Smeedhley Batraville

Mr Gallagher

English 12, CP

6 Dec 2010

Analysis of Camus’ The stranger.Albert Camus in The Stranger describes a man, Mersault, who lives with a daily

routine that he never thinks of changing, not even once; a routine that consists of pleasinghimself and no one else. A routine that makes him care only about himself, which makes himdeceive people sometimes for the purpose of pleasing himself. Camus, in describing Mersault’slife, showed his emotional state of mind. Description from which we will draw the evolution ofsome of Mersault’s habits and feelings and also develop some of the faces of life painted byCamus. Historically during that same period in Algeria, “the Provisional Government of France was transferred to Algeria”(par. 5) due to “Germany [occupying] two thirds of metropolitan France.” (Kitson par. 5) And a few years earlier, Camus had lost his father in world war I.(Cosper Dale Par 3) Mersault was a portray of his actual life which was now purposeless.

In the passage where Raymond is beating up his girlfriend in his room, Albert Camussuggests that people, and life in general can change in a moment to another. He also suggests thatlove can sometimes be pain. And that a relationship can be a prison to a soul.Camus teaches us these kind of lesson because he experienced them himself. Throughout World War II, when “all of France was occupied by the Germans” and “North Africa had fallen to the Allies”(Cosper Dale Par.10) he wanted to go back to Algeria where he left his wife but he couldn’t. He even tried to enlist in the Army but was “[unable to because of his poor health.]”(Cosper Dale Par. 10) We could see that he was a desperate man at that time and had been through a lot.

Raymond was peacefully talking to the woman in his room, as Mersault was passing byhe “heard a woman’s voice in Raymond’s room” (35). Albert Camus exposes the lunatic face oflife when Raymond was “talking” to the woman but suddenly, Mersault heard “a woman’s shrillvoice” (35) and then Raymond saying “you used me, you used me. I’ll teach you to use me.”(35) That’s a quick transition from a peaceful discussion between a couple to “terrifying”“thuds.” (35) This is an example showing that if two people can, in a few minutes, move from adiscussion, evolve to thuds and finally to a fight. The whole world can also in a few minutes, move from a peaceful moment to a giant harmful war which was now happening to Camus that moved from a healthy state to knowing that “his tuberculosis had spread to both lungs” (Cosper Dale Par. 10)

The situation went from discussing to fighting in a matter of seconds. Shouldn’t we, ashumans, see life and all its surroundings as a clock that changes every second? If Raymond thatloves his woman can easily move from a simple discussion to a fight within seconds, Camusproves that a man can move from eating to killing in seconds and even worst, can employ eating

as a synonym of killing.Camus describes in the next few lines how “the woman was shrieking and Raymond was

still hitting her.” (36) Camus qualifies Raymond as a brute. To symbolize Raymond confinedinto his emotional jail beating up his woman and couldn’t remember how he used to love thatsame woman that he’s now hitting to death. Blinded by his emotions and also fortified by them,he was knocking on her like he would do on an object. Camus makes us think about the meaningof love, He makes us question ourselves about our definition of love: shouldn’t love have apositive feed back? Shouldn’t love be positive at all?

Camus clearly tells us that not everybody have the same beliefs. Each person sees life andall its elements in a different way and each person also treats them differently. This should awareour youths heading to this territory.

And this is where we also see Mersault as another type of Raymond or even worsebecause since he’s not the one with the anger as a normal he should have felt bad for the womanand interfere.Camus continues showing us the faces of life when he comes up with the policemanasking Raymond questions after he literally “hit [the woman].” (36) “The cop slapped him.”(36)

And just “the look on Raymond’s face changed, but he didn’t say anything.” (36) Camustransports the image of Raymond from beating her woman to being slapped himself and not doanything about it. He illustrates a good example of the proverb “mountain beyond mountains”telling not to always believe what we first see and that we shall sometime use the eyes of thespirit and again wait for new events to judge the person. Camus first presents Raymond as asadist but he was just taking advantage of the weak woman. Camus suggests that life is a journeythat what people do to their fellow will be also done to them one day. What we can also interpret aswhat goes around comes around.

This part of the passage, Camus uses it as a foil to show the real face of Mersault. Heemphasizes on his carelessness, the lack of feeling of Mersault through his sentence: “[Marie]asked me to go find a policemen, I told her I didn’t like cops.”(36) A woman was getting

knocked on, she was yelling but he was only watching the scene going on like it was nothing. A response that we can blame on the actual facts happening in Camus’ life and also in Algeria. Due to “Operation Torch”(Pyle, Ernie Par.2) now happening in North Africa, everybody was in a state of mistrust and carelessness. In France at the same period, “there were the German intelligences agents running the country for information and also for capturing the Jewish people.The intelligence operations was a lucrative activity “Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister.”(Kitson Simon Par. 7) The mistrust was everywhere around Camus, and it affected him in his way of displaying the existentialism of Mersault. The uniqueness of his carelessness in front of such fact that should have stresses him a little bit at least but didn’t even touch an inch of his feelings. Mersault is an example of existentialism described by Lehman David. Mersault shows that he could let a person die just to satisfy one of his caprices. Camus’s work takes us to think about the versatile face of life. He

also advises about what we see. Most of the time, things are curtained and their real nature can only be discovered with patience.

Albert Camus painted Mersault in his normal days, let’s now see how the carelessMersault, reacts in prison after killing the Arab man, and especially after his conviction.In the passage where Mersault is wondering about the outside life while the judge isdeciding on his fate, Albert Camus suggests that life is hard but not everybody have the chanceto realize what they get and to manage that chance into their own ways. And he also suggeststhat there is no gift in life but people only get what they worked for. He illustrates his point inMersault’s strange behavior in front of the court discussing about his own fate.

Mersault felt that “the sun was getting low outside and it wasn’t hot anymore.”(105) Mersault’scarelessness could be read in his often special thoughts toward the sun. The sun occupies aspecial place in his life; we can see that every time he’s having a bad time he thinks of the sunwhich makes him choose a bad option. Mersault’s life could be compared to a balance to showus, humans, that we always have the choice in our lives. More than once, Mersault arrived in asituation where he needed to choose what to do but he always let the hotness of the sun driveshim out of the right way. In his mom’s funeral he said “the sun was beginning to bear down onthe earth and it was getting hotter by the minute.”(29) In front of the Arab man he said “all Icould feel were the cymbals of the sunlight crashing on my forehead.” And during all these timeshe always made the bad choice. Camus wants wants to show that humans make our choices in lifebecause if we don’t, Mother Nature will do it for us as it did for Mersault. And the choices aren’t

always as we expected them to be. Algiers was at that time at war since it was a french colony and the Allies used the territory to operate their strategies. Camus reproduced himself and his beliefs about the sad days of Algeria in The Stranger. The sun that he could compare to the Allies made Mersault do things that he didn’t want. Mersault represented Algeria. This can be used to justify Mersault’s carelessness about everything. Since the country was at war, Mersault was living with the idea that he could die the next day so it happened that he didn’t care and was living his life on a day to day basis. Camus was also at that time far from home living his wife in Algeria. he wrote the scene of the book In Algeria, to express his nostalgy about his country. Algeria was at war, so in the country nobody was caring about anything since they knew that at any moment the German “Luftaffe” could come around and destroy their homes and their lives.

Camus in his description of Mersault at the court comes up with the idea thatMersault is just getting the crops that he planted earlier. All along his life Mersault was careless,he played with people's feeling and he even played with his mom's death but now due to thatsame carelessness he's being condemned. And still, he wasn't paying attention to his own verdictbut was "[sensing] the sweetness of evening coming on." (105) He was also trying to get "fromwhat street noises [he] could hear" (105) Mersault didn't practically care about his own fate.[He] didn’t mind the human race, [he] got Pretty used to them ( Rexroth Kenneth)Camus suggests that we, humans, need to pay attention to our everyday life and activitiesbecause soon or later we will pay the consequences.

Camus, in this passage of the text wants to sensitize us about our fate depending on oureveryday life and our everyday decisions.

Then Camus continues describing the feelings of Mersault when the priest came to seehim. Earlier, he used to complain of the sun but behind the walls of his cell he now “went andstood under the skylight.” (118) The Priest was telling to look for the face of God but “the facehe was looking for was as bright as the sun and the flame of desire, and it belonged to marry.”Mersault that usually was a calm guy suddenly “something inside [him] snapped. [He] startedyelling the top of [his] lungs, and [he] insulted [the priest] and told [the priest] not to waste hisprayers on me.” Camus continues illustrating his point of view stating that life is versatilethrough Mersault’s behavior. Mersault hated the sun before, but at last he was searching for it.Usually he’s always calm but the situation got him easily mad just by talking to the priest.Mersault was a careless person whom cared about Marie only when she was around wondering ifhe could have her.

Camus in these passages shows that life is like a coin it’s on one side a day but it doesn’thave to be on the same side every other day. Mersault’s life was running on the careless side but at the end when he didn’t have any more chance of turning back he still changed from a non-emotional person to a really emotional one. Camus advises us to be aware of our choices, to make our own choicesand also that we do them at the right time.

“Annotated Bibliography”

“Immigrant Experience”

Zineb Sidera by the Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, 2008 10 jan. 2011

-SummaryZineb was a british artist that was born in a suburb of Paris, France, in 1963 from Algerian immigrant parents. Similar to many other artists from Arab countries living in exile, Sidera is particularly concerned with capturing the personal and political paradoxes and contradictions of living within and between cultures and finds the veil a useful way to do so. The ambiguous meanings of visible and invisible veiling are a metaphor for her own restless experience of migration and exile, and for the complicated questions she has encountered therein.

-Important quotes-The ambiguous meanings of visible and invisible veiling are a metaphor for her own restless experience of migration and exile, and for the complicated questions she has encountered therein.

-PurposeAs an Arab immigrant in a foreign society, she used in her art the only resource that people knew or people could identify her with, the veil, to establish a difference between “being veiled” or “not being veiled.”

Eive, Gloria. "Northward Bound : The Mexican Immigrant Experience in Ballad and Song . "MELUS 25.2 (2000): 212. Literature Resource Center. 10 Jan. 2011

-SummaryMexican immigrants came to America and worked in the factories with low pay andunsafe work conditions.

-Important Quotes:“The United State’s less-than-meritorious treatment of the Mexican immigrants--theirfrustration and loneliness in a hostile environment, their desperate efforts to surviveeconomically, and their tenacious resilience and humor--all these are familiar stories toimmigrants from Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. These immigrants, too, felt the conflictbetween pressures to assimilate into their new culture and the need to retain their own languageand cultural identities. The soul of such people is often expressed in their music. In this well chosen collection of song-texts, Professor Herrera-Sobek offers us a sensitive portrait ofMexican immigrants and new insight toward an understanding not only of the dynamics of theirposition in our society, but also that of other immigrants as well. The cycle of solicitation,exploitation, and deportation documented in the songs seems ominously prophetic today and itsuniversality offers little comfort"(par. 6).

Purpose:Immigrants are faced many difficulties when they moved to foreign country. Theyhave to adjust to use another kind of money to buy products; find a job and house. The biggestproblem was language, they had difficulty speaking and understanding what to do and how to doit. However, Albert Camus is immigrant. He moved to France during the World War I. Infact, these hardships actually helped him became a successful writer. It would inspire theimmigrants to work harder.

“Albert Camus”Cosper, Dale. "Albert Camus ”. Twentieth-Century French Dramatists. Ed. Mary Anne O'Neil.

Detroit: Gale, 2006. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 321. Literature ResourceCenter. 10 Jan. 2011.

-SummaryAlbert Camus was born in Algeria on November 7, 1913. Albert Camus was a

French-Algerian novelist, essayist, and dramatist. He lost his father in World War I, fact that impacted him and made him aware of the destructive effects of the war. He published The Stranger and developed his theory of the absurd in 1942. He died in an automobile accident in 1960. in 1942, he moved to Algeria when France fell to the Germans, he then had to move back due to a tuberculosis attack. then when all of France was occupied by the Germans Camus was unable to rejoin his wife in Algeria. Her tried to enlist as a soldier but couldn’t because of his poor health. he stayed there until the end of the war.

-Important quotes-By November 1942, all of France was occupied by the Germans, and North Africa had fallen to the Allies; hence, Camus was unable to rejoin his wife in Algeria, and they remained separated until the end of the war.(par. 10)-Lucien Auguste Camus, Albert’s father, died of his wounds on 11 October of that year, and he was buried at Saint-Brieuc in Brittany.(par.3)-Unable to enlist in the army because of his poor health, Camus found in Combat a means of political engagement and resistance.

-PurposeCamus throughout his life and specially during this period through which he published this novel was facing a lot of problems which he could have an effect on his writings without even noticing it.

“Existentialism”Lehman, David. "Exit no exit : whatever happened to existentialism ?" American Scholar 77.2(2008): 16+. Literature Resource Center. 10 jan. 2011.

-SummaryIn this essay, Lehman David defines the word "existentialism" in a different way. Inpostwar New York, existentialism was sexy, debonair. Everyone wanted to be existential withoutknowing the meaning. But on the other hand, Lehman, David defines existentialism as aphilosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness. He also reveals the differences between existentialand cool. Beside, Lehman, David also tells greatest moments in the history of existentialism.

-Important Quotes"According to Albert Camus, Algerian-born hero of the French Resistance,practicing existentialism was like fishing in a bathtub. A well-meaning neighbor, thinking tohumor the fisherman in the bathtub, says, "Catch anything?" "No, you fool," the fishermanreplies. "Can't you see this is a bathtub?" Delmore Schwartz sticks with the bathtub image."Existentialism," he wrote, "means that no one else can take a bath for you."(Para 5)

-PurposeExistentialism is a concept that is often explored in works of literature as a way of

displaying a character’s interaction with society. Existentialist is a philosophy that emphasizesthe uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile. In The Stranger, AlbertCamus describes Meusault’s experiences with his mother’s death, his relationship with Marie;his murder of the two Arab men, and his own trial and execution to reveals that Meusault issoulless and heartless. Meusault doesn't care about anyone and anything in his life, even his own life. It tells us that Meusault is a stranger. He is very different from others. According to Lehman David, Meusault is Existentialism.

“Absurdism”McGregor, Rob Roy. " Camus ' s " The Silent Men " and " The Guest ": Depictions of AbsurdAwareness." Studies in Short Fiction. (Vol. 34). .3 (Summer 1997): p307. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Malden High School. 12 Jan. 2011

-Summary:Basically what this article is about is that protagonist of the story Yvars and how he goes throughdifferent struggles in his life, how he goes about his every day routines is just a pain for himbasically he finds no excitement in anything and he’s upset about the fact that he’s aging and soon dead. One example of a struggle is when he blames Lassalle for the death of his own daughter because of his failure of being the way he is.

-Quotes:Despite the gratuitous suffering and possible death of Lassalle's daughter and Yvars's empathy for the father, and despite the rapid accumulation of evidence of human powerlessness when confronted by one's superiors, by institutions, aging, suffering and death, Yvars's feeling of "malheur" (brooding "unhappiness") never crystallizes into a conceptual awareness ("Muets" 1607), and evasion never advances beyond the realizable and daily wish to be home with wife and son (1606), the existential ontological "monde familier" ("familiar world") of Le Mythe de Sisyphe (101). At the end of "The Silent Men," Yvars is intent upon blaming Lassalle for some vague reason: "Ah, c'est de sa faute!" ("Ah, it's his fault!" [1608]). Is the blame for the general collapse of interpersonal relationships? For his own daughter's illness, a kind of retribution for his treatment of the workers? For establishing a personal barrier that prevented Yvars from expressing concern for Lassalle's daughter? Or is the placing of blame a self-serving exculpation for his failure to call out in sympathy to Lassalle? For the purpose of the story, the reason is simultaneously immaterial and functional. When Yvars places blame on someone or something for any situation or condition related to human existence, he shows that he remains within the traditional escapist mentality of his Western culture, an existential mentality inclusive of all theistic and atheistic philosophies, which are much disparaged by Camus in Le Mythe de Sisyphe (122). By placing blame, he derails the conclusion to be drawn from evaluating his (human) condition of unhappiness, helplessness, interpersonal isolation, aging, and eventual death, all of which are consciously and progressively in evidence in his experiences of the day (paragraph 5).

Purpose:The purpose of this article is that the reason is of absurdity is not to put the blame on other for your failures but to make a difference and own up to it.

Essay about the situation in France in 1942.Kitson, Simon. " Spying for Germany in Vichy France ” and “ Gaulle , Charles De (1890–

1970)” by Jean-Jacques Becker. 10 jan 2011-Summary

France's situation in 1940-1942.France’s status during 1942 wasn’t really normal we have proof in general De Gaulle’s

portrait whose will was to “restore the French army at the end of the war” and he was also willing to give the people back their voice; this included women, who were granted the right to vote. A society in which woman don’t have rights, a society which army was devastated. This proves that the country wasn’t running well. The societies which are willing to give women the right to vote were usually wrecked, and so was France.

France was no more in control of its territory, “Germany occupied two thirds of metropolitan France in the period 1940-42”(par. 2) “Phillipe Petain, head of Vichy France, established his new Etat Francais, an effective dictatorship superseding the republican system which he blamed for the French defeat, after signing an armistice with Germany and Italy in June 1940.”(par. 2) This means that France has no Government in Paris, but “the Provisional Government of France was transferred to Algeria.”(par 7)

There were also in France the German intelligences agents running the country for information and also for capturing the Jewish people. Simon Kitson added that “the growth of intelligence operations against France testifies to a basic distrust in the country”.The intelligence operations was a lucrative activity in France “Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister. The reward for information leading to the discovery of an arms depot was between 5,000 and 30,000 francs.” Archives suggest that there were possibly as many as three times the number of German intelligence agents working against France by mid-1941 than there had been in mid-1940.

The situation in France was really tense around 1940-42, the French didn’t have control of their own territory and were under the control of the Germans. It was a really frustrating atmosphere for the French which were living in the country and also for those who were living outside.

Important Quotes_-“Germany occupied two thirds of metropolitan France in the period 1940-42”-”Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister. The reward for information leading to the discovery of an arms depot was between 5,000 and 30,000 francs.”

- “Archives suggest that there were possibly as many as three times the number of German intelligence agents working against France by mid-1941 than there had been in mid-1940.”

Purpose_I would use that part of the history to convince that Albert Camus was passing his state of

mind through Mersault. He was feeling uncertain about himself and didn’t trust anybody. So was Mersault, he didn’t mind anybody but was just living his life.

Essay on Algiers around 1930’s pr 1940’s.Pyle, Ernie, “World War II Reference Library , 2000 ” 10 Jan. 2011.Summary

In 1940, the allies were invading North Africa. Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942. After that the Italian and German troops had occupied the territory in early 1942.

Important quotes:-”Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942.” (par. 5)- By 1942 the northwest African regions of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia had been invaded by German and Italian—or Axis—forces. (par. 1)Purpose:

Algiers was at that time at war since it was a french colony and the Allies used the territory to operate their strategies. Camus pictured the sad days of the Algeria in his book where he reproduced himself or his beliefs about his country. The sun that he could compare to the Allies which made Mersault who represented his “Country” do whatever they wanted.

this can be used to justify Mersault’s carelessness about everything. Since the country was at war, Mersault was maybe living day to day with the idea that he could die the next day so it happened that he didn’t care and was living his life on a day to day basis.

Camus was also at that time far from home living his wife in Algeria. he wrote the scene of the book In Algeria, to express his nostalgy about his country.

Algeria was at war, so in the country nobody was caring about anything since they knew that at any moment the German “Luyftaffe” could come around and destroy their homes and their lives.

Poem“Discrimination” by Kenneth Rox 19 Dec. 2010

Summary

Rexroth tells us how used he is about the human race. He says that nothing matters to him about it. He can sit next to them without caring. One of them can marry his sister he still won’t care.Purpose

This poem shows how regular the author thinks about life, about the people around him. His very first line translates his state of mind: “I don’t mind the human race.” which is exactly how Mersault thinks about the human race. Him that doesn’ t mind looking a woman being beaten, or “humans” discussing about whether he should live or die for he’s done.

Important Quotes:-“I don’t mind the human race. I’ve got pretty used to them

In these past twenty-five years.”-” I shouldn’t Care to see my own sister

Marry one.”Video

“Growing up Immigrant #1 ” by madamhadassah uploaded August 9th 2009. 15 Jan. 2011

-Summary:She’s taking her time to tell us what she had been through as a Haitian child growing up in the Bahamas. she was seen differently by the other childs, they were making fun of them as haitian Students and she felt bad about it but couldn’t say anything. She recognized the good sides of what her mom was doing until she was mature enough to talk to her mom about it. and she says that now, she’s proud of her parents.

-PurposeShe was bullied, they laughed at her but she didn’t reply back. It shows how Camus’s life could be at the time as an Algerian growing up in France in 1942. How hard this could be for him, to live among french students. The early years of Camus’s life weren’t easy as an immigrant.Smeedhley Batraville Mr Gallagher English 12, CP 6 Dec 2010 Analysis of Camus’ The Stranger.Albert Camus in The Stranger describes a man, Mersault, who lives with a daily routine that he never thinks of changing, not even once; a routine that consists of pleasing himself and no one else. A routine that makes him care only about himself, which makes him deceive people

sometimes for the purpose of pleasing himself. Camus, in describing Mersault’s life, showed his emotional state of mind. A description from which we will draw the evolution of some of Mersault’s habits and feelings, and also develop some of the faces of life painted by Camus. Historically during that same period in Algeria, “the Provisional Government of France was transferred to Algeria”(par. 5) due to “Germany [occupying] two thirds of metropolitan France.” (Kitson par. 5) And a few years earlier, Camus had lost his father in world war I.(Cosper Dale Par 3) Mersault was a portray of his actual life which was now purposeless.In the passage where Raymond is beating up his girlfriend in his room, Albert Camussuggests that people, and life in general can change in a moment to another. He also suggests thatlove can sometimes be pain. And that a relationship can be a prison to a soul.Camus teaches us these kind of lesson because he experienced them himself. Throughout World War II, when “all of France was occupied by the Germans” and “North Africa had fallen to the Allies”(Cosper Dale Par.10) he wanted to go back to Algeria where he left his wife but he couldn’t. He even tried to enlist in the Army but was “[unable to because of his poor health.]”(Cosper Dale Par. 10) We could see that he was a desperate man at that time and had been through a lot.Raymond was peacefully talking to the woman in his room, as Mersault was passing by, he “heard a woman’s voice in Raymond’s room” (35). Albert Camus exposes the lunatic face of life when Raymond was “talking” to the woman but suddenly, Mersault heard “a woman’s shrill voice” (35) and then Raymond saying “you used me, you used me. I’ll teach you to use me.”(35) That’s a quick transition from a peaceful discussion between a couple to some terrifying thuds. (35) This is an example showing that if two people can, in a few minutes, move from a discussion, evolve to thuds and finally to a fight. The whole world can also in a few minutes, move from a peaceful moment to a giant harmful war which was now happenning to Camus that moved from a healthy state to knowing that “his tuberculosis had spread to both lungs” (Cosper Dale Par. 10)The situation went from discussing to fighting in a matter of seconds. Shouldn’t we, ashumans, see life and all its surroundings as a clock that changes every second? If Raymond thatloves his woman can easily move from a simple discussion to a fight within seconds, Camusproves that a man can move from eating to killing in seconds and even worst, can employ eatingas a synonym of killing.Camus describes in the next few lines how “the woman was shrieking and Raymond wasstill hitting her.” (36) Camus qualifies Raymond as a brute. To symbolize Raymond confinedinto his emotional jail beating up his woman and couldn’t remember how he used to love thatsame woman that he’s now hitting to death. Blinded by his emotions and also fortified by them,he was knocking on her like he would do on an object. Camus makes us think about the meaningof love, He makes us question ourselves about our definition of love: shouldn’t love have apositive feed back? Shouldn’t love be positive at all?Camus clearly tells us that not everybody have the same beliefs. Each person sees life andall its elements in a different way and each person also treats them differently. This should aware

our youths heading to this territory.And this is where we also see Mersault as another type of Raymond or even worsebecause since he’s not the one with the anger as a normal he should have felt bad for the womanand interfere.Camus continues showing us the faces of life when he comes up with the policemanasking Raymond questions after he literally “hit [the woman].” (36) “The cop slapped him.”(36)And just “the look on Raymond’s face changed, but he didn’t say anything.” (36) Camustransports the image of Raymond from beating her woman to being slapped himself and not doanything about it. He illustrates a good example of the proverb “mountain beyond mountains”telling not to always believe what we first see and that we shall sometime use the eyes of thespirit and again wait for new events to judge the person. Camus first presents Raymond as asadist but he was just taking advantage of the weak woman. Camus suggests that life is a journeythat what people do to their fellow will be also done to them one day. What we can also interpret as what goes around comes around.This part of the passage, Camus uses it as a foil to show the real face of Mersault. Heemphasizes on his carelessness, the lack of feeling of Mersault through his sentence: “[Marie]asked me to go find a policemen, I told her I didn’t like cops.”(36) A woman was getting knocked on, she was yelling but he was only watching the scene going on like it was nothing. A response that we can blame on the facts happening in Camus’ life at that time. Due to “Operation Torch”(Pyle, Ernie Par.2) now happening in North Africa, everybody was in a state of mistrust and carelessness. In France at the same period, “there were the German intelligences agents running the country for information and also for capturing the Jewish people.The intelligence operations were a lucrative activity “Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister.”(Kitson Simon Par. 7) The mistrust was everywhere around Camus, and it affected him in his way of displaying the existentialism of Mersault. The uniqueness of his carelessness in front of such fact that should have stresses him a little bit at least but didn’t even touch an inch of his feelings. Mersault is an example of existentialism described by Lehman David. Mersault shows that he could let a person die just to satisfy one of his caprices. Camus’s work takes us to think about the versatile face of life. He also advises about what we see. Most of the time, things are curtained and their real nature can only be discovered with patience.Albert Camus painted Mersault in his normal days, let’s now see how the carelessMersault, reacts in prison after killing the Arab man, and especially after his conviction.In the passage where Mersault is wondering about the outside life while the judge isdeciding on his fate, Albert Camus suggests that life is hard but not everybody have the chanceto realize what they get and to manage that chance into their own ways. And he also suggeststhat there is no gift in life but people only get what they worked for. He illustrates his point inMersault’s strange behavior in front of the court discussing about his own fate.Mersault felt that “the sun was getting low outside and it wasn’t hot anymore.”(105) Mersault’s carelessness could be read in his often special thoughts toward the sun. The sun occupies a special place in his life; we can see that every time he’s having a bad time he thinks of the sun which makes him choose a bad option. Mersault’s life could be compared to a balance to show

us, humans, that we always have the choice in our lives. More than once, Mersault arrived in a situation where he needed to choose what to do but he always let the hotness of the sun drives him out of the right way. In his mom’s funeral he said “the sun was beginning to bear down on the earth and it was getting hotter by the minute.”(29) In front of the Arab man he said “all I could feel were the cymbals of the sunlight crashing on my forehead.” And during all these times he always made the bad choice. Camus wants wants to show that humans make our choices in life because if we don’t, Mother Nature will do it for us as it did for Mersault. And the choices aren’t always as we expected them to be. Algiers was at that time at war since it was a french colony and the Allies used the territory to operate their strategies. Camus reproduced himself and his beliefs about the sad days of Algeria in The Stranger. The sun that he could compare to the Allies made Mersault do things that he didn’t want. Mersault represented Algeria. This can be used to justify Mersault’s carelessness about everything. Since the country was at war, Mersault was living with the idea that he could die the next day so it happened that he didn’t care and was living his life on a day to day basis. Camus was also at that time far from home living his wife in Algeria. he wrote the scene of the book In Algeria, to express his nostalgy about his country. Algeria was at war, so in the country nobody was caring about anything since they knew that at any moment the German “Luftaffe” could come around and destroy their homes and their lives.Camus in his description of Mersault at the court comes up with the idea thatMersault is just getting the crops that he planted earlier. All along his life Mersault was careless,he played with people's feeling and he even played with his mom's death but now due to thatsame carelessness he's being condemned. And still, he wasn't paying attention to his own verdictbut was "[sensing] the sweetness of evening coming on." (105) He was also trying to get "fromwhat street noises [he] could hear" (105) Mersault didn't practically care about his own fate.[He] didn’t mind the human race, [he] got Pretty used to them ( Rexroth Kenneth)Camus suggests that we, humans, need to pay attention to our everyday life and activitiesbecause soon or later we will pay the consequences.Camus, in this passage of the text wants to sensitize us about our fate depending on oureveryday life and our everyday decisions.Then Camus continues describing the feelings of Mersault when the priest came to seehim. Earlier, he used to complain of the sun but behind the walls of his cell he now “went andstood under the skylight.” (118) The Priest was telling to look for the face of God but “the facehe was looking for was as bright as the sun and the flame of desire, and it belonged to marry.”Mersault that usually was a calm guy suddenly “something inside [him] snapped. [He] startedyelling the top of [his] lungs, and [he] insulted [the priest] and told [the priest] not to waste hisprayers on me.” Camus continues illustrating his point of view stating that life is versatilethrough Mersault’s behavior. Mersault hated the sun before, but at last he was searching for it.Usually he’s always calm but the situation got him easily mad just by talking to the priest.Mersault was a careless person whom cared about Marie only when she was around wondering ifhe could have her.Camus in these passages shows that life is like a coin it’s on one side a day but it doesn’t

have to be on the same side every other day. Mersault’s life was running on the careless side but at the end when he didn’t have any more chance of turning back he still changed from a non-emotional person to a really emotional one. Camus advises us to be aware of our choices, to make our own choices and also that we do them at the right time.

“Annotated Bibliography”

“Immigrant Experience”

Zineb Sidera by the Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, 2008 10 jan. 2011

-SummaryZineb was a british artist that was born in a suburb of Paris, France, in 1963 from Algerian immigrant parents. Similar to many other artists from Arab countries living in exile, Sidera is particularly concerned with capturing the personal and political paradoxes and contradictions of living within and between cultures and finds the veil a useful way to do so. The ambiguous meanings of visible and invisible veiling are a metaphor for her own restless experience of migration and exile, and for the complicated questions she has encountered therein. -Important quotes-The ambiguous meanings of visible and invisible veiling are a metaphor for her own restless experience of migration and exile, and for the complicated questions she has encountered therein. -PurposeAs an Arab immigrant in a foreign society, she used in her art the only resource that people knew or people could identify her with, the veil, to establish a difference between “being veiled” or “not being veiled.” Eive, Gloria. "Northward Bound : The Mexican Immigrant Experience in Ballad and Song . "MELUS 25.2 (2000): 212. Literature Resource Center. 10 Jan. 2011 -SummaryMexican immigrants came to America and worked in the factories with low pay andunsafe work conditions. -Important Quotes:“The United State’s less-than-meritorious treatment of the Mexican immigrants--theirfrustration and loneliness in a hostile environment, their desperate efforts to surviveeconomically, and their tenacious resilience and humor--all these are familiar stories toimmigrants from Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. These immigrants, too, felt the conflictbetween pressures to assimilate into their new culture and the need to retain their own language

and cultural identities. The soul of such people is often expressed in their music. In this well chosen collection of song-texts, Professor Herrera-Sobek offers us a sensitive portrait ofMexican immigrants and new insight toward an understanding not only of the dynamics of theirposition in our society, but also that of other immigrants as well. The cycle of solicitation,exploitation, and deportation documented in the songs seems ominously prophetic today and itsuniversality offers little comfort"(par. 6). Purpose:Immigrants are faced many difficulties when they moved to foreign country. Theyhave to adjust to use another kind of money to buy products; find a job and house. The biggestproblem was language, they had difficulty speaking and understanding what to do and how to doit. However, Albert Camus is immigrant. He moved to France during the World War I. Infact, these hardships actually helped him became a successful writer. It would inspire theimmigrants to work harder.

“Albert Camus”Cosper, Dale. "Albert Camus ”. Twentieth-Century French Dramatists. Ed. Mary Anne O'Neil.

Detroit: Gale, 2006. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 321. Literature ResourceCenter. 10 Jan. 2011.

-SummaryAlbert Camus was born in Algeria on November 7, 1913. Albert Camus was aFrench-Algerian novelist, essayist, and dramatist. He lost his father in World War I, fact that impacted him and made him aware of the destructive effects of the war. He published The Stranger and developed his theory of the absurd in 1942. He died in an automobile accident in 1960. in 1942, he moved to Algeria when France fell to the Germans, he then had to move back due to a tuberculosis attack. then when all of France was occupied by the Germans Camus was unable to rejoin his wife in Algeria. Her tried to enlist as a soldier but couldn’t because of his poor health. he stayed there until the end of the war. -Important quotes-By November 1942, all of France was occupied by the Germans, and North Africa had fallen to the Allies; hence, Camus was unable to rejoin his wife in Algeria, and they remained separated until the end of the war.(par. 10)-Lucien Auguste Camus, Albert’s father, died of his wounds on 11 October of that year, and he was buried at Saint-Brieuc in Brittany.(par.3)-Unable to enlist in the army because of his poor health, Camus found in Combat a means of political engagement and resistance. -PurposeCamus throughout his life and specially during this period through which he published this novel was facing a lot of problems which he could have an effect on his writings without even noticing it.

“Existentialism”

Lehman, David. "Exit no exit : whatever happened to existentialism ?" American Scholar 77.2(2008): 16+. Literature Resource Center. 10 jan. 2011. -SummaryIn this essay, Lehman David defines the word "existentialism" in a different way. Inpostwar New York, existentialism was sexy, debonair. Everyone wanted to be existential withoutknowing the meaning. But on the other hand, Lehman, David defines existentialism as aphilosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness. He also reveals the differences between existentialand cool. Beside, Lehman, David also tells greatest moments in the history of existentialism. -Important Quotes"According to Albert Camus, Algerian-born hero of the French Resistance,practicing existentialism was like fishing in a bathtub. A well-meaning neighbor, thinking tohumor the fisherman in the bathtub, says, "Catch anything?" "No, you fool," the fishermanreplies. "Can't you see this is a bathtub?" Delmore Schwartz sticks with the bathtub image."Existentialism," he wrote, "means that no one else can take a bath for you."(Para 5) -PurposeExistentialism is a concept that is often explored in works of literature as a way ofdisplaying a character’s interaction with society. Existentialist is a philosophy that emphasizesthe uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile. In The Stranger, AlbertCamus describes Meusault’s experiences with his mother’s death, his relationship with Marie;his murder of the two Arab men, and his own trial and execution to reveals that Meusault issoulless and heartless. Meusault doesn't care about anyone and anything in his life, even his own life. It tells us that Meusault is a stranger. He is very different from others. According to Lehman David, Meusault is Existentialism.

“Absurdism”McGregor, Rob Roy. " Camus ' s " The Silent Men " and " The Guest ": Depictions of AbsurdAwareness." Studies in Short Fiction. (Vol. 34). .3 (Summer 1997): p307. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Malden High School. 12 Jan. 2011 -Summary:Basically what this article is about is that protagonist of the story Yvars and how he goes throughdifferent struggles in his life, how he goes about his every day routines is just a pain for himbasically he finds no excitement in anything and he’s upset about the fact that he’s aging and soon dead. One example of a struggle is when he blames Lassalle for the death of his own daughter because of his failure of being the way he is. -Quotes:Despite the gratuitous suffering and possible death of Lassalle's daughter and Yvars's empathy for the father, and despite the rapid accumulation of evidence of human powerlessness when confronted by one's superiors, by institutions, aging, suffering and death, Yvars's feeling of

"malheur" (brooding "unhappiness") never crystallizes into a conceptual awareness ("Muets" 1607), and evasion never advances beyond the realizable and daily wish to be home with wife and son (1606), the existential ontological "monde familier" ("familiar world") of Le Mythe de Sisyphe (101). At the end of "The Silent Men," Yvars is intent upon blaming Lassalle for some vague reason: "Ah, c'est de sa faute!" ("Ah, it's his fault!" [1608]). Is the blame for the general collapse of interpersonal relationships? For his own daughter's illness, a kind of retribution for his treatment of the workers? For establishing a personal barrier that prevented Yvars from expressing concern for Lassalle's daughter? Or is the placing of blame a self-serving exculpation for his failure to call out in sympathy to Lassalle? For the purpose of the story, the reason is simultaneously immaterial and functional. When Yvars places blame on someone or something for any situation or condition related to human existence, he shows that he remains within the traditional escapist mentality of his Western culture, an existential mentality inclusive of all theistic and atheistic philosophies, which are much disparaged by Camus in Le Mythe de Sisyphe (122). By placing blame, he derails the conclusion to be drawn from evaluating his (human) condition of unhappiness, helplessness, interpersonal isolation, aging, and eventual death, all of which are consciously and progressively in evidence in his experiences of the day (paragraph 5). Purpose:The purpose of this article is that the reason is of absurdity is not to put the blame on other for your failures but to make a difference and own up to it.

Essay about the situation in France in 1942.Kitson, Simon. "Spying for Germany in Vichy France” and “ Gaulle, Charles De (1890–1970)” by Jean-Jacques Becker. 10 jan 2011-Summary

France's situation in 1940-1942.France’s status during 1942 wasn’t really normal we have proof in general De Gaulle’s portrait whose will was to “restore the French army at the end of the war” and he was also willing to give the people back their voice; this included women, who were granted the right to vote. A society in which woman don’t have rights, a society which army was devastated. This proves that the country wasn’t running well. The societies which are willing to give women the right to vote were usually wrecked, and so was France. France was no more in control of its territory, “Germany occupied two thirds of metropolitan France in the period 1940-42”(par. 2) “Phillipe Petain, head of Vichy France, established his new Etat Francais, an effective dictatorship superseding the republican system which he blamed for the French defeat, after signing an armistice with Germany and Italy in June 1940.”(par. 2) This means that France has no Government in Paris, but “the Provisional Government of France was transferred to Algeria.”(par 7)There were also in France the German intelligences agents running the country for information and also for capturing the Jewish people. Simon Kitson added that “the growth of intelligence operations against France testifies to a basic distrust in the country”.

The intelligence operations was a lucrative activity in France “Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister. The reward for information leading to the discovery of an arms depot was between 5,000 and 30,000 francs.” Archives suggest that there were possibly as many as three times the number of German intelligence agents working against France by mid-1941 than there had been in mid-1940. The situation in France was really tense around 1940-42, the French didn’t have control of their own territory and were under the control of the Germans. It was a really frustrating atmosphere for the French which were living in the country and also for those who were living outside. Important Quotes_-“Germany occupied two thirds of metropolitan France in the period 1940-42”-”Spies could earn 1,000 francs for the denunciation of a Jew and 3,000 francs for a Resister. The reward for information leading to the discovery of an arms depot was between 5,000 and 30,000 francs.”- “Archives suggest that there were possibly as many as three times the number of German intelligence agents working against France by mid-1941 than there had been in mid-1940.” Purpose_I would use that part of the history to convince that Albert Camus was passing his state of mind through Mersault. He was feeling uncertain about himself and didn’t trust anybody. So was Mersault, he didn’t mind anybody but was just living his life.

Essay on Algiers around 1930’s pr 1940’s.Pyle, Ernie, “World War II Reference Library , 2000 ” 10 Jan. 2011.SummaryIn 1940, the allies were invading North Africa. Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942. After that the Italian and German troops had occupied the territory in early 1942. Important quotes:-”Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942.” (par. 5)- By 1942 the northwest African regions of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia had been invaded by German and Italian—or Axis—forces. (par. 1)Purpose:Algiers was at that time at war since it was a french colony and the Allies used the territory to operate their strategies. Camus pictured the sad days of the Algeria in his book where he reproduced himself or his beliefs about his country. The sun that he could compare to the Allies which made Mersault who represented his “Country” do whatever they wanted.

this can be used to justify Mersault’s carelessness about everything. Since the country was at war, Mersault was maybe living day to day with the idea that he could die the next day so it happened that he didn’t care and was living his life on a day to day basis.Camus was also at that time far from home living his wife in Algeria. he wrote the scene of the book In Algeria, to express his nostalgy about his country.Algeria was at war, so in the country nobody was caring about anything since they knew that at any moment the German “Luyftaffe” could come around and destroy their homes and their lives.

Poem“Discrimination” by Kenneth Rox 19 Dec. 2010 SummaryRexroth tells us how used he is about the human race. He says that nothing matters to him about it. He can sit next to them without caring. One of them can marry his sister he still won’t care.PurposeThis poem shows how regular the author thinks about life, about the people around him. His very first line translates his state of mind: “I don’t mind the human race.” which is exactly how Mersault thinks about the human race. Him that doesn’ t mind looking a woman being beaten, or “humans” discussing about whether he should live or die for he’s done. Important Quotes:

-“I don’t mind the human race. I’ve got pretty used to them

In these past twenty-five years.”-” I shouldn’t Care to see my own sister

Marry one.”Video

“Growing up Immigrant #1 ” by madamhadassah uploaded August 9th 2009. 15 Jan. 2011 -Summary:She’s taking her time to tell us what she had been through as a Haitian child growing up in the Bahamas. she was seen differently by the other childs, they were making fun of them as haitian Students and she felt bad about it but couldn’t say anything. She recognized the good sides of what her mom was doing until she was mature enough to talk to her mom about it. and she says that now, she’s proud of her parents. -PurposeShe was bullied, they laughed at her but she didn’t reply back. It shows how Camus’s life could be at the time as an Algerian growing up in France in 1942. How hard this could be for him, to live among french students. The early years of Camus’s life weren’t easy as an immigrant.