Are we the one who is in control of ourselves? Or the nature is the one who is controlling us? If so, is it possible to go against nature? In other words, are we adapting to the nature or vice versa?
As I kept reading the book The Stranger by Albert Camus, I realized the protagonist that he depicts is someone who just get used to everything that is happening to him and never had the ambition to make a little difference in his life. To many of the outsiders or readers I would call, might have a very strong reaction to this and must have asked why and how can this be? Why someone will just let things happen to him and don’t even have the tendency to make a change in his life? But as I trigger my thoughts in my mind, I understand why and find it more connected to this main character, Meursault.
I choose to talk about this, is because I found this pattern very often throughout the book. In part I of the book, Meursault kept talking about the sunlight that bothers him, his surroundings, or his own apartment most of the time other than opening the door of his heart to the readers. At the beginning, I thought the light is one of the significant images or motif that keeps appearing to grab the readers’ attention as a hint to certain details. But then I found out that nature is the bigger picture of the overall recurring images that I saw.
In part I when Meursault was at the funeral, he did not seem to show a lot of emotions towards his Maman’s death. Instead, he describes the sky “filled with light”, the sun “bear down on the earth” and the sun bothers him a lot because “it was getting hotter by the minute”. Based on these terms, we might just think he is cold and talked about things to distract him from what is actually happening to him. But at the end of part I when the sunlight comes up in the book again, it became a set up of the climax in the book. The “sun” as Meursault describes in chapter 6, it was “the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman”, and it was the “burning” that caused him to “move forward”. This step that he took had caused him to commit a crime for murdering the Arab. As the climax comes, the readers are able to enter Meursault’s heart and get a little taste of his feelings. However, many of us including myself, as readers find it confuse why someone will do something like this and did not even have the tendency to confront for himself.
Until the moment I read part II of the book, I completely understand why and Meursault’s intention of being the self that he is being. Perhaps, his mom is one of the influence of triggering him to think human are able to adapt to anything and get used to it conventionally. But my interpretation of Meursault being this way or the author’s purpose of setting him up this way is to question is it possible to go against nature? When Meursault got into jail, he was not surprised or very upset, because he knew he could get used to this sooner or later. As he stated, “it was only natural; I was young.” This leads to think that Meursault views himself or human overall as very powerless characters in life. In other words to the extreme, he looks at things as nothing really matters that much, because we can’t make a change anyway. He sees the sunlight, furniture to memorize, his mom’s death…etc., all, as something that will happen or appear to be natural. Everything just happens, and human should be the one who is supposed to adapt to the environment, not to go against it. I think this is the main reason why Meursault behave this way in the book, because he sees himself as a powerless character.
He does not think killing the Arab is his fault, but only the sunlight that forces him to do so.
He does not cry in his Maman’s funeral, because the sunlight and the heat bothers him too much that made him so inhuman and emotionless.
He does not get too unhappy in the cell, because he thinks everything just happens naturally, and all he can do is to adapt to it.
…
All these excuses that Merusault gave himself have made him view himself as a even more powerless person. He tries to “kill time”, but he knew he couldn’t. Time is something that comes naturally and he knew it is impossible to. Therefore, he starts to memorize the positions of the furniture to put himself in a hallucinate state of mind. It is the way he views himself that caused him to lose his ambition, and he gave up on making a change because it does not matter to him.
In my opinion, I do think nature is something that we cannot control. But I disagree with the way Merusault view the world this way. Just like my own life, I do know time is something that I cannot control, and someday for sure I will die. But I will not just let things be, but to make a difference. What Merusault don’t realize is that he actually has a lot of power over his own self. If we realized our future is in our own hand, then we will not let nature to be on our way. Yes, we cannot control how others wanted to be, but we can control ourselves to be certain ways that satisfy what we desire. We are powerless perhaps, but we do have power over many things.
I do know why Mersualt acts in this way and to me; this is a tragedy!
As I kept reading the book The Stranger by Albert Camus, I realized the protagonist that he depicts is someone who just get used to everything that is happening to him and never had the ambition to make a little difference in his life. To many of the outsiders or readers I would call, might have a very strong reaction to this and must have asked why and how can this be? Why someone will just let things happen to him and don’t even have the tendency to make a change in his life? But as I trigger my thoughts in my mind, I understand why and find it more connected to this main character, Meursault.
I choose to talk about this, is because I found this pattern very often throughout the book. In part I of the book, Meursault kept talking about the sunlight that bothers him, his surroundings, or his own apartment most of the time other than opening the door of his heart to the readers. At the beginning, I thought the light is one of the significant images or motif that keeps appearing to grab the readers’ attention as a hint to certain details. But then I found out that nature is the bigger picture of the overall recurring images that I saw.
In part I when Meursault was at the funeral, he did not seem to show a lot of emotions towards his Maman’s death. Instead, he describes the sky “filled with light”, the sun “bear down on the earth” and the sun bothers him a lot because “it was getting hotter by the minute”. Based on these terms, we might just think he is cold and talked about things to distract him from what is actually happening to him. But at the end of part I when the sunlight comes up in the book again, it became a set up of the climax in the book. The “sun” as Meursault describes in chapter 6, it was “the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman”, and it was the “burning” that caused him to “move forward”. This step that he took had caused him to commit a crime for murdering the Arab. As the climax comes, the readers are able to enter Meursault’s heart and get a little taste of his feelings. However, many of us including myself, as readers find it confuse why someone will do something like this and did not even have the tendency to confront for himself.
Until the moment I read part II of the book, I completely understand why and Meursault’s intention of being the self that he is being. Perhaps, his mom is one of the influence of triggering him to think human are able to adapt to anything and get used to it conventionally. But my interpretation of Meursault being this way or the author’s purpose of setting him up this way is to question is it possible to go against nature? When Meursault got into jail, he was not surprised or very upset, because he knew he could get used to this sooner or later. As he stated, “it was only natural; I was young.” This leads to think that Meursault views himself or human overall as very powerless characters in life. In other words to the extreme, he looks at things as nothing really matters that much, because we can’t make a change anyway. He sees the sunlight, furniture to memorize, his mom’s death…etc., all, as something that will happen or appear to be natural. Everything just happens, and human should be the one who is supposed to adapt to the environment, not to go against it. I think this is the main reason why Meursault behave this way in the book, because he sees himself as a powerless character.
He does not think killing the Arab is his fault, but only the sunlight that forces him to do so.
He does not cry in his Maman’s funeral, because the sunlight and the heat bothers him too much that made him so inhuman and emotionless.
He does not get too unhappy in the cell, because he thinks everything just happens naturally, and all he can do is to adapt to it.
…
All these excuses that Merusault gave himself have made him view himself as a even more powerless person. He tries to “kill time”, but he knew he couldn’t. Time is something that comes naturally and he knew it is impossible to. Therefore, he starts to memorize the positions of the furniture to put himself in a hallucinate state of mind. It is the way he views himself that caused him to lose his ambition, and he gave up on making a change because it does not matter to him.
In my opinion, I do think nature is something that we cannot control. But I disagree with the way Merusault view the world this way. Just like my own life, I do know time is something that I cannot control, and someday for sure I will die. But I will not just let things be, but to make a difference. What Merusault don’t realize is that he actually has a lot of power over his own self. If we realized our future is in our own hand, then we will not let nature to be on our way. Yes, we cannot control how others wanted to be, but we can control ourselves to be certain ways that satisfy what we desire. We are powerless perhaps, but we do have power over many things.
I do know why Mersualt acts in this way and to me; this is a tragedy!
