The Stranger

Prompt: Analyze the impact imagery and figurative language have on the meaning and tone of your text.

I have an odd sense of reluctance to write this blog, and not from my usual weariness of monotony.  The Stranger (or if you prefer, L'etranger) is truly one those novels that is on such a mystifying level of thought you are forever haunted by its themes.  Neither positive, nor negative, The Stranger could be considered amoral.  Though I do not believe that is the case,  Certainly, the narrator (it feels incorrect to refer to him as the protagonist) Mersault knows what is deemed right and wrong in society, but his indifference is what in the end, well as to not spoil anything, consummates his beliefs on the universe. You've probably noticed I haven't stuck to the prompt, but I'll get to that.  See, I was so wrapped up in the breezy and well, indifferent style of writing that whatever imagery or figurative language was used passed by without altering anything.  Figurative language would be out of place in Mersault's honest narration, and would add a sort of sentimentality that would not contribute to its style.

However, style is what has made this book have a profound impact upon its many readers.  Mersault's accounts of the dramatic events (if I spoiled just one bit of this book I would feel remorse, something unusual for me) are written to be blunt and senseless.  Not senseless in in a cold-hearted way, but lacking "ordinary" human emotion.  As the author said, this book explores "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd".  After he perpetrates a murder, unpremeditated;  his lack of empathy and "morals", as prosecutor so diabolically points out skews the opinions of the jury and judge.  This leads to pondering upon whether or not to play the game of society and ultimately, the unfeeling universe.

Camus's style, although translated from French to English, still holds the tone of which haunts me, and many of its readers.  Insensitivity in the human conditioned fascinates me, and I feel repetitive talking about the subject so much, but it is a side of all that should and needs to be explored in order for us become worldly and fair to all types of people.  This becomes a prominent issue in the United States Court of Law, where sentences are emotionally and prejudicially based.  I would like to say more, but at the expense of keeping you all in the innocent dark about this book,  I'm signing off.