Who is this Guy?

My impression of Mersault has always been that he is misunderstood. Mersault does things on an impulse and after reality sets in he realizes that something is missing from his life. When Mersault first found out about his mother’s death he was detached because they were never close, however the next day he missed his mother. Mersault believed that his house was “just the right size when Maman was there”. After realizing that his mother was actually gone, Mersault realized what it was like when she was not there anymore. I think that there is some of Mersault in everyone because everyone detaches themselves sometimes and it may take a while for us to comprehend something that just happened.

We are trapped within our own minds because we can’t control our thoughts but we can control how we perceive these images. When we went to Madison Square Park to observe people I noticed that their actions were based on their thoughts. There was one guy dancing in line and he was trapped within his mind and the music he was listening to. The man’s actions reflected his thoughts, which were grooving to the music. Everyone has something different going on in their mind and until we are able to understand it we cannot judge people because their thoughts are not like our own.

Mersault makes me feel like when we have realized that life is worth nothing we live our lives according to what happens instead of how we want to live it. Mersault does not put any extra effort into his life, everything is the same for him and he likes knowing that his life is not going to change anymore than it is going currently. Mersault is a “stranger” because to us his lack of emotion makes it hard for us to understand him. I do think that we can make ourselves “strangers” when we do things to separate ourselves from other people. I separate myself from people sometimes because I believe that no one understands me and the only person that can truly understand my thinking is me. I like to be alone sometimes when I am reflecting on things that are occurring in my life, and that does make me a stranger because instead of having those thoughts in my head I can share them with someone else. What can make someone a “stranger” is their inability to express their thoughts in a way that is understandable to everyone else. I know that things I understand may not be as easy for me as it is for someone else to understand. This does not make us more or any less human than anyone else because life is about making mistakes and learning from them.