Step 2

Step 2

Introduction to my ideas:

    The novel, The Stranger, relates to my question: What is the role of interpersonal communication in our lives? How does technology shape society and transform the future (good or bad)? Why do we have relationships with others? To what extent do we need them? What do our relationships with others say about who we are? What rules or morals guide what we say to other people? How important is it to think about how others see and think of us? How does that shape how we think of ourselves? Meursault in the novel, The Stanger, introduces new aspects to my question because the he doesn’t care about the rules of society and doesn’t care about how society perceives him because he doesn’t see a purpose in life, so he goes against the laws of society. He goes against my take on the question because he goes against what society thinks and does. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks and doesn’t care if he fits in or not, unlike the majority of society. The story communicates this by Meursault just not going along with what society asks for and with what society wants. He also goes against what people expect out of him. My interaction with the text shapes this theory because i interpreted from the text that Meursault just didn’t care at all what anyone thought of him. He didn’t care what his boss thought, what his mom thought, what the lawyer or police thought, what his girlfriend thought, what his neighbor thought, and so on. He did his own thing. He basically never regretted anything that he did, even if it was wrong or if he got in trouble from doing it. He didn’t care that he got executed by the guillotine. He just didn’t care. He had very different relationships and feelings for his boss, his girlfriend, for life, for death, and just for how society worked. My thinking of the book hasn’t really changed over time. After reading the book I always had similar thoughts, but I dug deeper into the ideas of how society and interrelationships work in this book and learned more about it.

Examples from Text:

    Meursault doesn’t follow the normal rules of society and doesn’t care what other people think of him. Meursault asks Marie if she wants to go to Celeste’s house for dinner, and Marie says that she can’t go, “…I told her we could have dinner together at Celeste’s. She would have liked to but she had something to do…I said goodbye to her. She looked at me. Don’t you want to know what I have to do” (42). Marie got very upset with Meursault because he didn’t care to ask why Marie couldn’t go out for dinner. This illustrates Meursault’s persona of not caring about society and how society perceives him. He didn’t think it mattered where Marie was going or why she couldn’t go; she just couldn’t go, and that was the end of it. Even though, Marie was upset that Meursault didn’t ask her where she was going because it illustrates that he doesn’t care about her. Most people in society care about what others think of them because people want to be thought of as cool. People like having that “cool persona” because they think it makes them popular. Meursault, however, disagreed with my stance because he doesn’t care about what anyone thought of him. He also disagrees with my stance about relationships. This is because he doesn’t really need a close relationship, like others in society do. He doesn’t act in relationships or feel the same way that others feel about relationships. This shows in his relationship with Marie. During the trial, the director stated that, “Meursault hadn’t wanted to see Maman, that he hadn’t cried once, and that he had left right after the funeral without paying my last respects at her grave. And...he didn’t know how old Maman was” (89). Meursault didn’t have the same intentions that everyone else in society had when it came to death. He acted in a way that his mom would have wanted him to act after she died. He didn’t feel that it was necessary to cry because she wouldn’t have wanted him to, and she had lived such a wonderful life that no one needed to cry for her. Meursault’s relationship with his mom was extremely important to him. It is just different than the average mother-son relationship. Therefore, he goes against my interpretation of why people have relationships. Meursault is very different from the average citizen because he didn’t even know how old his mom was, and he didn’t care. It wasn’t important to him. However, he still had a very close relationship with his mom, but in a different way than the average person. He knew how his mom was such a wonderful woman. He didn’t care how others perceived him at his mother’s funeral. He didn’t care if others saw him not paying his respects to her at her grave and didn’t care if others saw him not crying at her funeral. He didn’t care what society thought of him in the way he acted at the funeral. He paid his respects to his mom the way she would have wanted him to. He didn’t want to see his mom in pain in her coffin, so he decided not to see her and everyone else thought he was ridiculous and inhumane.

Meursault doesn’t see a purpose in life. Marie asks Meursault if he wanted to marry her and Meursault said, “...it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her...I explained to her that it didn’t really matter and that if she wanted to, we could get married” (41). Meursault made it clear to Marie that he didn’t really care about marriage and didn’t really care about anything; it was all the same to him. Therefore, Meursault again goes against my stance on why people have relationships with one another and why do we care how people perceive us. He also goes against my stance on relationships and why we need relationships in our lives. He just didn’t have anything to do with those things. He just cared about how he felt, and doesn’t care how society acted or how society wanted him to act. He didn’t need a close relationship and didn’t need to act in a certain way in that relationship. Marriage is a very serious thing in society, and Marie took it very seriously. She loved Meursault, and she wanted to make sure that he loved her back, so they could get married. Even with Meursault’s lame response, she still decided that they were going to get married. Marriage is not a serious thing to Meursault because it is all the same to him; if a different girl asked him to marry him, he would say yes. Meursault’s boss wants Meursault to move to the office in Paris to work there because his boss thinks that it will be a wonderful fit for him. This is because his boss thinks that he will love Paris’s beauty and its excellent nightlife. However, Meursault tells his girlfriend that, “I’d lived there once...It’s dirty. Lots of pigeons and dark courtyards. Everybody’s pale” (42). The boss thought one thing and Meursault thought another thing. His boss thought of a positive reason why Meursault would love it and should take the opportunity. Meaursault’s stance proves my position on how people say different things to different people depending on what their role in society is. However, Meursault looked at the negative reasons why he hated Paris and didn’t want to go there, but he told his boss he would take the job opportunity in Paris because it is all the same to thing. He doesn’t see a purpose in life. His boss expected him to respond one way, but he responds a different way. It illustrates that people have different and selective perceptions for different people. He tells his boss one thing (his superior), and he tells his girlfriend (Marie) the real reason because he is more truthful to his girlfriend because he is closer with her. He doesn’t want to be rude to his boss. When the Magistrate asked Meursault if he believed in God, Meursault said, “...No. The Magistrate sat down ignorantly. He said it was impossible; all men believed in God, even those who turn their backs on him” (69). The Magistrate was confused and was angry that Meursault didn’t believe in God. This goes against my stance on how people act in society. He doesn’t care that everyone else believes in god and follows god. He cares about his own beliefs. He doesn’t want to follow god because he isn’t interested in god and doesn’t believe in his beliefs. No one really understood Meursault’s personality because he was so peculiar. He was very different than most people. He didn’t care about anything. He didn’t see the point in believing in God because God didn’t affect him and it was all the same to him. After the trial, Meursault realized that, “...Marie meant nothing to me. I wasn’t interested in her dead. That seemed perfectly normal to me, since I understood very well that people would forget me when I was dead. They wouldn’t have anything more to do with me” (115). Meursault realized that ever since he and Marie have gotten separated, she meant nothing to him anymore because there wasn’t anything to keep us together or even remind us of each other. Meursault didn’t care if she died because he knew that no one would remember him if he died. This also goes against my stance on my stance on relationships and why we have them and need them. He didn’t care that Marie was out of his life. All of the stuff that they went through didn’t mean anything to him. It shows that he didn’t need a relationship in his life, and it didn’t mean anything to him. He thought that there was nothing important about him to remember. He didn’t see in purpose in life and thought death was an okay thing. His thoughts were completely different than the average person because most people would cry for days about someone that died that they cared about, most people would think about the wonderful things that that person did during his/her lifetime before they died, and most people are extremely fearful of death. It just illustrates that Meursault is very peculiar in his ways and doesn’t see any purpose in life.

Meursault doesn’t care about society and doesn’t care about how people in society perceive him because he doesn’t see a purpose in life, so he went against society in different ways. Meursault does not care about the rules of society and doesn’t care how people perceive him in society because he doesn’t see any purpose in life. He also doesn’t care about relationships in society because he doesn’t really feel the need to have them. Relationships aren’t the same for him as they are for the majority of society. It shows that he doesn’t follow society, and does what he wants to do. As a citizen, however, it is extremely important to follow the laws of society because if you don’t, then bad things happen to you and people that are close to you get upset because of your wrongful actions, even if it isn’t your fault.