Thursday, October 19, 2017

It's Always Sunny in Algeria


Between all of the complete and utter disregard for other's emotions in the show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, one can already draw parallels to the individualist sense of self that Meursault has in The Stranger. 

One character in specific though, Dennis Reynolds, shows the complete embodiment of Meursault's self absorbed actions. Self absorbed in the best sense of the word. Because he follows his true feelings and disregarding others. Dennis is the part owner of a failing Irish pub with his sister, estranged father, and incompetent friends who he treats as though he does not know. Moreover, just like Meursault, Dennis is filled with passion and desire about the simple pleasures of the world such as sex and smoking (in Dennis's case, Crack). 

While Dennis is much less moral and has a desire for control over others, and his lust extends unto those who do not want it, he still follows the same ideology as Meursault. That ideology being a sense of self worth, and following ones own desires rather than societies rules. Although Dennis is shunned by society for his short-comings, like Meursault, Dennis continues to act as an outsider, and is often punished for it. 

Although Dennis's shortcomings might be more modeled off a modern day society, there are very strong parallels between his own life ideology and that of Meursault.

2 comments:

  1. I love this show! The only difference I see between Meursault and Dennis, is that Meursault is liberated by his ideology, while Dennis seems to be an extremely sad person. In the end of the book, Meursault seems to struggle with his happiness, and doubts his radical individuality, but by the end he believes that he was always right, and is happy with the way he lived his life. Don't know if I could say the same for Dennis.

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    1. I thought of this parallel right away when we talked about Seinfeld in class, but I agree with Eliana. Even though they are both detached outsiders who are completely self absorbed, they do still have some big differences. Meursault never really tries to fit societies expectations, except maybe in the beginning with work and the funeral, but to me it seems like Dennis disregards some aspects of society, but really desperately tries to fit into others.

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