Stranger final post

In the book the Stranger, one of the most pivotal points is when Meursault shoots the Arab. This is the main event causing Meursault's imprisonment and execution. It is also one of the moments that defines what kind of person Meursault is. If this event had not occurred in the book it would be a lot less exciting book, and we would not have understood Meursault as well because we probably never seen how he reacts in a crisis. For a human, in a crisis it is barely possible if not impossible to not show any emotion. You  could become panicked, concentrated, tense, or any of a long list of emotions, but Meursault remains emotionless and comments on how warm it is.  This was probably the second closest Meursault came to showing emotion in the book, the other time was before his execution when he finally found meaning in something which was his own death.

          If Meursault had not shot the Arab I think there could have been two different outcomes. One could have been a very short end to the book with the Arab stabbing Meursault and with him dying. The other outcome could have been Meursault escapes with none or minor injuries and eventually marrying Marie and continuing his life as it had been before his conflict with the Arabs. If Meursault after confronting the Arab had died the meaning to the story would have been similar in a way to how the story ended with the original outcome of the confrontation. If Meursault had been killed by the Arab it could have been interpreted to support Camus’s theory of absurdism. To most people Meursault’s life would have seemed to have no meaning if he died that early in the book. He never seemed to care about anything and no one seemed to care about him except a handful of people who seemed to care about him more as a tool than a friend, but if you looked deeper into Meursault’s personality even at that point in the story you could still find some meaning in Meursault’s life. The other possible outcome of if Meursault had not shot the Arab is a lot harder to predict because Camus could have come up with any number of possible outcomes and morals of the story but they probably would have all would have had something to do with absurdism, and Meursault finally finding meaning in something.

Me as a reader

Ever  since I was able to read to myself I have always like reading for recreation. I think the reason I like to read now was probably was because of my parent s reading to me when I was to young to read to my self. Sometimes I used to make my parents or younger brother sit down so I could go through a book and pretend I could read it, making up the story as I went. Eventually when I did know how to read, I would actually read to my little brothers sometimes. As they got older they became less interested in me reading so I would read to myself instead. I slowly worked my up through different types of books, from picture books, To simple chapter books, to more complicate novels.

truth blog

"The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty.", Tim O'Brien

            The truth is not always written in stone, but it is often mistaken to be. The truth in any event varies depending on what you experienced of an event. To fully understand the truth of an event you would have to witness the event from everyone there's perspective, and then figure out who saw what actually happened for. Even if you could do that you could not be sure if the perspective you chose was right, or if they were right, but missed some details. This is why jurors in a court do not make their decisions based on the word of one witness, because one witness could not see every detail of the whole event. That's why I believe that there is a truth in historical events, but it is not humanly possible to find. The only truth that we can find are the ones authors make up in fiction, because the view of their character or characters is the only view of that event, where as non-fiction writers have to try and find a set truth of an event instead of being able to make one up. So in some ways fiction is more truthful than non-fiction, but it is true to the authors truth instead of reality.  http://files.meetup.com/423109/How%20to%20Tell%20A%20True%20War%20Story_Tim%20O%27Brien.pdf

“Fiction is the lie that helps us understand the truth.”, Tim O,Brien

            So as you can see the truth, pertaining to real life events, is not simple at all. It can vary between any two people who witness an event, and it is impossible to find the perfect truth. Only in fiction or in extremely rare events can you find a perfect truth, or near perfect truth.