Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Dog Days

"I realized he was crying. For some reason, I thought of Maman." (39)

Meursault overhears Salamano crying over his lost dog, and his thoughts go straight to his mother. Is this him finally showing signs of feeling sad about his mother's death? Or does he just feel guilty about the fact that he has not cried about her yet? Given his lack of interest towards his mother so far, I interpreted it as the latter.

It is also worth noting how in this scene Salamano has become one of the many character foils for Meursault that inhabit this story. The "robot woman"'s obsessive mannerisms contrasted Meursault's go-with-the-flow nature. Marie's exuberance for marriage and her belief in love are countered by Meursault's total apathy towards these things. In his remorse for his dog, Salamano only makes the indifference Meursault feels towards his mother more apparent, and more disturbing.

8 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. That is a really interesting observation. I did't think of all those other characters as foils of Meursault, but now that you point it out, I totally see it. I wonder if Meursault's foils are a way for him to express his feelings. Since Meursault can't express how he feels, Camus uses the other characters to give us feelings.
    I also like the comment about Meursault maybe having feelings for his mom. Since he can't just directly express feelings he expresses himself through his observations.

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  3. I like the title of this! I also liked the quote at the beginning, to me it seems as if he is starting to have some emotions, maybe he is missing his mom?

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    1. I think that this is a possibility. I also think that there is a chance that Meursault feels like he should be having emotions regarding his mother's death and simply does not. The many contrasts throughout the book definitely help build Meursault's interesting character and that was great to point out, Meghan. You highlighted some small details that I had not even thought of.

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  4. I like your analysis of the robot woman! It was definitely weird how we saw Meursault as this stranger character thinking of the robot woman in the same way that we think of him. But I suppose that her actions contradicted to his- nice analysis!
    I, however, think that Meursault thought about his mother after the Salamano dog situation not because he felt guilty for not crying at his mother's funeral, but because he finally understood why people cry. Salamano cried because he had lost someone important to him. When Meursault heard him, he realized that people cry when they lose someone who's supposed to be important to them. Meursault probably recognized that people would usually cry when they lose their mothers and that is why he thought of her. I still feel at this point he is incapable of feeling much emotion.

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  5. When I read that line I thought it to be him feeling real connection to his mother and sadness over her death, and these confused him greatly. I didn't even think that it could just be him feeling guilty that he hadn't cried for her yet. Now that it's been pointed out I completely agree.

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  6. I think the quotation you selected is key to understanding Meursault's character. This has to be a detail indicating that Meaursault in not just an apathetical man who has a degrading perspective of women. Camus would not have added this line to the story if he didn't want the reader to see that there is more to Meaursault then how he acts.

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  7. I think the quotation you selected is key to understanding Meursault's character. This has to be a detail indicating that Meaursault in not just an apathetical man who has a degrading perspective of women. Camus would not have added this line to the story if he didn't want the reader to see that there is more to Meaursault then how he acts.

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