The Stranger

The stranger is a novel written by Albert Camus in 1942, this novel focuses mostly on the main character, a man who is called Meursault. Meursault is a person who is represented to be emotionless and indifferent in most happenings through the chapters 1-3. This is showed from the beginning of the story when he gets to know that his mother had died and this does not leave any impression to him. He is not the type of guy who would get upset about his mother’s death, he is more the type of guy who would go to the funeral, because he had to, and afterwards continue his life as always. Meursault had a relationship with his mother which was not the closest, she had very little or no part in her sons life. To me this main character does not seem to be a bad person or someone who does not care about his mother or not love her, that’s just his personality, a personality which is not comfort in sharing emotions and feelings. He shows all the people around him very little interest and is very hard to get impressed by any of the events. The reason why it came to this is unknown and we all could interpret it differently, he might love this way he lives or he may have become like this due to some experiences in the past. Meursault in his society is more an observer than he is an expresser, he mentions everything about his surroundings and appearances and never mentions anything about his inside feelings. To me he is an interesting person because he is different from others and he acts in a way that is not necessary expected from someone in various occasions.

Trans- Siberian Prose and Little Jeanne from France

This poem is about a trip which the author Blaise Cendrars experience from France to Siberian. Blaise Cendrarsis is an author who uses a modern style of writing. He tells us that he is just in his adolescence at that time, and how far he actually was from his birthplace. He mentions the many different names of cities, beautiful and not so beautiful places where he went during this trip. Due to Cendrars history he is probably making up the whole experience but the way he describes everything with great details makes it appeal more real. Carefully he explains the different kinds of emotions which he feels, passing through the cities such as love for Jeanne. The author calls himself many times to be a bad poet because he was so young. He describes the different kinds of people he meets during that trip and how they influence his way of understanding and perceiving different cultures and situations. Cendrars reminds us how such a small detail that occurs during an event like losing a button, strengthens the ability to remember the whole happening, and it sticks in our memories forever. He talks about Jeanne the little prostitute who travels with him but we do not know for sure if she really was with him or not. He loved her even thought compared to other women with golden dresses and great bodies, she was a sad little prostitute, who had nothing, and was lonely. As Madam Bovary played on the piano he again begins to remember his childhood when his mother played Beethoven for him. He says “ I’m on the road, I’ve always been on the road” with little Jeanne on his side. And Jeanne always keeps asking him “ Blaise, tell me, are we far from Montmartre?” just like a child who cannot wait to arrive on the final destination, like every other child would do. In this case she is representing someone very annoying but as well very excited to him, and he is in the position of the director. He answered to her that she is irritating him because she knew that they were war from their final destination. The next time she asks again this question” if they are far from Montmartre, ” he says “Yes, so we are”, he mentions the different foreign people he meets on the train, like Ivan Ulitch and Kolya Nikolai Ivanovich which give the poem a little touch of the unknown. As Jeanne asks him again if they have arrived, he gets mad at her and says “ No but get the hell out leave me alone”. Even though Jeanne was a sort of distraction for him, he starts to mentions all those beautiful places; he would like to go with her. He also says to Jeanne, that they can fly to those places if she wishes too and they would love each other.