Does He Really Not Care?

"The sun was the same as it had been the day I'd buried Maman, ..." (page 58)

"And from the peculiar little noise coming through the partition, I realized he was crying.  For some reason I though of Maman." (page 39)  

Out of all the questions that arose from The Stranger, the one that puzzles me the most is about Meursault's mother.  Why does she keep coming up after her death?  The quotes above show some of the many times Meursault would think of his mother.  Did he not say in the beginning of the book that he just didn't care about her death?  The very first sentence in the book starts like this:

"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." (page 3)

From then on, he does not really mention his mother until he starts speaking about Raymond and Salamano.   She comes up more and more often creating confusion in the mind of the reader.  Is he really an existentialist? He seems to care about some of his actions even though he does what he wants. In Part 2 of the novel, he finally admits feelings for his mother.  He clearly states:

"What I can say for certain is that I would rather Maman hadn't died." (page 65) 

All these things cause me to really ponder if Albert Camus is an existentialist or not.  Is Meursault a reflection of Camus?  Comparing the beginning of the novel with the end,  Meursault contradicts himself regarding his beliefs or ideas. I believe that Camus is some what an existentialist.  He expresses his ideas in a form of not caring about life in the end, but sometimes he makes it seem like he does.  Does he only care about certain unfortunate events?  I guess these questions cannot be answered by reading a book, but by asking the author himself.  A reader can infer what he or she wants from his texts, but only Camus knows for sure what was going on through his mind while writing the book.

Who Cares?!

Existentialism, the perfect word to summarize the famous phrase YOLO.  We live and we die, so who cares about what happens between those two points?! Just by reading a couple pages of the book, it is obvious that this is how the main character in The Stranger feels about life.  On the first page of the book the very first sentence is:

 "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." (page 3)

How can someone simply not care when there mother died? A relationship between a mother and a child is so close and so amazing that you simply cannot explain it. It's as if he just simply doesn't care about life.  He goes where he needs to go and doesn't ask questions.  He accepts things as they are and doesn't really care about how it may affect him in the future.  Another quote from the book that supports this conclusion is:

"It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed." (page 24)

Here the character clearly states that from a couple days ago until now, nothing has changed.  Life hasn't changed and it has certainly not affected him. He couldn't care less about the past events. Instead of mourning for his loss, he goes off with a girl he used to know and sleeps with her.  This supports Jean-Paul Sartre's idea of "opposing the world's meaningless with revolt, freedom, and passion."  Sex expresses a form of freedom and definitely passion.

Sartre's thoughts of "do not make illusions about the future" is also proven in the last quote.  Once again he doesn't really care about what may happen in the future.  He lives in the now and is not concerned about the past or future.  YOLO!

Golden Days, Golden Age

The Great Gatsby is a novel that follows a young man's experience in the East (New York).  He sees his friends, Tom and Daisy, and befriends his neighbor Jay Gatsby.  Gatsby is a man who constantly throws extravagant parties without a second thought. Throughout the novel F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a series of colors to describe and change moods in each scene. The color gold is often used to describe a glorious scene. It is the perfect color to express the lifestyle of the characters throughout the book.   

"All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the Beale Street Blues while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shinning dust." (page 151)

Although there are many quotes with the color gold, this quote supports the idea.  By describing the slippers and the dust, the reader can visualize just how prosperous the people are.

When the color gold first comes to mind, I imagine a fairy tale.  A nice dress, jewelry, a "princessy" life-style, and a shining sun.  This is just how the people of the East live their lives.  It's their perfect fictional society.  They do not have a care in the world except for gaining money, spending money, and love.  Isn't that what gold usually represents? Extremely wealthy people who live life without a care in the world? Tom, Daisy, and Jay Gatsby are not an exception to this rule. Tom has a lover and only focuses on earning money, Daisy is a flirt who is self-absorbed in her own little bubble, and Gatsby spends his money as if he had a money tree growing in the backyard.  Nick, on the other hand, has worked hard to get where he is and focuses on everything life has to offer.  There is nothing "golden" about his life except for when he is with Jay Gatsby.

Another word gold can be used to describe is being successful.  Jordan Baker, a friend of Daisy's, is a very famous golf player in the 1920's.  The papers call her "the golden girl of tennis." As if that were not enough, they use the word "golden" to describe how she looks.  It is mainly used to describe the color of her skin. "I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder..." (page 84)

As shown with the different phrases from the novel, gold is used to describe the life of someone who is very well off.  It supports the ideas of being successful, beautiful, and prosperous.  The people who are surrounded by it live a fairy tale compared to the people who have nothing at all.  As Fitzgerald writes about Nick's life, it seems as if Nick is surrounded by elegant people.  By thinking of the other colors used in the book, like grey, the reader can easily infer that this is what the author means when he uses the color gold.