Eric Steigelfest
When Mersault, the main character in "The Sranger", realizes what his death sentence means, he shows a bit of emotion. This emotion, however, is not about any people or activities, it's rather about becoming free from his cell again. For me, Mersault's actions and feelings were not enough to convince me that he isn't a psychopath, as all of his behavior leads me to believe. I believe that the author could've taken an alternate route for the ending of the story, revealing that Mersault truly does have feelings and legitimately does care. An alternate ending to "The Stranger" could've been a scenario where Mersualt finds that he is in love with Marie, and agrees to say that he will try to let religion put him back on the right track, even if he didn't plan on believing it. If Mersault actually cared about anything, he would make the necessary sacrifices to allow that thing to continue to be a part of his life. In the original rendition of "The Stranger", Albert Camus has Mersault show, however, that he cared more about his dignity, uniqueness and lack of conformity than he did about anything else in his life. The last part of the book is the part that usually reveals the moral of the story and that was certainly true in this case. Had Camus told about how Mersualt discovers that he cares about Marie, the moral of the story would show the power that a love connection has. In contrast, I interpreted the moral of the original story to be that some people have strong minds with unique, and unorthodox beliefs that are more important to them than anything else.
It's interesting to consider the possibiity that Meursault finds more meaning in the life that he was leading before his imprisonment. If he had discovered that his relationship to Marie should have been more important to him, or that he needed to find religion in order to discover meaning, the book would have been a lot different.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Meursault remains faithful to his former self (he says he realized that he "had been happy") shows that he's thinking forward, rather than backwards -- and that by thinking forward he is not changing.
I also find it intriguing that a human, no matter how stoic he or she may be, keeps his emotions bottled up without the "explosion" effect. Every person, regardless of their past experiences in life, does care about at least a few things in life whether it be trivial or monumental.
ReplyDeleteI agree with how Meursault is portrayed at the end. He shows that he has feelings, but not enough to convince readers that he isn't a psychopath. I like how you made Meursault have genuine feelings for Marine in your alternate ending. If Camus had added that to the book, the ending would be a more positive one.
ReplyDelete