The Stranger blog post # 2

I've never read a book like this one, The Stranger begins with this man going to his mother's funeral and does not mourn at all. And his life seems to be dull because all he really does is observe and doesn't really live his own life. At times I try to understand this man, what are the real motives for his actions and the way he lives his life. But then he does something that just confuses me all over again. What i do understand is that he seems to find nothing meaningful but when he was younger he did have dreams and goals and ambition. I wonder what happened that made him this way?? What I found interesting was his relationship with others like his mother, his neighbors, and Marie, because his relationships with these people did not seem real or deep. Most of them were just random people or people he really didn't know well. i beliieve something in his past made him very detached with others, or maybe he fears opening up to others but he doesn't seem to mind hearing other people's even those outside his life like the man in the newspaper article. What i found significant was his relationship with Marie because he told her that it didn't matter if they loved each other, they could still marry. why would he say this? Does he not believe he can love another or is it because he is afraid to love another. But he doesn't seem to have a problem with having sexual desires for her especially after he gets locked up all he can think about is Marie and cigarettes. What I found interesting was the amount of times he would talk about the heat throughout out the book like when he was in court. He is asked why he killed the man he says the sun. In the end where he is told that he is to die he summarizes is it as " I was to have my head cut off in the public square in the name of the french people." He doesn't really give it much importance, like he doesn't even care he will die. When asked of his beliefs religiously, he says he didn't believe in God, he didn't give it much thought and found it unimportant. Even religion and death he find meaningless like nothing maters anymore not even his own life. this man is a strange man and I say this because at the end of the book he says " I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate." what kind of person would wish this, what caused him to be the man he is?? This what i think of the book so far.

Who is this Guy?

Meursault I believe is secretly a sad man , making his thoughts very dark and his relationships suffer. I believe he is human because he has feelings and thoughts, even if it is that everything is meaningless. It personally makes me feel depressed because the way he talks about of his life, makes him seem detached. Things are going on and he seems to be just the observer not really contributing anything. For example when he was at his mother's funeral, he observes the room, the smell instead of really mourning his mother's death during the funeral, " It was pleasant; the coffee had warmed me up, and the smell of flowers on the night air was coming through the door. I think i dozed off a little."This book kind of reminds me of perks of a wallflower because they both go through their life watching others live it. I don't know anyone like Meursault but maybe we all have a bit of him, sometimes we try to hide our feelings causing us to ruin our relationships or we can have a dark or detached feelings with an event of our life. I believe that one thinks people should be "normal" not weird or too dark because it's what society would like us to be. Maybe Camus made this character this way to makes us think of why this character is like this or maybe to make us see a different way a person can live his/her life. Everytime you meet someone it's like starting all over to make connections, to see if will be friends or maybe just 2 people who just know each other. But it seems like the character always feels like a stranger but doesn't do much to change that. I want to keep reading to find out why Meursault is the way he is??

Huckabees Blog Post Assignment

Do we live in a world that is meaningful and makes sense?

I believe we do live in a world that is meaningful but not really sure about the makes sense part. If the world weren’t meaningful, then what would be the point of living? Everything we would say or do would be meaningless, no possibility to connect with others or just share own thoughts, feelings and ideas. Like how Tommy’s girlfriend was like “ If nothing matters, how can I matter?” because how can one truly matter if everything is supposed to be meaningless. Or when Tommy said, “Once you realize the universe sucks, you got nothing left to lose.” I remember we were having a small discussion of how if the world was truly meaningless that we wouldn’t even bother to go to school or work because like Tommy said what do we have to lose. But we do because we believe to world is meaningful, that in school or work we are able to connect with others and these connection wouldn’t happen if we were really “ trapped in a dark room with no windows.” Caterine in this movie was like Banach; both believed that the world was meaningless. Part I found really funny in the movie was when after reading Caterine’s book Tommy’s girlfriend and daughter leave him but he tries to explain it to his like 5 year old daughter and screams “ always keep asking questions.” or something like that. But at the same time it was kind of sad because the book and this idea of the world being meaningless made him lose his family.

The world I think is meaningful because to me, people connecting at least for me feels real and if the world didn’t hold any meaning then life would be pointless. I like Bernard’s idea of the blanket and how “Everything is the same, even if it’s different.” because it shows we are same in the sense we all are somehow connected. I think it’s cool, even Caterine showed this was true because then she wouldn’t have found the connection between Albert and his door man; “He was orphaned by civil war, you were orphaned by indifference.” she told him. And if she believes everything is meaningless then why did she believe in connections?? Another great quote Bernard said was “Everything is connected and everything matters! Every atom of your body has been forged in the furnace of the sun, isn’t that cool?” We even have connections scientifically but at the same time there are differences between each other. Which I think are what the tiny cracks stood for but those cracks had tiny connections and they had tiny cracks as well and so on.

But at the same time I do not say that it always makes sense, sometimes there are questions that really can’t have an exact answer. Even Bernard and his wife couldn’t answer Brad’s question “ How can I not be myself.” Or can you really answer what the meaning of life is? No because everyone will have their own idea or thoughts but never an actual answer. But I believe we each find the answers to what doesn’t make sense to us with our own life experiences, thought, views, values, etc.

Hw # 4 - Part 3

Part three of Banach's Lecture talks of how " the value one gets from within is definitely better than the value one vainly attempts to get from outside." Meaning we must determine our own values. Also talks of how in the story of the Grinch he steals all the presents and tree but instead of the who people to be sad he heard joy and happiness because they discovered the true meaning of Christmas.

Maybe it means we shouldn't value what is unimportant, in this case superficial and focus on what is important. It evens speaks of how when we begin to face death or are facing death you discover or question the meaning of life and that our values can never be taken away not even in our death. And to find our internal values we must lose our external values first. What do you think this means??? And what are your personal values??

Hw # ?? comments on second part of lecture

To: NIKKI

I liked how you understood how powerful the word was to Banach and to you shoed you understood his lecture. Unlike the last time you actually agreed with his views which is cool but shows you have your own view on his lectures. At the same time you disagree that you can't do everything you want like fly. Maybe you should talk about how he says we act like others wants us ask, what do you think of this???

Well liked read your blog :)

To: LARCHE

I like how you say that we all follow a script because i agree we all at some point have "acted" like someone wants us to be. You also say "As I see it we are too focused on how we are to act and be around other people, never really considering who we are." I think in the end, we all are trying to find out who we are, so we try out so many " scripts" until we actually know who we are. You actually try to understand what Banach is saying, i've read other blogs where they just plainly disagree with his views. You focus a lot on how we try to deceit ourselves from our from our freedom maybe you should try to talk another point of his like when he talks of human flourishing and our essence. But your post showed me you truly understood what Banach was saying

Enjoyed your blog! :D

HW # 3

In "The Ethics of Absolute Freedom" : Part 2 of Banach's lecture, he says that to understand what absolute freedom is; " we must first see how, even though our inescapable nature is to be free, we inevitably tend to try to escape our freedom........ We attempt to deceive ourselves and act as if we weren't free, as if we were really by our nature , our body or the expectations of other people." I agree with this because we do have absolute freedom but sometimes we choose not to completely use our freedom. Due to the fact that we let others, our body and our nature make who we are. I understand when he says the expectations of others but what about our nature and our body? Body as in how we look or as in what?? Our nature could be our personality the way one acts or maybe even our ethics??

In the third paragraph, he says we all have said things like; " I can't talk to people. I don't have that kind of personality or I can't pass this course, I just don't have the brain for calculus or I don't know what happened. I guess the beer made me crazy." I believe these are just excuses we come up with to explain our actions, when really we have the freedom to choose what we want to be or do. For example for the line that says " I can't pass this course, I just don't have the brain for calculus" we choose not to actually try to understand it. I know we all have strengths and weaknesses but we can " have the brain for calculus" because we have freedom to at least try to understand it not just give up.

I really like the part where he states we all make ourselves the image other people have of us;

" We are a different person with our friends than with our parents. We are different person with a lover than with our acquaintances, and we are different still when we are in the classroom or at a job interview." I believe this is absolutely true, we do act a certain way with different people. I don't think it makes us fake, in the end we still are who we are because we have the "absolute freedom" to choose our actions.

I am going to try to answer some of the questions my schoolmates have with my view on them : For example “How does religion play a role in this?” I think it plays a role because it is part of how we choose to live, our absolute freedom. But some might say that it's just another way we deceive ourselves from our freedom. BUT at the same time we have the freedom to choose what we believe in. These kind of thoughts are the type of thoughts that are seen differently by each person, never a correct answer.

Well these are my thoughts and views on Banach's lecture: Part 2.

"HW 2 - Comments 1"

To: Nikki

I liked how you said you thought " Banach's Lecture" was BS but also stated why you thought this. You say we may only feel what we feel at FIRST but you can share your feelings . I agree I think we can share our feelings but at the same time only at a certain extent. Also the part where you say it's impossible to be alone in the world , i believe your right but some just choose not to. Your blog was interesting and enjoying but maybe you should expand on maybe other points you might agree with like for example do you think we all see things differently because we are all "absolute individuals" or not?? Your blog made me consider my own because it showed me reasons why Banach's lecture may not be true, at the same time we also had common views on it. Hope to read more of your blogs :)

To Larche:

I like how you used yourself as an example to explain what you thought Banach's lecture. You say " I think that as long as you don't have any regrets about the way you choose to live your life and are happy with the outcome then that's all that should matter." I agree i think that connects with " absolute freedom" because you have the freedom to just be happy. You can expand your blog by maybe adding points you may disagree or agree with, for example do you think we are absolutely alone in the world ? Can we only feel our pains, our pleasures, our hopes etc ? Your blog made me consider a lot of questions you ask, like when you say " Is there a right or wrong way to life your life? " I too believe it is different for everyone. Enjoyed reading your blog.