Thursday, October 5, 2017

A Spotlight On Grief

The first impression that I made of Meursault was through his reaction to his mother’s death. In fact, The Stranger’s opening sentence is “Maman died today” (1). And it is in those first few preceding pages that I came to the conclusion that Meursault was an emotionally-void man. But is this fair? Was my characterization through his grieving process appropriate? I have often heard the line about how everyone grieves differently, and that there is no “correct” way to grieve. With this in mind, why is it so easy to pass such fast judgement on Meursault? When answering this question I also want to consider stigmas around masculinity. Men, more than women, are expected by society to be emotionally tough; crying is often seen as babyish and unmanly. However, men, along with women, are expected to be emotionally vulnerable after the death of a loved one. So isn’t this putting conflicting expectations on Meursault? Albeit in situations not involving his mother’s passing Meursault still appears to be cold-hearted and emotionless, and despite his expectations to grieve after the funeral is over, he is still cold about Maman's death with Marie(20).  Despite us having access to his internal monologue, we never are able to emotionally connect with Meursault which makes him easy to dehumanize and consider sociopathic. However, we start the story after his mother’s death so this could also be just one big act of grief?  We may never know.


Q: Is it fair to characterize Meursault through his grieving process?

7 comments:

  1. I totally agree with your idea of our judgment of Meursault and his apparent calousness being unfair. Meursault represents something we are not supposed to be, quick to get over loss and emotionally lacking. This contrast sets us up to view him as boring and wrong in many ways. I think you made a really interesting point bringing up the fact that because we can never connect to Meursault we will always judge him. However, according to Nabokov aren't we never supposed to place ourselves in characters shoes. This belief I think could further and improve our understanding of Meursault and his actions.

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  2. Although I generally agree that judging Meursault in a time of mourning is unfair, I think your justification using the contrasting societal expectations of toughness and vulnerability is a bit off. I think the point of Meursault is that he doesn't conform to any of these expectations, both before and after his mother's death. His perceived solemnity comes from a personal choice not to place value in work, love, family, etc, not from any adherence to social norms.

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  3. Wow I haven't thought about this ironic dichotomy since reading this book. That's super important to note that we as a society want Meursault to be "more in tune with this emotions" yet at the same time would feel odd if he was to dwell on his feelings. Super good point. I think while natural, judging people on first impressions is often destructive rather than productive. Although, we've seen so much of him now (I mean the insane passive sexism and MURDER) I feel as if we're morally excused to judge him now.

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  4. Really good question. I think it is fair to criticize Meursault, even after the death of his mother, because he shows how disconnected he was from his before she died. Although, his reasoning for sending his mom to a home was for financial reasons, I think they were more for his own personal convenience. Therefore, I don't think we can give the a pass because he never really wanted her in the first place.

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  5. This is an intriguing question. I think some of the reason that we leap to judgement is Meursault's absolute lack of grief. We allow people to grieve in different ways, but as soon as someone deviates so completely from what we view as normal, we immediately wonder what is wrong. In real life, we aren't afforded this luxury of judgement because we can never know a true lack of grief as we never hear someone's internal monologue. We do here and that makes it easy to pass judgement.

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  6. I agree with your points and liked how you brought up gender norms. Yes, people grieve in all different ways. However, Meursault character did not really evolve and his personality was the same before and after his mother died in my opinion. He barely visited his mother when she was alive, and did not seem bothered by it. At the funeral, he just kept judging everyone there and still seem unbothered that his just mother died. So, I think it is fair to be critical of Meursault's grieving process.

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  7. I agree that Camus could just be characterizing Mersault's grief as void of emotion which gives the reader the poor impression of him. Further, I think one can connect his grief to a later part of the book. The glaring memory Mersault has is from his mother's funeral is the horrible heat. And, when he is on the beach, about to shoot the Arab, he notes not the heat again is unbearable and it seems like the hot sun is what pushes him to engage with and ultimately shoot the Arab. So, along the lines of Mersault's perhaps unusual grieving process, could it be used to partially explain his actions on the beach, as the situation reminded him of his mother's funeral?

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