The Stranger Blog response #2

“ ‘Why, why did you shoot at a body that was on the ground? ’ Once again I didn’t know how to answer.” p 68

            This quote is missing a key piece of information. The reason. Why did Meursault shoot the man? And why did he keep shooting him when he was dead? Many people debate over this issue and criticize the fact that the exact reason is never revealed. I think that the author excludes that information on purpose (that much is obvious) and that the exclusion of this explanation is very important when it comes to understanding the character and the novel itself. This fact reveals (or confirms) Meursault’s existentialist character, he doesn’t think about the future, or past, and he simply does things as situations present themselves before him. Possibly he truly doesn’t know why he did it, since in his perspective life is worthless, he sees no reason to do or not do anything. Therefore he just shoots the Arab, as a reaction to the absurdity of his situation. Subconsciously, one could argue, Meursault wants to shoot the Arab. Not because he hates him or wants him dead, but because it is a way to fight and rebel against the absurdity and meaninglessness of life.

The Stranger Reflection Chapter 1-4

“Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” Page 1

This quote is the opening line of the novel. It is an amazing way to open a novel, at first it might seem like trivial information but it isn’t. It shows a key trait of the main character. He is indifferent, unemotional. The fact that his mother’s death is a very irrelevant subject and that he decides to focus on the day she died, shows his existentialist persona. The sentence “that doesn’t mean anything” could be interpreted in two ways. First you could say that the telegram doesn’t reveal the date of Maman’s death. This one is more explicit, one could even argue that subconsciously when Mersault says “That doesn’t mean anything” he is referring that his mother’s death is not of great importance.

“I would rather not have upset him, but I couldn’t see any reason to change my life. Looking back on it, I wasn’t unhappy. When I was a student, I had lots of ambitions like that. But when I had to give up studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered.” P 41

“None of it really mattered”. This quote shows once again Mersault’s existentialist nature, he has lost hope in life and doesn’t care about anything. He lives life on a moment-to-moment basis. Not regretting the past, not thinking anxiously about the future. He mentions that he lost hope after he was forced to quit his studies. That can show that he will eventually recover hope, or to the contrary he may continue down this existentialist path. It is too early to tell but given that he is an existentialist, he is unpredictable and may drift to the other side of the spectrum at any moment.

Color Symbolism in The Great Gatsby

 “It was dawn now in Long Island and we went about opening the rest of the windows downstairs, filling the house with gray-turning, gold-turning light. The shadow of a tree fell abruptly across the dew and ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves”

Colors often represent various sentiments in novels and due to their universality; many writers use them to convey emotions. In The Great Gatbsy there is a very strong use of colors by Fitzgerald. For example of page 152: “It was dawn now in Long Island and we went about opening the rest of the windows downstairs, filling the house with gray-turning, gold-turning light. The shadow of a tree fell abruptly across the dew and ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves”. This quote is describing a sunrise in Long Island. The colors represent the dull and sad environments that exist at the moment. Gray and Blue, they both describe that feeling. Gray is commonly associated with dullness and monotony, while blue is associated with sadness and nostalgia. However, there is also gold, it can represent many things: wealth, prosperity, success, and value. The fact that the house is turning gray and turning gold symbolizes the American dream, things may get rough but with hard work  one can turn gray into gold. The “blue leaves” and the “ghostly birds” are some sort of warning that even living the American dream, the most beautiful and simple living things (leaves) can still be blue, even while bathed in gold. That recurring message of the failure of the American dream is present in the quote and Fitzgerald uses colors to represent it. He puts into question the real value of material things and what true happiness is made of (if it does exist).