Cultural Journal:
The author gives us a general insight as to the working conditions that Meursault experienced. As he asks his “boss for two days off”, “there was no way he was going to refuse me with an excuse like that.” (3). There is a mutual understanding that develops between him and his boss, because of the culture that work is not meant to stress employees. The application of this technique in the business world increases productivity due to the increased focus and drive to work.
Part of the idea of socialism is highlighted in on the passages through the tone it expresses. Meursault himself pays less attention to the businesses and of the people who visit. Here the concept of supply and demand is shown through “the waiter…sweeping up the sawdust in the deserted restaurant inside” (22). This suggests that the surrounding businesses are not competing for capital but rather meeting customers’ needs.
Chapters 1-2 of The Stranger by Albert Camus:
One the most prominent features of Meursault is his natural tendency to be indifferent to things, especially ones that are of major importance. At the beginning of the novel, he regards the news of his mother’s death mentioning that it “doesn’t meaning anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” (3) giving us the idea that he has an ambiguous relationship with one of his parents. He breaks the cultural belief of being close to ones’ parents. Marie foils this relationship when she leaves Meursault due to the fact that “she had to go to her aunt’s” (21) which shows that for her, it does not take a sorrowful event to happen to her parents in order to visit. This characteristic of Meursault gives him an awkward placement in society at times. This is further emphasized towards his feelings towards time as it occurred to him that “anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried by now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed” (24) giving us the sense that time is just an occurrence to be ignored and that no strong feelings are associated with anything. In that sense, nothing is of great value to Meursault except the fact that he has to return to work again to earn a living.
Tiredness is set as a motif in almost every major thought process or action Meursault makes giving us the impression that he is simply bored with life. On his trip to his mother’s residence, he does not enjoy the sights and sounds of his country nor does he communicate with any of the other bystander characters on the bus, but instead focuses on what would be considered to be the unimportant aspects of the trip saying “It was probably because of all the rushing around, and on top of that the bumpy ride, the smell of gasoline, and the glare of the sky and the road, that I dozed off. I slept almost the whole way” (4) which suggests that his character is not the type that is fast moving and active. One of the most interesting ways this motif affects others was during the vigil “I remember opening my eyes at one point and seeing that all the old people were slumped over asleep…” (11). This is probably the only time where he seems to reasonably fit in with the other characters in his society which shows that pure coincidence can allow this motif to relate with most people. This stream to tiredness keeps circulating in Meursault’s life as shown in his logic, “I had a hard time getting up, because I was tired from the day before” (19). If this situation is viewed from a daily perspective, this reason can be used again and again making him always tired, and therefore proves Freud’s Theory of the Unconscious. Meursault’s unconscious mind has this set motif, aiding the emphasis of one of his most prominent personality traits of indifference.
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