the life that he has no chance of living. He continuously gets angry at himself for imagining what his life may have been like if he had not been put in this situation. At one point he tells the reader that "Whether it was now or twenty years from now, i would still be the one dying. At that point, what would disturb my train of thought was the terrifying leap i would feel my heart take at the idea of having twenty more years of life ahead of me. But i simply had to stifle it by imagining what id be thinking in twenty years when it would all come down to the same thing anyway." This shows us that he truly feels that it does not matter when he will die, but that he also has a desire to live out the rest of his life. Another thing that is a struggle in this chapter for him is the conversation he has with the priest. This seems to be more of a struggle for the priest than for him. But what this does do is solidify his opinion that it doesnt matter when he dies cause after that it will be over. He also comes to the conclusion that he wants "a large crowd of spectators" at his execution. I think he wants this because it would help him feel less alone, but that he wants the people to hate him because that is what they have done for his whole life. He has been misunderstood and now that his life is coming to an end, he does not want any pity, he just wants people to know that he is gone.
Meursault is grappling with the realization that he is going to die shortly. He has accepted that he is going to die, but still thinks about what could happen in his favor. When Meursault imagines being pardoned, he "somehow [has] to cool the warm blood that would suddenly surge through [his] body and sting [his eyes] with a delirious joy" (Camus, 114). He would much rather stay alive. However, he understands that he is being irrational by thinking he has a chance of being pardoned. Meursault believes the way he has lived his life is better than the way others have. He says he has "as much of a hold on [death] as it [has on him]," because he never got to attached to anything (Camus, 120-121). Meursault goes on to say that nothing in life matters, because everyone has the same fate in the end. He says it doesn't matter that Marie will find a new boyfriend, or that he is being accused of murder for not crying at his mother's funeral. At the end of the book, Meursault is happy because he and the world have something in common- their indifference.
What would you do if you only had one day to live?
On the last pages (122, 123) of Chapter 5 Meursault comes to a realization about the significance of life and also, finally understands Maman. Throughout the book he kept on repeating, “to understand Maman better” and at the end he finally does. He understands her decision to have a “fiancé”, probably because he liked spending time with Marie at the end of his life too.
“Even there, in that home where lives were fading out, evening was a kind of wistful respite” (p.122). On page 15 he says: “Evenings in that part of the country must have been a kind of sad relief”. So he understands that elderly in that home surrounded by beautiful environment want to enjoy every minute of their fading lives, just like Meursault before his death. “ So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again […] And I felt ready to live it all again too.” Throughout the book he seems ignorant to the world that surrounds him, lacks enthusiasm and even when Maman dies he thinks nothing had changed, but in the end he “opened [himself] to the gentle indifference of the world”. If he had felt this way earlier, maybe this sparkle of hope for living would have changed the decision made by the court – because he would have spoken up more and defended himself from somewhat false accusations (for ex. taking a gun from Raymond instead of Raymond giving it to him). It was interesting that he referred to himself “so like a brother” (p.123) because a brother sounds like a religious word, keeping in mind that he did not believe in God. A moral that I received from this story is that instead of thinking that you are going to die one day or another, enjoy every minute of life.
I liked how he talked about the guillotine being on the same level as he is, its not like its this mysterious, complex machine thats on a raised platform. I think that takes the dignity out of execution, if there was any to begin with. Execution is not so much a form of punishment as a form of humiliation. Meursault says himself that it doesn't matter when you die, whether it be now or 20 years from now, dying is just a part of nature, which is why he didn't cry at maman's funeral. What matters is the way that you die, that is what defines you in the end. Meursault faces this with bitterness but at the same time with vengence, revealed in the last sentence when he wishes that many people will be at his execution greeting him with "crys of hate," no matter what they do, he will have the last laugh.
Meursault ruminated about two questions in the last chapter: 1. certainty of death; and 2. the meaningless of life. And acquisition of the former can justify the latter. Meursault finally comes to a conclusion that death, the end of life, is inevitable. Since everyone no matter what he does before life will eventually face such outcome, the process of life becomes purposeless. To some extent, I think Meursault comes up with such a result due to his genuflect to ending rather than means. However, Meursault does value everyone's own right and behavior as he insists not to believe in God, which he justifies as a waste of time to think about and an annoying business. Hence he believes in a life over which he should have fully control. And no one else should be beholden to his fate and belief. People are after all separate from each other and there should be no formula or norm to confine their lives, otherwise the attempt to create a certain rule and belief is a total absurdity, just as his verdict--a conclusion without a ground for truth but everyone else's subjectivity. Whereas I accept Meursault's ideas, somewhat I sense a strong pessimism behind the philosophy. Meursault seems to have seen everything clearly in the world (which is good in my opinion), but he gives up his rights to even try to defend himself or fight for his own fate. Instead, he is passively left to judgement and verdict at the mercy of the society where people ridiculously imposed a rational way of living on him. He is a true observer while unfortunately does not realize he has been living upon the advent of death.
I agree with Jon’s idea that Meursault is trying to grapple the idea that he is going to die. Since the last chapter begins, All the Meursault’s behavior such as remembering his childhood is same as what people who are sentenced to death do. There is no negative way of thought on his death to Meursault. I think he accept his death based on previous his behaviors like the way he loved and experienced his mother’s death. Meursault died as Merusault not others around him. He can be the one like others around him such as Majaste but he keeps having his own identity: no religion. Moreover, he keeps thinking that what he can do if he can go out of prison. Those actions that he showed in last chapter seemed to prove how his identity is different from others’ and important.
I agree with John, for Meursault is struggling between what he wants. He doesn’t want to die and lose all the involvement and things there are to see in his life if he wasn’t going to; but then again, he does want to die, and experience death due to his atheism. He doesn’t believe in religion, and religion was created for the after-life, not this life; and so he lives a curious man, and dies a curious man. All this inquisitiveness and confusion comes from his mother’s death. Since Meursault lost his mother, he has acted inhuman, but he is not crazy. His mind is working faster than it should, making him focus on the smaller details and evade the vital issues and obstacles in life. In my opinion, I believe Meursault is a genius, for his beliefs are extremely meticulous; they are divine.
Meursault goes back in forth with himself on different things. He is grappling with the idea of an afterlife. He does not even see the point of wasting time on it and yet the chaplain is in the same room continuously trying to convince him to believe in God for an afterlife.
He thinks about how he would love to live for twenty more years and all the things he could do. Contrastly, he admits that even in twenty years he would be having the same thoughts and since everyone was going to die, "it's obvious that when and how don't matter. Therefore( and the difficult thing was not to lost sight of all the reasoning that went into this "'therefore''), I had to accept the rejection of my appeal" (114). This shows how he goes back and forth in his own mind. He thinks more life would be good and yet it does not matter in actuality because he was going to die anyways.
I find the very end of the book to be important. Meursault says he understands the end of life talking about why his mother "had played at beginning again" (122). This speaks to how Meursault believes that people try to get back to early parts of their life when they reach the end of it. Meursault thinks there is a peace at the end of life. This is why he brings up how peaceful he feels in the prison, which he calls a "home where lives were fading out" (122). He says he feels a "wistful respite" in prison and that he, like Maman was, is ready to live it all again. He no longer had any hope and was welcoming the "gentle indifference of the world" for the first time. Meursault feels that this indifference is so similar to himself, a "brother", and now he was happy again because of this. He was now not alone and not a stranger with the world anymore. The two were intertwined and understood each other in a way and so Meursault could now face death. His last wish is intreging however. He wants a lot of people there and wants them to hate him. Possibly this is because he now can completely ignore the geers and negativity and not have it affect him in the slightest.
Meursault is trying to grapple with the idea that he is going to die. He's lived his entire life believing that life goes on whether we die or not (which is discovered in this chapter) and that his life, in the grand scheme of things, is just one small dot in the existence of the human race. He's lived his entire life this way and not only is he now becoming angry about this, but he is also having a hard time living with, and accepting this belief now that he knows he's going to die. He also is struggling with the opposite of this feeling of dying; he wants to live and experience the outside world. He concludes that he must escape if possible, but that this is not a sane or logical conclusion because in the end he would just get killed in the process. He would rather know how and the exact moment he is going to die and not play it up to chance. He also concludes that religion is pointless and that everyone is "privileged" and that everyone, at some point, will die. So he thinks that this would lead him not to worrying about his own death, but he still does. Meursault is now confronted by his own beliefs and realizing, despite their logical nature, when faced with his own inevitability, it's not as simple and clear cut as his mind would make it out to be. He has realized that the world is more then himself and his mind. There are other things going on around him and the rules he has lived by are staring at him in the face and he can't handle it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jon think that Meursault is trying to grabble the idea of his life coming to an end. Through-out his life he has experince death from other people in his life. The way he dealed with death was very nteresting and now that he is faced with death he cannot deal with death the same way, because it is him that is going to die. He comes to a releaize that it is hopeless for him to to try to get out of it, because even if you cheat death once it will come around agin. He states that even if he dies now or dies in twenty years that he will still be dead. he shows a wide range of emotions in this chapter, which is new to us. He gets angry, hopeful, and then hopeless. I think that he is very nervous he says he does ot like suprises so he stays up the whole night waiting for the time to come. I find it very interesting that he rejects the help of God. If he thinks it is hopeless for him to get out of death, then I do not understand why not try it. the only reason why I see him rejecting te help is, because he has so much on his mind and does not want to be bothered with it. Overall, in the end Meursault concludes that his has to accpet death, because there is no way out of it and it will come anyway.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Jon in that Meursault is trying to grapple the idea that he is going to die, but I do not think he regrets the way he lived life, with such an existentialist view. Meursault still sees things as pointless knowing the bigger picture, that we are all "condemned" and are going to die. What Meursault was struggling with is not accepting the fact he is going to die, but accepting the fact he isn't going to live. Even in jail, Meursault was not living, he was just waiting to die. He had no option to do anything else. That is why he dreamed of escaping or finding some way out, not because he feared death (although he may have) but because he longed to live life. This is what I think he meant when he said, "I felt ready to live it all again too." Meaursault realizes death is inevitable, the situation would be just as bad now as 20 years from now. I believe that Meursault is angered by the fact that even though he is still alive, he is a dead man walking. No one talks to him anymore, he has no friends or family, and he is just waiting to die. To the rest of the world he’s already dead. I think this is why he wanted a large crowd at his execution, so that people can see that he still is living and that now he is going to die; now the completion of his life can be witnessed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone above that Meursault is contemplating the idea of dying. However, I do not think he looks at this in a negative way. To me, Meursault is fine with the fact that he is going to die. Throughout the book, he has not cared what way his life turned or how things changed. He would always shrug it off and continue on. I feel he will do the same with death. As Pat talked about, he has an existentialist view on life. He talks about this a lot on page 114. "But everybody knows life isn't worth living." "Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter." He does not look at life the same way that I, along with many others, do. I would be freaking out if I was on death row, praying to live longer. Right or not, I would want every second I could have to live. However, Meursault seems content with however much time is given to him. Death does not seem to freak him out. Although Meursault is grappling with the idea of dying, he is not trying to accept. Instead, he is being very reasonable and looking at the meaning of it. To me, he has already accepted that death will come to him at some point.
ReplyDeleteMeursault is now very aware of his death. While his conception of “death” is very contradicting to what he had previously thought during the court. To current Meursault, death is the only thing that he is pondering. He can’t stop thinking of death in both positive and negative ways. He knows that death is inevitable for him, however he continually thinks about how he can escape the death, “I’d realized that the most important thing was to give the condemned man a chance. Even one in a thousand was good enough to set things rights.” He wants chance to survive from the inevitable death; he would appreciate even a very little possibility “one in a thousand.” He is now seeking for way to survive, while he knows it’s impossible. Just thinking can make him feel less restricted. He also realizes that the death is nearby, since he for the first time thought of Marie. Although he has hope to live, he also firmly believes that living more days would not change his life, which means, dying now or later would not be matter at all. However by saying this, he is at the same time accepting his guilt that he intended to murder someone. He ultimately realizes and admits that he is socially outcast from “normal” people.
ReplyDeleteMeursault is trying to come to terms not only with the end of his life, but the recent events in his life and the provocation of these. It seems that prior to the murder, Meursault was not a radically impulsive person, and I think his rash decision still troubles him even after his time in prison. I agree with Evan when he says Meursault is trying to grapple with the idea of dying but not trying to accept it. He understands his punishment, and I think he even knows that he deserves it. The fear in Meursault is trying to shield him from the world he knew that has fallen apart throughout the book. His relationship with Marie, his life, his mother's life - everything he had come to know as familiar was now gone. I think he is feigning interest in accepting his sentence to coincide with his existentialist view of life. He has realized that he hasn't done anything worth preserving in his life, and is struggling with this. He never loved, he never selflessly did anything, he never spoke out. He just lived and took up space. This is something that he knows but doesn't necessarily want to admit to.
ReplyDeleteI agree Pat when he said Mersault isn't grappling with the idea of dying but the fact that he isn't going to live. Throughout the book Mersault shows very little emotion and then when we get to the final chapter all of the sudden his emotions are spilling out of him. I'm not sure if it is because he knows he isn't going to live and there is no point in concealing his emotions or if prison changed this or if he just decided maybe now its time to share them but I feel because of his lack of emotion his emotions are confusing him now. He acted so apathetic throughout the entire book not caring for anything or anyone and now he regrets the way he lived his life and does not want to die but live longer to be the person he wants to be. In the last chapter he says "he felt ready to live again". I feel this is an example of how you dont know what you've got until its gone and now that he life has been ended for him hes finally realizing he wants to live life better or differently than he did before. I think in court he was finally shown how looked down upon he really was for the way he is and wanted to be different for people.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there are many things going through Meursault's mind during the final chapter of The Stranger. The thing i thought he was struggling with most was accepting the fact the he was no longer going to live. He does not seem to have that much of a problem with dying, but he does not want to continue thinking about the life that he has no chance of living. He continuously gets angry at himself for imagining what his life may have been like if he had not been put in this situation. At one point he tells the reader that "Whether it was now or twenty years from now, i would still be the one dying. At that point, what would disturb my train of thought was the terrifying leap i would feel my heart take at the idea of having twenty more years of life ahead of me. But i simply had to stifle it by imagining what id be thinking in twenty years when it would all come down to the same thing anyway." This shows us that he truly feels that it does not matter when he will die, but that he also has a desire to live out the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that is a struggle in this chapter for him is the conversation he has with the priest. This seems to be more of a struggle for the priest than for him. But what this does do is solidify his opinion that it doesnt matter when he dies cause after that it will be over. He also comes to the conclusion that he wants "a large crowd of spectators" at his execution. I think he wants this because it would help him feel less alone, but that he wants the people to hate him because that is what they have done for his whole life. He has been misunderstood and now that his life is coming to an end, he does not want any pity, he just wants people to know that he is gone.
Meursault is grappling with the realization that he is going to die shortly. He has accepted that he is going to die, but still thinks about what could happen in his favor. When Meursault imagines being pardoned, he "somehow [has] to cool the warm blood that would suddenly surge through [his] body and sting [his eyes] with a delirious joy" (Camus, 114). He would much rather stay alive. However, he understands that he is being irrational by thinking he has a chance of being pardoned. Meursault believes the way he has lived his life is better than the way others have. He says he has "as much of a hold on [death] as it [has on him]," because he never got to attached to anything (Camus, 120-121). Meursault goes on to say that nothing in life matters, because everyone has the same fate in the end. He says it doesn't matter that Marie will find a new boyfriend, or that he is being accused of murder for not crying at his mother's funeral. At the end of the book, Meursault is happy because he and the world have something in common- their indifference.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you do if you only had one day to live?
ReplyDeleteOn the last pages (122, 123) of Chapter 5 Meursault comes to a realization about the significance of life and also, finally understands Maman. Throughout the book he kept on repeating, “to understand Maman better” and at the end he finally does. He understands her decision to have a “fiancé”, probably because he liked spending time with Marie at the end of his life too.
“Even there, in that home where lives were fading out, evening was a kind of wistful respite” (p.122). On page 15 he says: “Evenings in that part of the country must have been a kind of sad relief”. So he understands that elderly in that home surrounded by beautiful environment want to enjoy every minute of their fading lives, just like Meursault before his death. “ So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again […] And I felt ready to live it all again too.” Throughout the book he seems ignorant to the world that surrounds him, lacks enthusiasm and even when Maman dies he thinks nothing had changed, but in the end he “opened [himself] to the gentle indifference of the world”. If he had felt this way earlier, maybe this sparkle of hope for living would have changed the decision made by the court – because he would have spoken up more and defended himself from somewhat false accusations (for ex. taking a gun from Raymond instead of Raymond giving it to him). It was interesting that he referred to himself “so like a brother” (p.123) because a brother sounds like a religious word, keeping in mind that he did not believe in God. A moral that I received from this story is that instead of thinking that you are going to die one day or another, enjoy every minute of life.
I liked how he talked about the guillotine being on the same level as he is, its not like its this mysterious, complex machine thats on a raised platform. I think that takes the dignity out of execution, if there was any to begin with. Execution is not so much a form of punishment as a form of humiliation. Meursault says himself that it doesn't matter when you die, whether it be now or 20 years from now, dying is just a part of nature, which is why he didn't cry at maman's funeral. What matters is the way that you die, that is what defines you in the end. Meursault faces this with bitterness but at the same time with vengence, revealed in the last sentence when he wishes that many people will be at his execution greeting him with "crys of hate," no matter what they do, he will have the last laugh.
ReplyDeleteMeursault ruminated about two questions in the last chapter: 1. certainty of death; and 2. the meaningless of life. And acquisition of the former can justify the latter. Meursault finally comes to a conclusion that death, the end of life, is inevitable. Since everyone no matter what he does before life will eventually face such outcome, the process of life becomes purposeless. To some extent, I think Meursault comes up with such a result due to his genuflect to ending rather than means. However, Meursault does value everyone's own right and behavior as he insists not to believe in God, which he justifies as a waste of time to think about and an annoying business. Hence he believes in a life over which he should have fully control. And no one else should be beholden to his fate and belief. People are after all separate from each other and there should be no formula or norm to confine their lives, otherwise the attempt to create a certain rule and belief is a total absurdity, just as his verdict--a conclusion without a ground for truth but everyone else's subjectivity. Whereas I accept Meursault's ideas, somewhat I sense a strong pessimism behind the philosophy. Meursault seems to have seen everything clearly in the world (which is good in my opinion), but he gives up his rights to even try to defend himself or fight for his own fate. Instead, he is passively left to judgement and verdict at the mercy of the society where people ridiculously imposed a rational way of living on him. He is a true observer while unfortunately does not realize he has been living upon the advent of death.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jon’s idea that Meursault is trying to grapple the idea that he is going to die. Since the last chapter begins, All the Meursault’s behavior such as remembering his childhood is same as what people who are sentenced to death do. There is no negative way of thought on his death to Meursault. I think he accept his death based on previous his behaviors like the way he loved and experienced his mother’s death. Meursault died as Merusault not others around him. He can be the one like others around him such as Majaste but he keeps having his own identity: no religion. Moreover, he keeps thinking that what he can do if he can go out of prison. Those actions that he showed in last chapter seemed to prove how his identity is different from others’ and important.
ReplyDeleteI agree with John, for Meursault is struggling between what he wants. He doesn’t want to die and lose all the involvement and things there are to see in his life if he wasn’t going to; but then again, he does want to die, and experience death due to his atheism. He doesn’t believe in religion, and religion was created for the after-life, not this life; and so he lives a curious man, and dies a curious man. All this inquisitiveness and confusion comes from his mother’s death. Since Meursault lost his mother, he has acted inhuman, but he is not crazy. His mind is working faster than it should, making him focus on the smaller details and evade the vital issues and obstacles in life. In my opinion, I believe Meursault is a genius, for his beliefs are extremely meticulous; they are divine.
ReplyDeleteFrom Jeff:
ReplyDeleteMeursault goes back in forth with himself on different things. He is grappling with the idea of an afterlife. He does not even see the point of wasting time on it and yet the chaplain is in the same room continuously trying to convince him to believe in God for an afterlife.
He thinks about how he would love to live for twenty more years and all the things he could do. Contrastly, he admits that even in twenty years he would be having the same thoughts and since everyone was going to die, "it's obvious that when and how don't matter. Therefore( and the difficult thing was not to lost sight of all the reasoning that went into this "'therefore''), I had to accept the rejection of my appeal" (114). This shows how he goes back and forth in his own mind. He thinks more life would be good and yet it does not matter in actuality because he was going to die anyways.
I find the very end of the book to be important. Meursault says he understands the end of life talking about why his mother "had played at beginning again" (122). This speaks to how Meursault believes that people try to get back to early parts of their life when they reach the end of it. Meursault thinks there is a peace at the end of life. This is why he brings up how peaceful he feels in the prison, which he calls a "home where lives were fading out" (122).
He says he feels a "wistful respite" in prison and that he, like Maman was, is ready to live it all again. He no longer had any hope and was welcoming the "gentle indifference of the world" for the first time. Meursault feels that this indifference is so similar to himself, a "brother", and now he was happy again because of this. He was now not alone and not a stranger with the world anymore. The two were intertwined and understood each other in a way and so Meursault could now face death. His last wish is intreging however. He wants a lot of people there and wants them to hate him. Possibly this is because he now can completely ignore the geers and negativity and not have it affect him in the slightest.