Stranger Journal 1

1. Connections to Culture:
I thought that the mention of theaters and all the people going to watch the matinees connected to the culture of that time, obviously a lot of people all went out on sundays to the movies or what not. Also, the mentions of him smoking cigarettes could definitely be a part of the culture at that time, since it was a lot more popular back then. I thought it was interesting on page 23 he says "The local girls, bearheaded, ..." and I thought that was maybe a connection to the muslim culture, the fact that they weren't wearing head scarfs. And then the mentions of little cafe's and that the soccer team had come back you can definitely tell the culture is different from the united states. Also, the things like theaters and cafe's are definitely European influence so I thought how you can see in the culture all the influence that the French and Europeans, Pied-Noirs, have had on the culture in Algeria in this time period.
2. Mersault's Actions:
Mersault does a lot of weird things. He's very particular about his actions, meticulous and organized, but then he goes off and does something really weird and random. His character does not make any sense at all. For example, on page 21, he says "I picked up an old newspaper and read it. I cut out an advertisement for Kruschen Salts and stuck it in a n old notebook where I put things from the papers that interest me. I also washed my hands, and then I went out onto the balcony." First of all, why would he be reading an old newspaper why not a current one? Why would you want to read old news? Second of all, why in the world does he cut out a random advertisement, what about that is interesting? And then the fact that he keeps a notebook filled with things from papers that are interesting, shows how organized he is. But in a really weird arbitrary way. Then he says he washed his hands and went out on to the balcony. Those two things are completely incoherent and have nothing to do with the previous statements or with each other and have no bearing on the novel whatsoever. His character has the weirdest, conflicting personality.
3. Tracking an image/word/phrase:
There were a lot of different images and phrases that could be tracked. One image that I kept seeing over an over again was the color scheme of black, white and red. He mentions black a whole bunch and that connects to the funeral and such, and then he talks about white and white light, which is interesting since black and white conflict just like his character. And then, he mentions red, that the earth was red and red ties and red this and that. I think that could be a little creepy because those are all really intense colors. And red could connect to blood which could foreshadow the fact that he murders someone in the novel. Another phrase that I heard more than once in the first two chapters was "It doesn't mean anything". I thought that had an interesting reflection of existentialism or absurdism. Just the lack of meaning in the world and the fact that he says "It didn't mean anything." And also, "It wasn't my fault" kind of have undertones of those particular theories that were popular at the time with Camus. Also, I saw a lot of mentions of people that were either young or old. Like with his mom's funeral he talks about all the really old people and when he sees a man on the street he talks about how old he is with his cane. Then he talks about all the children and really young kids. I don't know what the purpose or meaning behind this would be, other than the fact that it's again kind of a contrasting or conflicting image. I think that contrast and things that are conflicting with one another, could be a major theme in this novel because we've already seen so much of it with white and black and young and old and Mersault's personality, and also because of Camus Absurdism views that the world doesn't really make any sense at all. So, I think a lot of his writing might be very conflicting as part of a greater theme that the world really makes no sense.