The Stranger Journal #1

Summary
Meursalt recieves new of his mother's death. He takes leave on work and travels to her elderly's home to take vigil and attend the funeral in Marengo. Meursalt takes a bus back to Algiers and falls asleep. After waking up the next day, Meursalt goes for a swim down at the harbor. He happens upon Marie Cardona, a crush. They go on a date to see a Fernandel movie. The next morning, Marie has left, and Meursalt proceeds to carry the day through his apartment. He watches the street below and the sky above, and the people moving through the scene.

Personal Reaction
Mersault's behavior, narration, and attitudes intrigues me and also angers me. His passiveness in life is bothersome because it is against my expectations for people to act in different situations. A death in his family doesn't manage to stir any more complex feelings inside him besides "For now its almost as if Maman weren't dead." (Camus 3), and this lack of connection to someone so close angers me because it is the opposite of how I would react. However, despite my anger towards his family behaviors, his actions towards other people intrigues me. On his date, he realizes that he gave a bad kiss, that he only treated her as an object, which is very revealing about his character. His and "Watching and noticing" of people during his people watch is very close to me, so I am curious to how he turns out through comparison to me.

Analysis
By creating the character of Meursalt; one who is detached from complex feelings and emotions, always focusing on the outside, Camus is trying to give the reader a new post to think and view from. Throughout the first two chapters of Camus' The Stranger, the actions of Meursalt follow a certain predictable flow. He is always observing people to detach from his own emotions and feelings. "What struck me[Meursalt] most about their faces was that I couldn't see their eyes, just a faint glimmer in a nest of wrinkles" (Camus 10). Camus omits eyes and replaces them with a "glimmer" to show that their is no importance in humans, that all people are just machines.

Research
Algiers, in 1942, was the headquarters of the Allied forces of WW2 in Northern Africa, as a Mock government of France in Algeria.