The Stranger Annotations p.1

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The Stranger Chapters 1-5 -When Meursault finds out about his mother’s death he doesn’t show any real emotion. It seems to me like he has lost connection with his mother and so she wasn’t a large part of his life to start with. Maybe Meursault is just in shock from the news and it hasn’t really registered in his mind yet, but it seems to me it’s more likely that Meursault is just a detached man. Maybe something has happened to him in the past to make him act this way. For example he never mentions his father; maybe his father died and traumatized him, leaving him in this detached state. -In this book so far Meursault doesn’t talk much to others unless he is spoken to directly. He spends most of his time listening to others and noticing details about his surroundings. Also when he speaks the sentences are short and choppy. When he describes his surroundings the sentence structures grow more complex and flow together better. Maybe this is because of the translation, but it could also be because of how the writer wanted the book’s style to be. -Meursault is very observant to nature. What he describes mostly involves it. The point where this really stood out to me was when Meursault was walking to his mother’s funeral and was paying more attention to the environment around him rather then the fact that his mother had just passed. -Meursault seems to believe that life is purposeless. He seems to feel like he is present for no reason, that life just passes by him and he has no control over it. -Meursault describes almost nothing about Marie’s personality. He only describes how he thinks she is beautiful and how he has physical attraction towards her. He doesn’t seem to have any real feelings toward her, but he does appear to just want her to help him pass the time and stay entertained. Once again Meursault is detached. -The only two points
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