Stranger Essay Outline

Working Thesis: Meurseult's inability to look deep into his own being and be honest to himself about his emotions creates and incredibly peculiar juxtapostion with his willingness to be completely honest to the world about what he has done in his life or what his thoughts are towards difficult subjects.

Paragraph 1: His inability to grieve for his mom, even when he starts to feel a sense of emotion for her. 1) When solomano's dog dies 2) smoking in front of moms grave

Paragraph 2: Honesty with people, when being quiet or small white lies would be the social norm
 1) telling marie how he truly feels about love and marriage 2) tells the arabs in jail how he shot an arab...

Paragraph 3: (Maybe incorporate) Camus' writing style 100% makes MeurSeult look simple when he is so complex which adds to his character and lack of self awareness and caring

The Stranger Essay Idea

Right now, my idea is to explore Meursault's inability to be honest with himself about his emotions but how he is so brutally honest with all the people he meets in the world. The juxtaposition between his actions potrays him as this incredibly interesting and complex character that no reader will ever truly understand. His lack of self-awareness comes from somewhere deep inside of him, and the reasons for it are never announced to the reader leaving us in the dark throuhgout the entire book. Therefore, Camus leaves this up for interpretation and allows for incredible amounts of dispute over his character. His difference in honesty leaves for a lot complexity. Which makes this topic so interesting to me and how he can show such little emotion and such little attention to himself and devote his life to observing the world essentially.

Translator's Note applied to text

Matthew Ward takes a very particular interpretation of Camus' original text by translating it in such a way to not get Camus' meaning across but rather say as closely as possible in both style and wording to the way the book would be read in French and subsequently, the true meaning of the text would come out and be most familiar with Camus' intentions. One of the ways Ward achieves this is through his use of short and simple sentences and the quick dismissal of serious ideas and emotions. As seen in the text on page 48: "And from the peculiar little noise coming through the partition, I realized he was crying. For some reason I thought of Maman." Meursault is noticing the cries from Salamano who had just recently lost his dog, most people would take that as a connection to the loss of their parent or someone close and feel similar emotions...just like Meursault appears to do. However, Meursault then quickly dismissing and leaves no time or room for actual grieving for his recently passed away mom. Therefore, Ward's translation keep the reader in a state of darkness with never being able to really see what Meursault is feeling which is what the reader then has to assume is exactly how Camus would have wanted his novel to be read.

Stranger: How the style matches the content

The sentence structure of the narrator is incredibly conversationalist and almost follows a natural thought process. Meursault displays an almost detached reaction to much of the happenings of the novel so far, most evident is his almost everyday reaction to the funeral he attends. He uses great description in his thoughts, almost with a detachment of just looking through his eyes. This narration allows the reader to relate on a certain level to Meursault. His imagery especially stands out: "Varnished, glossy, and oblong, it reminded me of a pencil box." By letting the reader into his mind and describing through imagery and simple quick sentences, the reader gets an enhanced reading experience that improves the readers ability to understand the content in the end.

Genesis vs. ESPN Article

Genesis is written very matter-of-fact in order to get its point across completely. That same style is used in ESPN articles. While both styles are similar, they are for extremely different purposes. ESPN uses the brief matter of fact writing as a way to get news across quickly and on time as it happens. Genesis is written matter-of-fact in order to gets its point across without any sense of uncertainty as to make sure people understand what the Religion is they are following. While this purpose was used in the writing of Genesis, it clearly has been open to interpretation still and has started as the beginning point to many different religions. On another level, the way Genesis follows the day by day actions of God, relates inexplicably to the game recaps that are released short after a game finishes. Both serve the purpose of informing the reader of what happened without a lot of fluff or any other information. This excerpt from an ESPN article "At 6-foot-4 and just a 30 percent 3-point shooter, intuition would tell you that Smart will play point guard in the NBA. In truth, I'm not sure he has a natural position. He's just a basketball player with a great feel for the game, surprising leadership abilities for a young player, and a willingness to do whatever he can to help his team win. Smart is unlike any player in college basketball and it's hard to fully understand his game unless you watch him play, so if you're looking for one must-watch guy in the tournament, make it him" is informative and has a low level of analysis. Genesis uses less lengthy language, and has slightly less analysis but the informative style of writing has many similarities. 

Short in-class writing on Kafka passage

The diction Kafka uses helps define Gregor's previous role in the family and the importance of his job. With him out of the picture it leaves an enormous amount of guilt on him for not being able to provide for his family any longer since there is no clear heir to the family money earner position he previously held. He wants his sister to not have to work and be able to play the violin. His love goes so deep that he would give his entire life up to provide for her and his parents. This love is evident through his language such as using the "pretty clothes" she wears to describe her life.

Words used by gregor such as "sluggish" key the reader into understanding his relationship to his father. Gregor's transformation into bug form make him just like his father when he lost his job. There was a role that needed to be filled and was embraced by Gregor. Just like there is a new role that needs to be filled after Gregor's absence but there is no clear choice and both his sister and father eventually fill the void. His sister giving up her dreams was clearly Gregor's biggest regret in the novel.

In-class Writing Quiz for Metamorphosis

   While Gregor's outward appearence may give the impression to those around him that his concious and emotions are no longer there, the reader, who sees the novel through his thoughts, understands that his human traits are clearly present through his entire metatmorphosis. This metamorphosis happens slowly with him and since he has no ability to communicate with those around him, he begins to find joy and solice in new and interesting ways. For starters, he begins to enjoy the process of moving around in his room in order to kill time and keep his body semi-active since he is trapped in such a small room for his new body and size. He also finds a new found love and passion for music: "And yet his sister was playing so beautifully...Was he an animal that music so captivated him?" (Kafka 45). Clearly his new limited senses begin to become heightened as he loses his ability to communicate and touch. His newly heightened sense of hearing is seen with this new captivation towards music, especially music played by his sister. Gregor sees his sister's music as a way of possibly communicating his humanity to his sister if she can notice that he is moved by it. While his sister never notices him, he still finds her music to be one last connection to her to share the sibling love they have for each other. As time goes on and his metamorphosis continues, his Freudian impulses begin to unleash in his concious. His id is clearly displayed in a comment he later makes about his sister: "However, his sister should not be compelled but would remain with him voluntarily...his sister would break out in tears of emotion, and Gregor would life himself up to her armpit and kiss her throat..." (Kafka 45). As Gregor's internal dialogue develops on this page of the novella, his sibling love begins to turn into something more incestual. This is not suprising considering has been so far removed from seeing himself as a real part of his family and therefore, it is hard for him to see his sister as truly his sister and not some beautiful, amazing musician who has captivated him and taken him to places of mental solice. He sees his sister in a much different way then he ever had before which is why his impulses have changed and may seem wrong to the reader. By thinking about Gregor's circumstance, it is clearly justifiable that he sees his sister as a sexual temptation and allows these thoughts of incest to run through his mind. Ultimately, Gregor's inward and outward selves create a clear juxtaposition due to his inward humanness and his outward bugginess.

Conrad Essay Review

This year, i've been pleasently surprised with the improvement of my writing. I feel as though my sentences have been smoother and more complex than they were in the past, as well as my evidence when i decide to use it. When we did the hamlet essay, i feel as though i did a great job of taking scenes from two films and comparing them really well. My areas that i need to improve are getting my theses more complex and actually attempting to proofread before turning in my essays to remove choppy sentences and little gramar errors. As i move into college, i am prepared to turn in essays with the quality of writing i have now, especially if i choose to actually proofread them. Lastly, my reading has gotten faster, mostly because i have found interest in reading in general which keeps me more engaged in the books i pick up.

MINI Leaderless Discussion on Metamorphosis

I think the most intriguing discussion that took place was on the topic of Kafka's morale of the story. I believe, along with others in the group, that Kafka's novella is trying to criticize the belief that working yourself into no contact with the outside world can be extremely detrimental. Someone like Gregor clearly does not have much of a "life" outside of work and his family and that vary may well be a prevailing theme in Kafka's life and had if feel the need to satirize this method of living.

Kafka up to page 25

When Gregor is trapped in his room by his family who are clueless as to what step to take next, it is interesting to hear what happens around the house through Gregor's ears. He describes how his family is unwilling to stay at the house alone with him as a vermin, and how they are always in pairs to keep "safe". He also tells his story about their servant/maid who blesses the family for letting her go once Gregor is found in this current state.

Group dynamics in our second Socratic circle

The group dynamics of yesterday's Socratic were pretty constant for both groups. Both discussions were led by one person and 3 people dominated the discussion in each group with great insights from all people coming at one time or another. These socratics circles being out the best in our class discussions as they allow each student to say what they really feel and be led in discussion by their peers. Both times we have done this method of discussion I have been intrigued by people's views.

Third Body Parapragh

Both Conrad and Freud agree that society plays a major role in shaping and defining the instinctual nature of human beings and their ability to suppress such primitive instincts. As people began migrating towards civilizations, religion, and other structured institutions in society, the taboo acts proposed by Freud, such as incest, rape, etc., were suppressed over time due to their disgusting nature. By the early 1900s, when both men began laying their arguments in their respective fashions, life had become fairly attuned towards suppressing all those bad thoughts into what Freud calls the id. Because of this transformation in the human mindset and their acceptance of universal laws, Freud and Conrad were able to successfully develop theories about the human psychology. For instance, for hundreds and thousands of years, men were used to having polygamous relationships; however, by 1900, men were expected to have only one wife and it was taboo in most advanced societies to be polygamous. Both Conrad and Freud would argue that this taboo act became taboo because societies slowly developed the ideology of monogamous relationships and men were taught that polygamy was bad and subsequently forced any impulse to be with multiple women into his subconscious. This act relates to both beliefs by Conrad and Freud even though it is believed they did not discuss their findings and they chose completely different mediums of getting out their message. 

2nd Body Paragraph

While Conrad uses fiction to present his hypothesis on the instinctual nature of humans, Freud began conducting scientific experiments and publishing studies on the make-up of the human psyche. The culmination of Freud’s work on the human psyche is his idea that there are three subsets of a human’s conscience: the superego, ego, and id. Freud’s system helps explain Conrad’s belief through a scientific lens. Freud believes that babies instincts are animalistic and that as they grow up, they are taught to suppress their taboo impulses into their id. The id represents the subconscious thoughts that humans tend to not realize they have mostly because the societies they live in push them to suppress those thoughts. These thoughts include incest, rape, cannibalism, and other “wrong” actions. Freud would classify Kurtz as letting out his inner id after suppressing all of his deepest and darkest desires there for so long before he began trading ivory in the Congo. When given the opportunity to live without laws, his id was unleashed and eventually led to his death to a jungle illness which messed with his sanity. 

First Body Paragraph

As Marlow, the protagonist in Conrad’s novella, travels towards the heart of the Congo Jungle, he encounters and retells extremely disturbing actions taken by a group of cannibals as well as his very own crew mates who began the journey as proper Englishmen. Marlow’s job is to meet up with the ivory trading post run by Mr. Kurtz in the heart of the Congo Jungle. Kurtz is described as a “first-class agent” and “a very remarkable person” (Conrad 23). This perception of Kurtz exemplifies his good standing in the eyes of Marlow’s employers as well as his crew. It is clear through the text that Kurtz first entered the Jungle as an influential leader as well as a man full of class and honor. However, when Kurtz is finally met by Marlow, the reader begins the witness the slide of someone who has been sucked into the temptations of freedom and lawlessness. This decline of a prim and proper Englishman to reach the depths of giving into animalistic impulses greatly supports the belief that society has a profound impact on human actions. Conrad looks to create the contrast between a lawless Jungle atmosphere and the regulated English society. Conrad’s novella creates the hypothesis that men who are given are chance to roam free of the law will give in to their impulses that are normally repressed by the societies they grew up in. In addition, he discusses the way people who grew up in the lawless Jungle, the Cannibals, seem almost tame because they have learned to harness those impulses instead of letting them all come out at once the way Kurtz does. This hypothesis, which is not explicitly stated in the text, becomes the root of Conrad’s message; his belief that man’s natural instincts are feral and if not suppressed by the people and institutions in our lives will come to dominate our being. 

Intro Paragraph

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was written at roughly the same time but with no relation to the psychoanalytic work published by Sigmund Freud at the turn of the 20th century. The beliefs of Conrad and Freud closely relate and delve into the depths of each person’s psyche, specifically the unconscious motives of the human mind. Conrad created a fictitious journey that follows his protagonist’s path down a river towards the dark depths of the Congo jungle where he is met with extremely primitive humans who greatly juxtapose the people who grew up with in his native England. On the contrary, Freud takes a strictly scientific route to hypothesize his belief that humans are born with animalistic instincts that are suppressed as one grows up by the societal expectations placed upon everyone.  While Conrad and Freud appear to have no influence on one another’s work, they began the search for beginning to understand the human psyche and the connection between a human’s taboo impulses and the way one is taught to repress those thoughts.

Frederick R. Karl

Karl delves deep into the relation between Marlow and Conrad. His interesting points reflect on them not being equal but Marlow being a manifestation of Conrad's main ideals while Conrad embraces the complex character he creates. This relation between the writer and his main character lead to a deeper story that can create a character that feels real...and helps the reader travel with Marlow into the Heart of Darkness.

Reading Now vs. Reading Next Year

As I've gone through High School I've developed a greater interest in reading for pleasure; however, I still fail to find interest in reading textbooks for school. Part of the reason I am interesting in pursuing engineering is that I know I am not one to find interest and joy in reading so much on a weekly basis, at least not for school purposes. I also believe the increased pressure placed on college students to succeed while taking more interesting classes that aren't so broad will lead me to want to read more hopefully.

Freud

Freud's vision of human behavior strips down our minds to our purely natural states. By doing this, Freud comes off as extremely pessimistic and brutal even though his main argument is that this natural state is reformed through life as a process to keep us from being so sexually and violently driven. His insights are shocking to some degree, because at the age of 18 we have already gone through so many of these so called reforms that it is impossible to see that natural and cruel image that Freud believes we each start out as. While these beliefs can be shocking and scary to some, it is still heavily interesting and worth imagining if such things are true.

Pages 15-20

The sexual enuendo used by Marlow on the second page 17 is just another aspect of his impressive and interesting storytelling. His embelleshing helps carry the story along.

Pages 10-15

Marlow's story about his predecessor is quirky and quite brutal. By talking about something brutal so lightly, it helps understand how Marlow see's actions that take place in the world. This outlook on events that take place in the world seem to be pretty frequent in Marlow's story.

Tone set by Conrad

Conrad sets a very confusing and thought-provoking tone at the beginning of the novel. His descriptive imagery carries the story and brings the reader almost into Marlow's mind. Marlow's storytelling abilities seem to be what will carry the novel along. It is also interesting becuase his opinions and thoughts keep the reader engaged in the story.