Stranger Journal 6

1. Word Choice
The language if fairly basic. It is very straightforward.

Why does Camus use such basic language to get across the points of such complex philosophy?

2. Sentences
The sentences range, but most of the time they are pretty short. They usually make one point. There are not really any run on sentences. The narrator makes one point after another, but the are all separate thoughts.

Why does Camus never use compound sentences in the narration of The Stranger?

3. Images
The sun is often mentioned. The narrator mentions that it is hot a lot. He also describes of the look of people a lot, such as Marie's "Sun-tanned face". This shows his tendency to care about more the physical than the mental/emotional.

Why does Camus describe the appearance of people so much more than anything else?

4.Symbols
There are objects such as the sun that are repeated throughout the book. However, I don't believe it is meant to symbolize anything. The sun is simply there, and Meursault notices it. I dont think there is one thing one thing in this book that is supposed to symbolize anything.

Why would Camus not use any symbolic figures or objects in his text?

5. Figures of Speech
Some would find it ironic that people in the book are constantly trying to get Meursault to care. Or are trying to find a reason behind his murder. But there simply is no reason.

Why does Camus make Meursault, the protagonist, such an indifferent character?

6.Rhetorical Devices
The dialogue of the story shows very well how the character interacts with others. His narration tells us why he says what he says, such as agreeing with someone just so they will quit talking.

Why does Camus tell us in the narration why Meursault says what he says?

7. Patterns
There are no patterns in this book. The actions of Meursault are based on whatever he feels like at the time he commits them.

Why is there no pattern to anything in The Stranger?

8. Narrator
The narrator is the protagonist, Meursault, himself. It looks into his mind and you get a look at every other character from the book through his eyes. This ends up exaggerating the emotions of the other characters, because they contrast so much with Meursault's way of living.

Why did Camus choose to make the narrator have no insight on other's minds?

9. Structure
The structure is chronological. It is all written in the past tense, as if Meursault is the one writing it, later on in his life. Time passes faster at different points of the book. A chapter can cover just a day or a whole month.

Why did Camus choose to write the story in the past tense?

Stranger Journal 5

My philosophy as a reader makes me love Meursault. I believe that everyone should act in the exact code of what they believe. They should not be influenced by any man-made outside force. Meursault does not base any of his own views on anything except his own life. However, I do have a moral code myself, though its based all on my own mind, not any religion. Also, I am not as indifferent about things as Meursault. It makes me laugh when he is completely emotionless about certain things, because I would get pretty worked up about some of the things that happen to him. These differences between me and his character don't make me biased against the book though. I completely understand why Albert Camus created such a character.

Stranger Journal 4

Sun

Stranger Journal 3

Emancipationism

• True mental liberty cannot be achieved a in modern society, however, one should take the measures to reach a state of mental freedom that satisfies them.
• To attain this the closest thing to freedom that we can, we have to remove ourselves of the mental shackles that society places on our minds. These include, but are not only:

1. Racism
2. Sexism
3. Corporate Advertising
4. Political Parties
5. The Media

• Self-expression is the ultimate form of mental liberation, this is why art and music is seen as secondary in our education system and often underfunded by both the State and Federal Government.
• We must always question authority, laws, and any opinion or fact that we read or hear.
• If we see authority being unjust we must take necessary action to change it.
• Pacifism is the ideal and most logical way to make a political change, however, in extreme cases it becomes useless. (I.E. the Holocaust in the 1930s and 40s and African-American Slavery in the 1600s-1800s)
• If our main incentive to live is to make capital, we have failed as a people.
• Too not care about your fellow human beings of the world is arrogance, which is bad for your own self, and the rest of the planet.
  

Stranger Journal 2

Many would say that Meursault's activities are impure and sinful. Such his encounter with the woman at the beach, or his cynical tone during his mother's funeral. This is simply because society always teaches us to think that way. However, there is no proven "impure" or "sinful" action. Meursault's way of living is based on pure reality. He doesn't see a "deeper" meaning to his actions, or any encounter that occurs in his life. The only meaning to the things that he does and the things that happen to him are the meanings that he himself creates. Albert Camus creates this protagonist as an anti-hero that helps get across the ideals of existentialism. His hero lives a life with no deep universal meaning. Albert Camus convey his idea that everyone on the planet lives the same way. Our "deeper meanings" to things that happen to us are simply an attempt to make the absurd world we live in a little easier to accept.

Stranger Journal 1

The first translation seems to be more a translation of the content, while the second translation seems to be translating each word directly. The character is the first translation gives off more of a personality then the other one as well. Such as how it says "That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday." While the other one reads "Which leaves the matter doubtful, it could have been yesterday." The second translation doesn't mention if the day that matters or not. From this small detail the first translation kind of gives an aggression of the narrator/protagonist. He just says flat-out, "that doesn't mean anything", setting us up for his attitude for the rest of the story.

Journal 9

The story begins with Jodie re-entering Eatonville, the place she had left with Tea Cake from. Everyone watches her wondering what had happened. This raises the question of "what has this woman done?" in the readers mind. The story of her past unfolds throughout the whole book. In the last chapter, we see the state that she is in after the first chapter of the book. In the first chapter, we wonder who this woman is and what she has done. In the last chapter we know everything that has ever happened to her and how she feels about her life and other people. This gives us an insight on life that we can gather from the fictional character, Janie, herself.

Journal 8

The title Their Eyes Were Watching God suggest the lack of control the characters of the story have over their lives. As blacks in the south of the time period, they really hardly had a grasp on their lives, because they were so oppressed after Reconstruction ended. God is their only form of hope. They watch him to see what path he will send them on next, and if he will be help them or not. The relationship between the characters and God is one of hope but also fear. They fear God because of sin, and the oppression and slavery they have faced, without any help from a higher spirit.

Journal 7

Mrs. Turner has a poor relationship with her husband. They have no say in what each other do, and it seems like Mr. Turner could care less about his wife. This has developed a racism inside of Mrs. Turner against her own race. She believes that the darker a black person is, the more stupid and lazy they are. It is strange, because she herself is black. She is also constantly bugging Janie, trying to get her a better husband because she hates Tea Cake for racist reasons. She has the poorest relationship of any characters in the story. Janie's relationship with Tea Cake shows everything that Mrs. Turner wish she had, and I think that she is bitter.

Journal 6

Page 116 - "Hurry up and come because he was about to turn into pure sugar thinking about her." Metaphor.

Zora Neal Hurston uses a metaphor here to describe just how much Tea Cake loves her. A man and pure sugar have very little in common, but the sweetness or Tea Cakes love is just the same. The effect of this metaphor is that is tells you just how their relationship is at this point, and the saying fits the dialect of the characters.

Page 119 - "Hair all gray and black and bluish and reddish in streaks. All the capers that cheap dye could cut was showing her hair." Motif.

Although in this case, it is not Janie's hair, hair the used to represent that status of someone else. In this case, Annie Tyler, a woman who ran off with a young man just as Janie has. Her hair became dirty and aged when she came back to her town. This may be foreshadowing Janie's fate, or just a way of planting worry into her mind. Regardless, hair is used to show the status of a person in this quote.

Page 129 - "Big Lake Okechobee, big beans, big cane, big weeds, big everything." Parallel Strcture.

Parallel structure is used by Hurston to describe this new landscape in Janie's eyes. Everything is big. The use of the word big on each noun gets the point across better. The image of the big beans, and big cane, and big weeds, and big everything helps paint a picture in your mind of how the fields must have seemed to Janie. Along with the fact that the place is called Big Lake Okechobee, so "big" is the perfect adjective to describe everything there.

Journal 5

The motivation behind Janie is both her love for Tea-Cake and the yearning she has to be free. From the moment that they play checkers Janie finds out another side of her. A part that we have seen all throughout the story that she finally is able to let out at Jodie's death bed. She wants to be free to do as she likes. She is not materialistic, she cares not for having lots of property and land. She was previously only living her Grandmother's dream of wealth. It has been many years now since her grandmother died and she can live her own dream. She will live life to its fullest, doing whatever she likes, however she likes, until the day that she dies. Tea Cake has the open mind that Jodie did not, that allows Janie to be herself around him.

Journal 4

So Conrado began to conceive liberty. Liberty, the Golden Eagle that did not need talons, who resided far into the heavens. The most confident being, who perched itself upon the highest branch of the tallest tree. Why would anyone watch over Liberty, and what man would hunt such an exquisite beast? It sits upon its branch and is unseen to the naked eye. It rests cautiously and alert infinitely, its eyes moving side to side, watching out for its predator's next attack. It began resting there only when it began to be envisioned by mankind. He was sure he would see the bird in all its glory perched on his shoulder soon. He was ecstatic and overwhelmed. Long live Guillermo! He ought not to live his dream of freedom on his own. He cried Liberty to every man, woman, and child of the world, and Guillermo welcomed them. The previous government knew how to deal with a small group of revolutionaries, but they did not know what to do about somebody like him. He'd put an end to oppression as soon as the corrupted business tycoons were exiled. He would never let down his cause. Much of the world told him different, but Conrado knew. If he was not positive, he would know in several hours, for the people had began gathering together from all over the country. Men who never once would have thought of such a cause slipped into the crowd and watched Guillermo. Revolution, that hissing cobra, slithered towards the capital.

Journal 3

Page 26: Metaphor - "Long before the year was up, Janie noticed that her husband had stopped talking in rhymes to her."

As the first sentence of the chapter, this metaphor foreshadows the whole chapter, and perhaps the rest of the book. She lets us know through a metaphor and Janie's relationship with Logan Killicks is getting worse, and that he is not treating her as nice as he did at first.

Page 27: Simile - "Logan held his wad of tobacco real still in his jaw like a thermometer of his feelings while he studied Janie's face and waited for her to say something."

This simile is used to describes Logan's face at that moment. When you hold a thermometer in your mouth you hold it real still and don't move a muscle. He holds the tobacco in the mouth just as still as he studies Janie in a pause of their conversation.

Page 27: Imagery - "It was a cityfied, stylish dressed man with his hat set at an angle that didn't belong in these parts. His coat was over his arm, but he didn't need it to represent his clothes. The shirt with teh silk sleeveholders was dazzling enough for the world. He whistled, mopped his face and walked like he knew where he was going. He was a seal-brown color but he acted like Mr. Washburn or somebody like that to Janie."

Zora Neale Hurston uses this imagery to describe a most incredible man. Janie is from the country and she has not seen a man of this sort. He even has his "hat set at an angle that didn't belong in these parts". Right of the bat you can tell this is going to be an important character in the story from his long, elegant description. It also shows that Janie is instantly attracted to him.


page 30: Situational Irony -
"'S'posin' Ah wuz to run off and leave yuh sometime.'
There! Janie had put words in his held-in fears. She might run off sure enough. The thought put a terrible ache in Logan's body, but he thought it best to put on scorn."

This moment is when Janie wants to see what Logan would think about her running off. Little to his knowledge, she is planning on it. This whats going on in each of their heads and how bad their relationship is at this point.

Page 31: Personification - "The sun from ambush was threatening the world with red daggers, but the shadwos were gray and sollid-looking around the barn."
She personifies the sun by saying it is threatening the world with a dagger. This description tells us that it is uncomfortably hot outside and is going to get worse. Logan is telling her to come out and work, raising the problem of their relationship.

Journal 2

The setting affects the text by taking you to the world that the characters are in. The atmosphere is dirty, poor, and of course, rampant with anti-black racism. The characters give you that of uneducated and oppressed African - Americans. Motivation is seen in the both the grandmother and Janie in trying to make the best out of their lives. This set the text up for the reader by showing you what kind of people the characters are, and what kind of world they are living in.

Journal 1

In the book, their Eyes Were Watching God, the narration differs from the dialect of the characters greatly. The narration is written in very good English obviously by a well educated person. The dialect of the characters is that of poor, uneducated African-Americans from the south. This contrast in language has a very powerful effect. The narration gives you an very clear view at the scene and an insight on the people's minds and personalities. The dialect however, presents the characters in their real form - poor and uneducated. The narration reminds you that these people have the same feelings and thoughts and looks that we all know, while the dialect helps you hear them talking and what kind of culture the characters are a part of.