I have enjoyed reading The Stranger so far. I think that Mersault is a very interesting and unusual character. He responds oddly to certain situations and I am curious about the reasons why. Chapter one starts off with the death of Mersault's Maman. Mersault does not act like a person regularly would about the death of someone close to them. First, during his mother's vigil, Mersault was smoking and he feel asleep. Then when it came time for his mother's funeral, he did not shed a tear. There is something in me that seems to think Mersault is trying to hide his true emotions. He kept on declining the offer to see his mother's body, so maybe he is in denial and does not want to face his real emotions.
On top of all of this, after Maman's funeral, Mersault goes and sleeps with one of his coworkers, Marie. People were discussing in the fishbowl this week whether Mersault was acting appropriately by doing this. Some thought that it was heartless of Mersault to do considering his mother had just died. I agreed with the other half that said that maybe this was Mersault's way of griefing. Everybody has different ways of coping with loss and I think this is how Mersault is attempting to. I think he is trying to distract himself from facing the reality of Maman's death. Additionally, Mersault won't tell Marie he loves her, but yet he has agreed to marry her. I think that is very odd. This all leads me to wonder why Mersault is hiding his emotions or if maybe this is just how he is. What do you guys think?
I agree with the fact that he responds really oddly to some situations.
ReplyDeleteCaitlin, I completely agree that Meursault has a much different way of grieving than the normal person, and I also think that he is grieving in his own way. This is why I find it incredibly unfair how in the trial the prosecutor tried to frame him as inhumane because he slept with Marie the day after his mother's funeral. There is no uniform way to grieve, and I think this was just the only way he knew how to.
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