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Albert Camus, The Stranger - Coggle Diagram
Albert Camus, The Stranger
Meursault :silhouette:
Is he guilty?
for killing an Arab
Thoughts on Raymond shooting the Arab:
"I thought that if I said no he'd get himself all worked up and shoot for sure. All I said was, ""he hasn't said anything yet. It's be pretty lousy to shoot him like that."" (56)
On Mersault's Soul: "He said that he peered into it and that he had found nothing, gentlemen of the jury. He said the truth was that I didn't have a soul and that nothing human, not one of the moral principles that govern men's hearts, was within my reach...But here in this court the wholly negative virtue of tolerance must give way to the sterner but loftier virtue of justice." (101)
"Come now, is my client on trial for burying his mother or for killing a man?...I accuse this man of burying his mother with crime in his heart!"" (96)
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Desires:
"I said nothing; I made no gesture of any kind, but it was the first time in my life I ever wanted to kiss a man." (93)
On his nature: "My nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings." (64)
Marie:
"I got up right away because I was hungry, but Marie told me I hadn't kissed her since that morning. It was true, and yet I had wanted to." (51)
The scene when Masson's wife was laughing with Marie. Mersault goes on to say: "For the first time maybe, I really thought I was going to get married." (50)
"Together again, Marie and I swam out a ways, and we felt a closeness as we moved in unison and were happy." (50)
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During the examination: "He started out by saying that people were describing me a a taciturn and withdrawn person and he wanted to know what I thought. I answered, ""It's just that I don't have much to say. So I keep quiet."' (66)
Setting
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Prison
"the more I thought about it, the more I dug out of my memory things I had overlooked or forgotten. I realized then that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison." (79) #
"I said I have been looking at the stones in these walls for months. There wasn't anything or anyone in the world I knew better. Maybe at one time, way back, I had searched for a face in them" (119)
Personified nature/objects, where is lives and exists is also a character
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for the first time in months I distinctly heard the sound of my own voice... No, there was no way out, and no one can imagine what nights in prison are like." pg 81
Motifs
Heat
Funeral
"But today, with the sun bearing down, making the whole landscape shimmer with heart, it was inhuman and oppressive." (15)
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Court
"I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn't mine anymore, but ones in which I'd found the simplest and most lasting joys..." (104)
Light
But today, with the sun bearing down, making the whole landscape shiver with heat, it was inhuman and oppressive." pg 15
to compare to conversation with priest, god vs light vs Mersault's feelings abt such
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Meaninglessness
"A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so." (35)
"It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really nothing had changed." (24)
"He went on like that, saying 'I' whenever he was speaking about me. I was completely taken aback... I thought it was a way to exclude me even further from the case, reduce me to nothing, and in a sense, substitute himself for me. But I think I was already very far removed from that courtroom" (103).
annoyance
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pg 28 "him telling me how glad he was to have been able to give the woman what she deserved. I found him very friendly with me and I thought it was a nice moment."
Death
Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn't matter whether you die at thirty, or at seventy, since in either case other men and women will naturally go on living--and for thousands of years..Whether it was now or twenty years from now, I would still be the one dying." (114)
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Spectator
"I felt my eyes getting tired from watching the street filled with so many people and lights. " (24)
"Everything was happening without my participation. My fate was being decided without anyone so much as asking my opinion." (98)
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Indifference
On the day after Maman's passing: (From the Prosecutor)
"Gentlemen of the jury, the day after his mother's passing, this man was out swimming, starting up a dubious liaison, and going to the movies, a comedy, for laughs." (94)
"As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world" (122).
Used to Things
"I told old Salamano that he could get another dog, but he was right to point out to me that he was used to this one." (44)
I do think this was one of Mersault's first judgements.
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Religion
"While not an atheist, Maman had never in her life giving a thought to religion." (6)
"He wanted to talk to me about God again, but I went up to him and made one last attempt to explain to him that I had only a little time left and I didn't want to waste it on God." (120)