Smeedhley Batraville

Mr Gallagher

English 12, CP

6 Dec 2010

Analysis of Camus’ The stranger.

Albert Camus in The Stranger describes a man, Mersault, who lives with a daily
routine that he never thinks of changing, not even once; a routine that consists of pleasing
himself and no one else. A routine that makes him care only about himself, which makes him
deceive people sometimes for the purpose of pleasing himself. Camus, in describing Mersault’s
life, showed his emotional state of mind. Description from which we will draw the evolution of
some of Mersault’s habits and feelings and also develop some of the faces of life painted by
Camus. Historically during that same period in Algeria, “the Provisional Government of France
was transferred to Algeria”(par. 5) due to “Germany [occupying] two thirds of metropolitan
France.” (Kitson par. 5) And a few years earlier, Camus had lost his father in world war I.
(Cosper Dale Par 3) Mersault was a portray of his actual life which was now purposeless.
In the passage where Raymond is beating up his girlfriend in his room, Albert Camus
suggests that people, and life in general can change in a moment to another. He also suggests that
love can sometimes be pain. And that a relationship can be a prison to a soul.Camus teaches us
these kind of lesson because he experienced them himself. Throughout World War II, when “all
of France was occupied by the Germans” and “North Africa had fallen to the Allies”(Cosper
Dale Par.10) he wanted to go back to Algeria where he left his wife but he couldn’t. He even
tried to enlist in the Army but was “[unable to because of his poor health.]”(Cosper Dale Par. 10)
We could see that he was a desperate man at that time and had been through a lot.
Raymond was peacefully talking to the woman in his room, as Mersault was passing by
he “heard a woman’s voice in Raymond’s room” (35). Albert Camus exposes the lunatic face of
life when Raymond was “talking” to the woman but suddenly, Mersault heard “a woman’s shrill
voice” (35) and then Raymond saying “you used me, you used me. I’ll teach you to use me.”
(35) That’s a quick transition from a peaceful discussion between a couple to “terrifying”
“thuds.” (35) This is an example showing that if two people can, in a few minutes, move from a
discussion, evolve to thuds and finally to a fight. The whole world can also in a few minutes,
move from a peaceful moment to a giant harmful war which was now happening to Camus that
moved from a healthy state to knowing that “his tuberculosis had spread to both lungs” (Cosper
Dale Par. 10)
The situation went from discussing to fighting in a matter of seconds. Shouldn’t we, as
humans, see life and all its surroundings as a clock that changes every second? If Raymond that
loves his woman can easily move from a simple discussion to a fight within seconds, Camus
proves that a man can move from eating to killing in seconds and even worst, can employ eating
as a synonym of killing.
Camus describes in the next few lines how “the woman was shrieking and Raymond was
still hitting her.” (36) Camus qualifies Raymond as a brute. To symbolize Raymond confined
into his emotional jail beating up his woman and couldn’t remember how he used to love that
same woman that he’s now hitting to death. Blinded by his emotions and also fortified by them,
he was knocking on her like he would do on an object. Camus makes us think about the meaning
of love, He makes us question ourselves about our definition of love: shouldn’t love have a
positive feed back? Shouldn’t love be positive at all?
Camus clearly tells us that not everybody have the same beliefs. Each person sees life and
all its elements in a different way and each person also treats them differently. This should aware
our youths heading to this territory.
And this is where we also see Mersault as another type of Raymond or even worse
because since he’s not the one with the anger as a normal he should have felt bad for the woman
and interfere.
Camus continues showing us the faces of life when he comes up with the policeman
asking Raymond questions after he literally “hit [the woman].” (36) “The cop slapped him.”(36)
And just “the look on Raymond’s face changed, but he didn’t say anything.” (36) Camus
transports the image of Raymond from beating her woman to being slapped himself and not do
anything about it. He illustrates a good example of the proverb “mountain beyond mountains”
telling not to always believe what we first see and that we shall sometime use the eyes of the
spirit and again wait for new events to judge the person. Camus first presents Raymond as a
sadist but he was just taking advantage of the weak woman. Camus suggests that life is a journey
that what people do to their fellow will be also done to them one day. What we can also interpret
as
what goes around comes around.
This part of the passage, Camus uses it as a foil to show the real face of Mersault. He
emphasizes on his carelessness, the lack of feeling of Mersault through his sentence: “[Marie]
asked me to go find a policemen, I told her I didn’t like cops.”(36) A woman was getting
knocked on, she was yelling but he was only watching the scene going on like it was
nothing. A response that we can blame on the actual facts happening in Camus’ life and also in
Algeria. Due to “Operation Torch”(Pyle, Ernie Par.2) now happening in North Africa, everybody
was in a state of mistrust and carelessness. In France at the same period, “there were the German
intelligences agents running the country for information and also for capturing the Jewish
people.The intelligence operations was a lucrative activity “Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the
denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister.”(Kitson Simon Par. 7) The mistrust was
everywhere around Camus, and it affected him in his way of displaying the existentialism of
Mersault. The uniqueness of his carelessness in front of such fact that should have stresses him a
little bit at least but didn’t even touch an inch of his feelings. Mersault is an example of
existentialism described by Lehman David. Mersault shows that he could let a person die just to
satisfy one of his caprices. Camus’s work takes us to think about the versatile face of life. He
also advises about what we see. Most of the time, things are curtained and their real nature can
only be discovered with patience.
Albert Camus painted Mersault in his normal days, let’s now see how the careless
Mersault, reacts in prison after killing the Arab man, and especially after his conviction.
In the passage where Mersault is wondering about the outside life while the judge is
deciding on his fate, Albert Camus suggests that life is hard but not everybody have the chance
to realize what they get and to manage that chance into their own ways. And he also suggests
that there is no gift in life but people only get what they worked for. He illustrates his point in
Mersault’s strange behavior in front of the court discussing about his own fate.
Mersault felt that “the sun was getting low outside and it wasn’t hot anymore.”(105)
Mersault’s
carelessness could be read in his often special thoughts toward the sun. The sun occupies a
special place in his life; we can see that every time he’s having a bad time he thinks of the sun
which makes him choose a bad option. Mersault’s life could be compared to a balance to show
us, humans, that we always have the choice in our lives. More than once, Mersault arrived in a
situation where he needed to choose what to do but he always let the hotness of the sun drives
him out of the right way. In his mom’s funeral he said “the sun was beginning to bear down on
the earth and it was getting hotter by the minute.”(29) In front of the Arab man he said “all I
could feel were the cymbals of the sunlight crashing on my forehead.” And during all these times
he always made the bad choice. Camus wants wants to show that humans make our choices in
life
because if we don’t, Mother Nature will do it for us as it did for Mersault. And the choices aren’t
always as we expected them to be. Algiers was at that time at war since it was a french
colony and the Allies used the territory to operate their strategies. Camus reproduced himself and
his beliefs about the sad days of Algeria in The Stranger. The sun that he could compare to the
Allies made Mersault do things that he didn’t want. Mersault represented Algeria. This can be
used to justify Mersault’s carelessness about everything. Since the country was at war, Mersault
was living with the idea that he could die the next day so it happened that he didn’t care and was
living his life on a day to day basis. Camus was also at that time far from home living his wife in
Algeria. he wrote the scene of the book In Algeria, to express his nostalgy about his country.
Algeria was at war, so in the country nobody was caring about anything since they knew that at
any moment the German “Luftaffe” could come around and destroy their homes and their lives.
Camus in his description of Mersault at the court comes up with the idea that
Mersault is just getting the crops that he planted earlier. All along his life Mersault was careless,
he played with people's feeling and he even played with his mom's death but now due to that
same carelessness he's being condemned. And still, he wasn't paying attention to his own verdict
but was "[sensing] the sweetness of evening coming on." (105) He was also trying to get "from
what street noises [he] could hear" (105) Mersault didn't practically care about his own fate.
[He] didn’t mind the human race, [he] got Pretty used to them ( Rexroth Kenneth)
Camus suggests that we, humans, need to pay attention to our everyday life and activities
because soon or later we will pay the consequences.
 Camus, in this passage of the text wants to sensitize us about our fate depending on our
everyday life and our everyday decisions.
Then Camus continues describing the feelings of Mersault when the priest came to see
him. Earlier, he used to complain of the sun but behind the walls of his cell he now “went and
stood under the skylight.” (118) The Priest was telling to look for the face of God but “the face
he was looking for was as bright as the sun and the flame of desire, and it belonged to marry.”
Mersault that usually was a calm guy suddenly “something inside [him] snapped. [He] started
yelling the top of [his] lungs, and [he] insulted [the priest] and told [the priest] not to waste his
prayers on me.” Camus continues illustrating his point of view stating that life is versatile
through Mersault’s behavior. Mersault hated the sun before, but at last he was searching for it.
Usually he’s always calm but the situation got him easily mad just by talking to the priest.
Mersault was a careless person whom cared about Marie only when she was around wondering if
he could have her.
Camus in these passages shows that life is like a coin it’s on one side a day but it doesn’t
have to be on the same side every other day. Mersault’s life was running on the careless side but
at the end when he didn’t have any more chance of turning back he still changed from a non-
emotional person to a really emotional one. Camus advises us to be aware of our choices, to
make our own choices
and also that we do them at the right time.

“Annotated Bibliography”

“Immigrant Experience”

Zineb Sidera by the Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North
Africa, 2008 10 jan. 2011
-Summary
Zineb was a british artist that was born in a suburb of Paris, France, in 1963 from Algerian
immigrant parents. Similar to many other artists from Arab countries living in exile, Sidera is
particularly concerned with capturing the personal and political paradoxes and contradictions of
living within and between cultures and finds the veil a useful way to do so. The ambiguous
meanings of visible and invisible veiling are a metaphor for her own restless experience of
migration and exile, and for the complicated questions she has encountered therein.

-Important quotes
-The ambiguous meanings of visible and invisible veiling are a metaphor for her own restless
experience of migration and exile, and for the complicated questions she has encountered
therein.
-Purpose
As an Arab immigrant in a foreign society, she used in her art the only resource that people knew
or people could identify her with, the veil, to establish a difference between “being veiled” or
“not being veiled.”

Eive, Gloria. "Northward Bound: The Mexican Immigrant Experience in Ballad and Song."
MELUS 25.2 (2000): 212. Literature Resource Center. 10 Jan. 2011

-Summary
Mexican immigrants came to America and worked in the factories with low pay and
unsafe work conditions.

-Important Quotes:
“The United State’s less-than-meritorious treatment of the Mexican immigrants--their
frustration and loneliness in a hostile environment, their desperate efforts to survive
economically, and their tenacious resilience and humor--all these are familiar stories to
immigrants from Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. These immigrants, too, felt the conflict
between pressures to assimilate into their new culture and the need to retain their own language
and cultural identities. The soul of such people is often expressed in their music. In this well
chosen collection of song-texts, Professor Herrera-Sobek offers us a sensitive portrait of
Mexican immigrants and new insight toward an understanding not only of the dynamics of their
position in our society, but also that of other immigrants as well. The cycle of solicitation,
exploitation, and deportation documented in the songs seems ominously prophetic today and its
universality offers little comfort"(par. 6).

Purpose:
Immigrants are faced many difficulties when they moved to foreign country. They
have to adjust to use another kind of money to buy products; find a job and house. The biggest
problem was language, they had difficulty speaking and understanding what to do and how to do
it. However, Albert Camus is immigrant. He moved to France during the World War I. In
fact, these hardships actually helped him became a successful writer. It would inspire the
immigrants to work harder.

“Albert Camus”
Cosper, Dale. "Albert Camus”. Twentieth-Century French Dramatists. Ed. Mary Anne O'Neil.
Detroit: Gale, 2006. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 321. Literature Resource
Center. 10 Jan. 2011.
-Summary
Albert Camus was born in Algeria on November 7, 1913. Albert Camus was a
French-Algerian novelist, essayist, and dramatist. He lost his father in World War I, fact that
impacted him and made him aware of the destructive effects of the war. He published The
Stranger and developed his theory of the absurd in 1942. He died in an automobile accident in
1960. in 1942, he moved to Algeria when France fell to the Germans, he then had to move back
due to a tuberculosis attack. then when all of France was occupied by the Germans Camus was
unable to rejoin his wife in Algeria. Her tried to enlist as a soldier but couldn’t because of his
poor health. he stayed there until the end of the war.

-Important quotes
-By November 1942, all of France was occupied by the Germans, and North Africa had fallen to
the Allies; hence, Camus was unable to rejoin his wife in Algeria, and they remained separated
until the end of the war.(par. 10)
-Lucien Auguste Camus, Albert’s father, died of his wounds on 11 October of that year, and he
was buried at Saint-Brieuc in Brittany.(par.3)
-Unable to enlist in the army because of his poor health, Camus found in Combat a means of
political engagement and resistance.

-Purpose
Camus throughout his life and specially during this period through which he published this novel
was facing a lot of problems which he could have an effect on his writings without even noticing
it.
“Existentialism”
Lehman, David. "Exit no exit: whatever happened to existentialism?" American Scholar 77.2
(2008): 16+. Literature Resource Center. 10 jan. 2011.

-Summary
In this essay, Lehman David defines the word "existentialism" in a different way. In
postwar New York, existentialism was sexy, debonair. Everyone wanted to be existential without
knowing the meaning. But on the other hand, Lehman, David defines existentialism as a
philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness. He also reveals the differences between existential
and cool. Beside, Lehman, David also tells greatest moments in the history of existentialism.

-Important Quotes
"According to Albert Camus, Algerian-born hero of the French Resistance,
practicing existentialism was like fishing in a bathtub. A well-meaning neighbor, thinking to
humor the fisherman in the bathtub, says, "Catch anything?" "No, you fool," the fisherman
replies. "Can't you see this is a bathtub?" Delmore Schwartz sticks with the bathtub image.
"Existentialism," he wrote, "means that no one else can take a bath for you."(Para 5)

-Purpose
Existentialism is a concept that is often explored in works of literature as a way of
displaying a character’s interaction with society. Existentialist is a philosophy that emphasizes
the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile. In The Stranger, Albert
Camus describes Meusault’s experiences with his mother’s death, his relationship with Marie;
his murder of the two Arab men, and his own trial and execution to reveals that Meusault is
soulless and heartless. Meusault doesn't care about anyone and anything in his life, even his own
life. It tells us that Meusault is a stranger. He is very different from others. According to Lehman
David, Meusault is Existentialism.

“Absurdism”
McGregor, Rob Roy. " Camus ' s " The Silent Men " and " The Guest ": Depictions of Absurd
Awareness." Studies in Short Fiction. (Vol. 34). .3 (Summer 1997): p307. Literature Resource
Center. Gale. Malden High School. 12 Jan. 2011

-Summary:
Basically what this article is about is that protagonist of the story Yvars and how he goes through
different struggles in his life, how he goes about his every day routines is just a pain for him
basically he finds no excitement in anything and he’s upset about the fact that he’s aging and
soon dead. One example of a struggle is when he blames Lassalle for the death of his own
daughter because of his failure of being the way he is.

-Quotes:
Despite the gratuitous suffering and possible death of Lassalle's daughter and Yvars's empathy
for the father, and despite the rapid accumulation of evidence of human powerlessness when
confronted by one's superiors, by institutions, aging, suffering and death, Yvars's feeling of
"malheur" (brooding "unhappiness") never crystallizes into a conceptual awareness ("Muets"
1607), and evasion never advances beyond the realizable and daily wish to be home with wife
and son (1606), the existential ontological "monde familier" ("familiar world") of Le Mythe de
Sisyphe (101). At the end of "The Silent Men," Yvars is intent upon blaming Lassalle for some
vague reason: "Ah, c'est de sa faute!" ("Ah, it's his fault!" [1608]). Is the blame for the general
collapse of interpersonal relationships? For his own daughter's illness, a kind of retribution for
his treatment of the workers? For establishing a personal barrier that prevented Yvars from
expressing concern for Lassalle's daughter? Or is the placing of blame a self-serving exculpation
for his failure to call out in sympathy to Lassalle? For the purpose of the story, the reason is
simultaneously immaterial and functional. When Yvars places blame on someone or something
for any situation or condition related to human existence, he shows that he remains within the
traditional escapist mentality of his Western culture, an existential mentality inclusive of all
theistic and atheistic philosophies, which are much disparaged by Camus in Le Mythe de
Sisyphe (122). By placing blame, he derails the conclusion to be drawn from evaluating his
(human) condition of unhappiness, helplessness, interpersonal isolation, aging, and eventual
death, all of which are consciously and progressively in evidence in his experiences of the day
(paragraph 5).
Purpose:
The purpose of this article is that the reason is of absurdity is not to put the blame on other for
your failures but to make a difference and own up to it.

Essay about the situation in France in 1942.

Kitson, Simon. "Spying for Germany in Vichy France” and “Gaulle, Charles De (1890–
1970)” by Jean-Jacques Becker. 10 jan 2011
-Summary
France's situation in 1940-1942.
France’s status during 1942 wasn’t really normal we have proof in general De Gaulle’s
portrait whose will was to “restore the French army at the end of the war” and he was also
willing to give the people back their voice; this included women, who were granted the right to
vote. A society in which woman don’t have rights, a society which army was devastated. This
proves that the country wasn’t running well. The societies which are willing to give women the
right to vote were usually wrecked, and so was France.

France was no more in control of its territory, “Germany occupied two thirds of
metropolitan France in the period 1940-42”(par. 2) “Phillipe Petain, head of Vichy France,
established his new Etat Francais, an effective dictatorship superseding the republican system
which he blamed for the French defeat, after signing an armistice with Germany and Italy in June
1940.”(par. 2) This means that France has no Government in Paris, but “the Provisional
Government of France was transferred to Algeria.”(par 7)
There were also in France the German intelligences agents running the country for
information and also for capturing the Jewish people. Simon Kitson added that “the growth of
intelligence operations against France testifies to a basic distrust in the country”.
The intelligence operations was a lucrative activity in France “Spies could earn 1,000 francs for
the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister. The reward for information leading to
the discovery of an arms depot was between 5,000 and 30,000 francs.” Archives suggest that
there were possibly as many as three times the number of German intelligence agents working
against France by mid-1941 than there had been in mid-1940.
The situation in France was really tense around 1940-42, the French didn’t have control
of their own territory and were under the control of the Germans. It was a really frustrating
atmosphere for the French which were living in the country and also for those who were living
outside.

Important Quotes_
-“Germany occupied two thirds of metropolitan France in the period 1940-42”
-”Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister. The
reward for information leading to the discovery of an arms depot was between 5,000 and 30,000
francs.”
- “Archives suggest that there were possibly as many as three times the number of German
intelligence agents working against France by mid-1941 than there had been in mid-1940.”

Purpose_
I would use that part of the history to convince that Albert Camus was passing his state of
mind through Mersault. He was feeling uncertain about himself and didn’t trust anybody. So was
Mersault, he didn’t mind anybody but was just living his life.

Essay on Algiers around 1930’s pr 1940’s.

Pyle, Ernie, “World War II Reference Library, 2000” 10 Jan. 2011.
Summary
In 1940, the allies were invading North Africa. Operation Torch was the British-
American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign,
started 8 November 1942. After that the Italian and German troops had occupied the territory in
early 1942.

Important quotes:
-”Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II
during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942.” (par. 5)
- By 1942 the northwest African regions of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia had been invaded by
German and Italian—or Axis—forces. (par. 1)
Purpose:
Algiers was at that time at war since it was a french colony and the Allies used the
territory to operate their strategies. Camus pictured the sad days of the Algeria in his book where
he reproduced himself or his beliefs about his country. The sun that he could compare to the
Allies which made Mersault who represented his “Country” do whatever they wanted.
this can be used to justify Mersault’s carelessness about everything. Since the country
was at war, Mersault was maybe living day to day with the idea that he could die the next day so
it happened that he didn’t care and was living his life on a day to day basis.
Camus was also at that time far from home living his wife in Algeria. he wrote the scene
of the book In Algeria, to express his nostalgy about his country.
Algeria was at war, so in the country nobody was caring about anything since they knew
that at any moment the German “Luyftaffe” could come around and destroy their homes and
their lives.

Poem
“Discrimination” by Kenneth Rox 19 Dec. 2010

Summary
 Rexroth tells us how used he is about the human race. He says that nothing matters to him
about it. He can sit next to them without caring. One of them can marry his sister he still won’t
care.
Purpose
This poem shows how regular the author thinks about life, about the people around him.
His very first line translates his state of mind: “I don’t mind the human race.” which is exactly
how Mersault thinks about the human race. Him that doesn’ t mind looking a woman being
beaten, or “humans” discussing about whether he should live or die for he’s done.

Important Quotes:
-“I don’t mind the human race.
I’ve got pretty used to them
In these past twenty-five years.”
-” I shouldn’t
Care to see my own sister
Marry one.”
Video
“Growing up Immigrant #1” by madamhadassah uploaded August 9th 2009. 15 Jan. 2011

-Summary:
She’s taking her time to tell us what she had been through as a Haitian child growing up in the
Bahamas. she was seen differently by the other childs, they were making fun of them as haitian
Students and she felt bad about it but couldn’t say anything. She recognized the good sides of
what her mom was doing until she was mature enough to talk to her mom about it. and she says
that now, she’s proud of her parents.

-Purpose
She was bullied, they laughed at her but she didn’t reply back. It shows how Camus’s life could
be at the time as an Algerian growing up in France in 1942. How hard this could be for him, to
live among french students. The early years of Camus’s life weren’t easy as an immigrant.
Smeedhley Batraville

Mr Gallagher

English 12, CP

6 Dec 2010

Analysis of Camus’ The Stranger.

Albert Camus in The Stranger describes a man, Mersault, who lives with a daily routine that he
never thinks of changing, not even once; a routine that consists of pleasing himself and no one
else. A routine that makes him care only about himself, which makes him deceive people
sometimes for the purpose of pleasing himself. Camus, in describing Mersault’s life, showed his
emotional state of mind. A description from which we will draw the evolution of some of
Mersault’s habits and feelings, and also develop some of the faces of life painted by Camus.
Historically during that same period in Algeria, “the Provisional Government of France was
transferred to Algeria”(par. 5) due to “Germany [occupying] two thirds of metropolitan France.”
(Kitson par. 5) And a few years earlier, Camus had lost his father in world war I.(Cosper Dale
Par 3) Mersault was a portray of his actual life which was now purposeless.
In the passage where Raymond is beating up his girlfriend in his room, Albert Camus
suggests that people, and life in general can change in a moment to another. He also suggests
that
love can sometimes be pain. And that a relationship can be a prison to a soul.Camus teaches
us these kind of lesson because he experienced them himself. Throughout World War II, when
“all of France was occupied by the Germans” and “North Africa had fallen to the Allies”(Cosper
Dale Par.10) he wanted to go back to Algeria where he left his wife but he couldn’t. He even
tried to enlist in the Army but was “[unable to because of his poor health.]”(Cosper Dale Par. 10)
We could see that he was a desperate man at that time and had been through a lot.
Raymond was peacefully talking to the woman in his room, as Mersault was passing by, he
“heard a woman’s voice in Raymond’s room” (35). Albert Camus exposes the lunatic face of life
when Raymond was “talking” to the woman but suddenly, Mersault heard “a woman’s shrill
voice” (35) and then Raymond saying “you used me, you used me. I’ll teach you to use me.”
(35) That’s a quick transition from a peaceful discussion between a couple to some terrifying
thuds. (35) This is an example showing that if two people can, in a few minutes, move from a
discussion, evolve to thuds and finally to a fight. The whole world can also in a few minutes,
move from a peaceful moment to a giant harmful war which was now happenning to Camus that
moved from a healthy state to knowing that “his tuberculosis had spread to both lungs” (Cosper
Dale Par. 10)
The situation went from discussing to fighting in a matter of seconds. Shouldn’t we, as
humans, see life and all its surroundings as a clock that changes every second? If Raymond
that
loves his woman can easily move from a simple discussion to a fight within seconds, Camus
proves that a man can move from eating to killing in seconds and even worst, can employ
eating
as a synonym of killing.
Camus describes in the next few lines how “the woman was shrieking and Raymond was
still hitting her.” (36) Camus qualifies Raymond as a brute. To symbolize Raymond confined
into his emotional jail beating up his woman and couldn’t remember how he used to love that
same woman that he’s now hitting to death. Blinded by his emotions and also fortified by them,
he was knocking on her like he would do on an object. Camus makes us think about the
meaning
of love, He makes us question ourselves about our definition of love: shouldn’t love have a
positive feed back? Shouldn’t love be positive at all?
Camus clearly tells us that not everybody have the same beliefs. Each person sees life and
all its elements in a different way and each person also treats them differently. This should
aware
our youths heading to this territory.
And this is where we also see Mersault as another type of Raymond or even worse
because since he’s not the one with the anger as a normal he should have felt bad for the
woman
and interfere.
Camus continues showing us the faces of life when he comes up with the policeman
asking Raymond questions after he literally “hit [the woman].” (36) “The cop slapped him.”(36)
And just “the look on Raymond’s face changed, but he didn’t say anything.” (36) Camus
transports the image of Raymond from beating her woman to being slapped himself and not do
anything about it. He illustrates a good example of the proverb “mountain beyond mountains”
telling not to always believe what we first see and that we shall sometime use the eyes of the
spirit and again wait for new events to judge the person. Camus first presents Raymond as a
sadist but he was just taking advantage of the weak woman. Camus suggests that life is a
journey
that what people do to their fellow will be also done to them one day. What we can also interpret
as what goes around comes around.
This part of the passage, Camus uses it as a foil to show the real face of Mersault. He
emphasizes on his carelessness, the lack of feeling of Mersault through his sentence: “[Marie]
asked me to go find a policemen, I told her I didn’t like cops.”(36) A woman was getting knocked
on, she was yelling but he was only watching the scene going on like it was nothing. A response
that we can blame on the facts happening in Camus’ life at that time. Due to “Operation
Torch”(Pyle, Ernie Par.2) now happening in North Africa, everybody was in a state of mistrust
and carelessness. In France at the same period, “there were the German intelligences agents
running the country for information and also for capturing the Jewish people.The intelligence
operations were a lucrative activity “Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew
and 3,000 francs for a Resister.”(Kitson Simon Par. 7) The mistrust was everywhere around
Camus, and it affected him in his way of displaying the existentialism of Mersault. The
uniqueness of his carelessness in front of such fact that should have stresses him a little bit at
least but didn’t even touch an inch of his feelings. Mersault is an example of existentialism
described by Lehman David. Mersault shows that he could let a person die just to satisfy one of
his caprices. Camus’s work takes us to think about the versatile face of life. He also advises
about what we see. Most of the time, things are curtained and their real nature can only be
discovered with patience.
Albert Camus painted Mersault in his normal days, let’s now see how the careless
Mersault, reacts in prison after killing the Arab man, and especially after his conviction.
In the passage where Mersault is wondering about the outside life while the judge is
deciding on his fate, Albert Camus suggests that life is hard but not everybody have the chance
to realize what they get and to manage that chance into their own ways. And he also suggests
that there is no gift in life but people only get what they worked for. He illustrates his point in
Mersault’s strange behavior in front of the court discussing about his own fate.
Mersault felt that “the sun was getting low outside and it wasn’t hot anymore.”(105) Mersault’s
carelessness could be read in his often special thoughts toward the sun. The sun occupies a
special place in his life; we can see that every time he’s having a bad time he thinks of the sun
which makes him choose a bad option. Mersault’s life could be compared to a balance to show
us, humans, that we always have the choice in our lives. More than once, Mersault arrived in a
situation where he needed to choose what to do but he always let the hotness of the sun drives
him out of the right way. In his mom’s funeral he said “the sun was beginning to bear down on
the earth and it was getting hotter by the minute.”(29) In front of the Arab man he said “all I
could feel were the cymbals of the sunlight crashing on my forehead.” And during all these times
he always made the bad choice. Camus wants wants to show that humans make our choices in
life because if we don’t, Mother Nature will do it for us as it did for Mersault. And the choices
aren’t always as we expected them to be. Algiers was at that time at war since it was a french
colony and the Allies used the territory to operate their strategies. Camus reproduced himself
and his beliefs about the sad days of Algeria in The Stranger. The sun that he could compare to
the Allies made Mersault do things that he didn’t want. Mersault represented Algeria. This can
be used to justify Mersault’s carelessness about everything. Since the country was at war,
Mersault was living with the idea that he could die the next day so it happened that he didn’t
care and was living his life on a day to day basis. Camus was also at that time far from home
living his wife in Algeria. he wrote the scene of the book In Algeria, to express his nostalgy
about his country. Algeria was at war, so in the country nobody was caring about anything since
they knew that at any moment the German “Luftaffe” could come around and destroy their
homes and their lives.
Camus in his description of Mersault at the court comes up with the idea that
Mersault is just getting the crops that he planted earlier. All along his life Mersault was careless,
he played with people's feeling and he even played with his mom's death but now due to that
same carelessness he's being condemned. And still, he wasn't paying attention to his own
verdict
but was "[sensing] the sweetness of evening coming on." (105) He was also trying to get "from
what street noises [he] could hear" (105) Mersault didn't practically care about his own fate.
[He] didn’t mind the human race, [he] got Pretty used to them ( Rexroth Kenneth)
Camus suggests that we, humans, need to pay attention to our everyday life and activities
because soon or later we will pay the consequences.
Camus, in this passage of the text wants to sensitize us about our fate depending on our
everyday life and our everyday decisions.
Then Camus continues describing the feelings of Mersault when the priest came to see
him. Earlier, he used to complain of the sun but behind the walls of his cell he now “went and
stood under the skylight.” (118) The Priest was telling to look for the face of God but “the face
he was looking for was as bright as the sun and the flame of desire, and it belonged to marry.”
Mersault that usually was a calm guy suddenly “something inside [him] snapped. [He] started
yelling the top of [his] lungs, and [he] insulted [the priest] and told [the priest] not to waste his
prayers on me.” Camus continues illustrating his point of view stating that life is versatile
through Mersault’s behavior. Mersault hated the sun before, but at last he was searching for it.
Usually he’s always calm but the situation got him easily mad just by talking to the priest.
Mersault was a careless person whom cared about Marie only when she was around wondering
if
he could have her.
Camus in these passages shows that life is like a coin it’s on one side a day but it doesn’t
have to be on the same side every other day. Mersault’s life was running on the careless side
but at the end when he didn’t have any more chance of turning back he still changed from a
non-emotional person to a really emotional one. Camus advises us to be aware of our choices,
to make our own choices and also that we do them at the right time.

“Annotated Bibliography”

“Immigrant Experience”

Zineb Sidera by the Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North
Africa, 2008 10 jan. 2011
-Summary
Zineb was a british artist that was born in a suburb of Paris, France, in 1963 from Algerian
immigrant parents. Similar to many other artists from Arab countries living in exile, Sidera is
particularly concerned with capturing the personal and political paradoxes and contradictions of
living within and between cultures and finds the veil a useful way to do so. The ambiguous
meanings of visible and invisible veiling are a metaphor for her own restless experience of
migration and exile, and for the complicated questions she has encountered therein.

-Important quotes
-The ambiguous meanings of visible and invisible veiling are a metaphor for her own restless
experience of migration and exile, and for the complicated questions she has encountered
therein.

-Purpose
As an Arab immigrant in a foreign society, she used in her art the only resource that people
knew or people could identify her with, the veil, to establish a difference between “being veiled”
or “not being veiled.”

Eive, Gloria. "Northward Bound: The Mexican Immigrant Experience in Ballad and Song."
MELUS 25.2 (2000): 212. Literature Resource Center. 10 Jan. 2011

-Summary
Mexican immigrants came to America and worked in the factories with low pay and
unsafe work conditions.

-Important Quotes:
“The United State’s less-than-meritorious treatment of the Mexican immigrants--their
frustration and loneliness in a hostile environment, their desperate efforts to survive
economically, and their tenacious resilience and humor--all these are familiar stories to
immigrants from Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. These immigrants, too, felt the conflict
between pressures to assimilate into their new culture and the need to retain their own language
and cultural identities. The soul of such people is often expressed in their music. In this well
chosen collection of song-texts, Professor Herrera-Sobek offers us a sensitive portrait of
Mexican immigrants and new insight toward an understanding not only of the dynamics of their
position in our society, but also that of other immigrants as well. The cycle of solicitation,
exploitation, and deportation documented in the songs seems ominously prophetic today and its
universality offers little comfort"(par. 6).

Purpose:
Immigrants are faced many difficulties when they moved to foreign country. They
have to adjust to use another kind of money to buy products; find a job and house. The biggest
problem was language, they had difficulty speaking and understanding what to do and how to
do
it. However, Albert Camus is immigrant. He moved to France during the World War I. In
fact, these hardships actually helped him became a successful writer. It would inspire the
immigrants to work harder.

“Albert Camus”
Cosper, Dale. "Albert Camus”. Twentieth-Century French Dramatists. Ed. Mary Anne O'Neil.
Detroit: Gale, 2006. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 321. Literature Resource
Center. 10 Jan. 2011.
-Summary
Albert Camus was born in Algeria on November 7, 1913. Albert Camus was a
French-Algerian novelist, essayist, and dramatist. He lost his father in World War I, fact that
impacted him and made him aware of the destructive effects of the war. He published The
Stranger and developed his theory of the absurd in 1942. He died in an automobile accident in
1960. in 1942, he moved to Algeria when France fell to the Germans, he then had to move back
due to a tuberculosis attack. then when all of France was occupied by the Germans Camus was
unable to rejoin his wife in Algeria. Her tried to enlist as a soldier but couldn’t because of his
poor health. he stayed there until the end of the war.

-Important quotes
-By November 1942, all of France was occupied by the Germans, and North Africa had fallen to
the Allies; hence, Camus was unable to rejoin his wife in Algeria, and they remained separated
until the end of the war.(par. 10)
-Lucien Auguste Camus, Albert’s father, died of his wounds on 11 October of that year, and he
was buried at Saint-Brieuc in Brittany.(par.3)
-Unable to enlist in the army because of his poor health, Camus found in Combat a means of
political engagement and resistance.

-Purpose
Camus throughout his life and specially during this period through which he published this novel
was facing a lot of problems which he could have an effect on his writings without even noticing
it.
“Existentialism”
Lehman, David. "Exit no exit: whatever happened to existentialism?" American Scholar 77.2
(2008): 16+. Literature Resource Center. 10 jan. 2011.

-Summary
In this essay, Lehman David defines the word "existentialism" in a different way. In
postwar New York, existentialism was sexy, debonair. Everyone wanted to be existential without
knowing the meaning. But on the other hand, Lehman, David defines existentialism as a
philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness. He also reveals the differences between existential
and cool. Beside, Lehman, David also tells greatest moments in the history of existentialism.

-Important Quotes
"According to Albert Camus, Algerian-born hero of the French Resistance,
practicing existentialism was like fishing in a bathtub. A well-meaning neighbor, thinking to
humor the fisherman in the bathtub, says, "Catch anything?" "No, you fool," the fisherman
replies. "Can't you see this is a bathtub?" Delmore Schwartz sticks with the bathtub image.
"Existentialism," he wrote, "means that no one else can take a bath for you."(Para 5)

-Purpose
Existentialism is a concept that is often explored in works of literature as a way of
displaying a character’s interaction with society. Existentialist is a philosophy that emphasizes
the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile. In The Stranger, Albert
Camus describes Meusault’s experiences with his mother’s death, his relationship with Marie;
his murder of the two Arab men, and his own trial and execution to reveals that Meusault is
soulless and heartless. Meusault doesn't care about anyone and anything in his life, even his
own life. It tells us that Meusault is a stranger. He is very different from others. According to
Lehman David, Meusault is Existentialism.

“Absurdism”
McGregor, Rob Roy. " Camus ' s " The Silent Men " and " The Guest ": Depictions of Absurd
Awareness." Studies in Short Fiction. (Vol. 34). .3 (Summer 1997): p307. Literature Resource
Center. Gale. Malden High School. 12 Jan. 2011

-Summary:
Basically what this article is about is that protagonist of the story Yvars and how he goes
through
different struggles in his life, how he goes about his every day routines is just a pain for him
basically he finds no excitement in anything and he’s upset about the fact that he’s aging and
soon dead. One example of a struggle is when he blames Lassalle for the death of his own
daughter because of his failure of being the way he is.

-Quotes:
Despite the gratuitous suffering and possible death of Lassalle's daughter and Yvars's empathy
for the father, and despite the rapid accumulation of evidence of human powerlessness when
confronted by one's superiors, by institutions, aging, suffering and death, Yvars's feeling of
"malheur" (brooding "unhappiness") never crystallizes into a conceptual awareness ("Muets"
1607), and evasion never advances beyond the realizable and daily wish to be home with wife
and son (1606), the existential ontological "monde familier" ("familiar world") of Le Mythe de
Sisyphe (101). At the end of "The Silent Men," Yvars is intent upon blaming Lassalle for some
vague reason: "Ah, c'est de sa faute!" ("Ah, it's his fault!" [1608]). Is the blame for the general
collapse of interpersonal relationships? For his own daughter's illness, a kind of retribution for
his treatment of the workers? For establishing a personal barrier that prevented Yvars from
expressing concern for Lassalle's daughter? Or is the placing of blame a self-serving
exculpation for his failure to call out in sympathy to Lassalle? For the purpose of the story, the
reason is simultaneously immaterial and functional. When Yvars places blame on someone or
something for any situation or condition related to human existence, he shows that he remains
within the traditional escapist mentality of his Western culture, an existential mentality inclusive
of all theistic and atheistic philosophies, which are much disparaged by Camus in Le Mythe de
Sisyphe (122). By placing blame, he derails the conclusion to be drawn from evaluating his
(human) condition of unhappiness, helplessness, interpersonal isolation, aging, and eventual
death, all of which are consciously and progressively in evidence in his experiences of the day
(paragraph 5).

Purpose:
The purpose of this article is that the reason is of absurdity is not to put the blame on other for
your failures but to make a difference and own up to it.

Essay about the situation in France in 1942.

Kitson, Simon. "Spying for Germany in Vichy France” and “Gaulle, Charles De (1890–1970)” by
Jean-Jacques Becker. 10 jan 2011
-Summary
France's situation in 1940-1942.
France’s status during 1942 wasn’t really normal we have proof in general De Gaulle’s portrait
whose will was to “restore the French army at the end of the war” and he was also willing to give
the people back their voice; this included women, who were granted the right to vote. A society
in which woman don’t have rights, a society which army was devastated. This proves that the
country wasn’t running well. The societies which are willing to give women the right to vote were
usually wrecked, and so was France.

France was no more in control of its territory, “Germany occupied two thirds of
metropolitan France in the period 1940-42”(par. 2) “Phillipe Petain, head of Vichy France,
established his new Etat Francais, an effective dictatorship superseding the republican system
which he blamed for the French defeat, after signing an armistice with Germany and Italy in
June 1940.”(par. 2) This means that France has no Government in Paris, but “the Provisional
Government of France was transferred to Algeria.”(par 7)
There were also in France the German intelligences agents running the country for information
and also for capturing the Jewish people. Simon Kitson added that “the growth of intelligence
operations against France testifies to a basic distrust in the country”.
The intelligence operations was a lucrative activity in France “Spies could earn 1,000 francs for
the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister. The reward for information leading to
the discovery of an arms depot was between 5,000 and 30,000 francs.” Archives suggest that
there were possibly as many as three times the number of German intelligence agents working
against France by mid-1941 than there had been in mid-1940.
The situation in France was really tense around 1940-42, the French didn’t have control
of their own territory and were under the control of the Germans. It was a really frustrating
atmosphere for the French which were living in the country and also for those who were living
outside.

Important Quotes_
-“Germany occupied two thirds of metropolitan France in the period 1940-42”
-”Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister.
The reward for information leading to the discovery of an arms depot was between 5,000 and
30,000 francs.”
- “Archives suggest that there were possibly as many as three times the number of German
intelligence agents working against France by mid-1941 than there had been in mid-1940.”

Purpose_
I would use that part of the history to convince that Albert Camus was passing his state of mind
through Mersault. He was feeling uncertain about himself and didn’t trust anybody. So was
Mersault, he didn’t mind anybody but was just living his life.

Essay on Algiers around 1930’s pr 1940’s.

Pyle, Ernie, “World War II Reference Library, 2000” 10 Jan. 2011.
Summary
In 1940, the allies were invading North Africa. Operation Torch was the British-American
invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8
November 1942. After that the Italian and German troops had occupied the territory in early
1942.

Important quotes:
-”Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II
during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942.” (par. 5)
- By 1942 the northwest African regions of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia had been invaded by
German and Italian—or Axis—forces. (par. 1)
Purpose:
Algiers was at that time at war since it was a french colony and the Allies used the territory to
operate their strategies. Camus pictured the sad days of the Algeria in his book where he
reproduced himself or his beliefs about his country. The sun that he could compare to the Allies
which made Mersault who represented his “Country” do whatever they wanted.
 this can be used to justify Mersault’s carelessness about everything. Since the country was at
war, Mersault was maybe living day to day with the idea that he could die the next day so it
happened that he didn’t care and was living his life on a day to day basis.
Camus was also at that time far from home living his wife in Algeria. he wrote the scene of the
book In Algeria, to express his nostalgy about his country.
Algeria was at war, so in the country nobody was caring about anything since they knew that at
any moment the German “Luyftaffe” could come around and destroy their homes and their lives.

Poem
“Discrimination” by Kenneth Rox 19 Dec. 2010

Summary
Rexroth tells us how used he is about the human race. He says that nothing matters to him
about it. He can sit next to them without caring. One of them can marry his sister he still won’t
care.
Purpose
This poem shows how regular the author thinks about life, about the people around him. His
very first line translates his state of mind: “I don’t mind the human race.” which is exactly how
Mersault thinks about the human race. Him that doesn’ t mind looking a woman being beaten, or
“humans” discussing about whether he should live or die for he’s done.

Important Quotes:
-“I don’t mind the human race.
I’ve got pretty used to them
In these past twenty-five years.”
-” I shouldn’t
Care to see my own sister
Marry one.”
Video
“Growing up Immigrant #1” by madamhadassah uploaded August 9th 2009. 15 Jan. 2011

-Summary:
She’s taking her time to tell us what she had been through as a Haitian child growing up in the
Bahamas. she was seen differently by the other childs, they were making fun of them as haitian
Students and she felt bad about it but couldn’t say anything. She recognized the good sides of
what her mom was doing until she was mature enough to talk to her mom about it. and she says
that now, she’s proud of her parents.

-Purpose
She was bullied, they laughed at her but she didn’t reply back. It shows how Camus’s life could
be at the time as an Algerian growing up in France in 1942. How hard this could be for him, to
live among french students. The early years of Camus’s life weren’t easy as an immigrant.