The Stranger Class Discussion

Last week in class we started the class discussion on the book The Stranger. I was really impressed on the class’s different points of view. Many of the topic’s bought up in class were very interesting, but two things that caught my eye were the sun being a symbol for monsieur Meursault emotions. Another thing that was brought up that didn’t grab my attention while I was reading the book was how easy that Monsieur Meursault became friends with people.
In the book The Stranger by Albert campus, “campus makes Monsieur Meursault an emotionless character but to make up he makes Meursault talks about the sun to express his feelings”(said by Ronald Do). A great example of this in the book is page 58-58 when Meursault and the Arab are about to get in a conflict the passage reads “the sun was starting to burn my cheeks, and I could feel drops of sweat gathering in my eyebrows. The sun was the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman, and like then, my forehead especially was hurting me, all the veins in it throbbing under the skin. It was this burning, which I couldn’t stand anymore, that made me move forward. I knew that it was stupid, that I wouldn’t get the sun off me by stepping forward. But I took a step, one step forward. And this time, without getting up, the Arab drew his knife and held it up to me in the sun. The light shot off the steel and it was like a long flashing blade cutting at my forehead.” The sun in this passage is expressing feelings Meursault towards his situation and the Arab. The reason that I agree with Ronald is because before something happens to Meuresault he starts to talk about the sun.

Another good point that was brought up in class was how Meursault becomes friends with people easy like Redmond who he just met and knows how a short fuse and just beat his girlfriend half to death and ask if Meursault want to be friends with him and Meursalut said sure it doesn’t bother him. I think that if meursault made better choice about his friends then he wouldn’t have got arrested and put in jail