The Stranger Essay Outline

The Stranger Essay Outline 

Prompt: In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, a portion of the prologue reads, “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. […] It is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination — indeed, everything and anything except me” (Ellison 3). In what ways can this excerpt be an appropriate description of Meursault? What does it elucidate about Meursault’s character, and is it a perfect description for the man himself? 

Thesis: The excerpt from the prologue of Invisible Man can also be a description of Meursault from The Stranger because people and society do not see Meursault for who he actually is, which is someone who values the fulfillment of his basic needs and distances himself from emotions. 

• “I remembered that it was Sunday, and that bothered me: I don’t like Sundays. So I rolled over, tried to find the salty smell of Marie’s hair had left on the pillow, and slept until ten. Then I smoked a few cigarettes, still in bed, till noon. I didn't feel like having lunch at Céleste’s like I usually did because they’d be sure To ask questions and I don’t like that. I fixed myself some eggs and ate them out of the pan, without bread because I didn’t have any left and I didn’t feel like going downstairs to buy some” (21). 

• Meursault is self centered, which is seen by his overuse of the word “I” and how much he focuses on himself and not others, such as Marie, who just hurriedly left, or Céleste, who is most likely worried about Meursault.  
• His priorities are the basic necessities for life, such as food and sleep, and not the feelings he may or may not have for Marie.
• He avoids others as much as possible, choosing instead to stay by himself in his apartment as opposed to going out to have lunch or buy bread. 

• “‘We put the cover on, but I’m supposed to unscrew the casket so you can see her.’ He was moving toward the casket when I stopped him. He said, ‘You don’t want to?’ I answered, ‘No.’ He was quiet , and I was embarrassed because I felt I shouldn’t have said that. He looked at me and then asked, ‘Why not?’ but without criticizing, as if he just wanted to know. I said, ‘I don’t know.’ He started twirling his mustache, and then without looking at me, again he said, ‘I understand’” (6).

• The caretaker of the facility Meursault’s mother lived in is confused by Meursault’s behavior. He expects Meursault to more visibly mourn his mother and perform normal tasks, such as seeing the body. However, Meursault is not mournful and views the funeral as a break from work, and his actions puzzle the caretaker, but Meursault sees no reason to cry or see the body.

• “That evening Marie came by to see me and asked if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her. ‘So why marry me, then?’ she said. I explained to her that it didn’t really matter and that if she wanted to, we could get married” (41). 

• The answer that is expected from Meursault is that he wants to marry her and that he loves her because they are in a relationship. However, he avoids emotions, especially strong ones, such as love, so he does not actually care whether or not they get married, which is not typical for most people, who, at the very least, want to be in a romantic relationship with another person. 

• “Then he told me that as a matter of fact he wanted to ask my advice about the whole business, because I was a man, I knew about things, and then we’d be pals. I didn’t say anything, and he asked me again if I wanted to be pals. I said it was fine with me: he seemed pleased. He got out the blood sausage, fried it up, and set out glasses, plates, knives, and forks, and two bottles of wine” (29).

• Raymond attempts to form a connection with Meursault and ask him for advice about a relationship he is in, but Meursault does not really care about Raymond or his issues. The reason Meursault is even with Raymond is because Raymond offered him food and wine, which is Meursault’s main concern. 

• “He said that he had peered into it [Meursault’s soul] and that he had found nothing, gentlemen of the jury. He said the truth was that I didn’t have a soul and that nothing human, not one of the moral principles that govern men’s hearts, was within my reach. […] He went so far as to hope that human justice would mete out punishment unflinchingly. But he wasn’t afraid to say it: my callousness inspired in him a horror nearly greater than that which he felt at the crime of parricide. And also according to him, a man who is morally guilty of killing his mother severs himself from society in the same way as the man who raises a murderous hand against the father who begat him” (101-102). 

• The prosecutor makes the assumption that Meursault is evil and inhumane not only because he killed a man, but also because Meursault did not cry at his mother’s funeral, which is a completely unrelated incident. The prosecutor draws the conclusion that Meursault is emotionless, which he is, and that this therefore makes Meursault a monster, which is debatable. Because Meursault did not cry at his mother’s funeral, which is the normal response, he is condemned as a cold-blooded killer. 

• “He was expressing his certainty that my appeal would be granted, but I was carrying the burden of a sin from which I had to free myself. According to him, human justice was nothing and divine justice was everything. I pointed out that it was the former that had condemned me. His response was that I didn’t know what a sin was. All they had told me was that I was guilty. I was guilty, I was paying for it, and nothing more could be asked of me” (118). 

• The priest is confused by Meursault’s unwillingness to accept religion before his death, but Meursault does not believe in God because God is not a tangible force, and Meursault refuses the embrace anything that does not apply to his physical needs. 

Ten Quotes from the First Five Chapters of The Picture of Dorian Gray

Ten Quotes from the First Five Chapters of The Picture of Dorian Gray

1. “There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. […] Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are — my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray’s good looks — we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly” (5-6)
2. “It is a sad thing to think of, but there is no doubt that Genius lasts longer than Beauty” (14). 
3. “but music was not articulate. It was not a new world, but rather another chaos, that it created in us. Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! how clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?” (21)
4. “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul” (23). 
5. “How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older that this particular day of June…. If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that — for that — I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!” (28). 
6. “Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic” (39).
7. “Yes, he would try to be to Dorian Gray what, without knowing it, the lad was to the painter who had fashioned the wonderful portrait. He would seek to dominate him — had already, indeed, half done so. He would make that wonderful spirit his own. There was something fascinating in this son of Love and Death” (40). 
8. “I don’t think I am likely to marry, Harry. I am too much in love. That is one of your aphorisms. I am putting it into practise, as I do everything you say” (51).
9. “You filled me with a wild desire to know everything about life. For days after I met you, something seemed to throb in my veins. As I lounged in the Park, or strolled down Picadilly, I used to look at every one who passed me, and wonder, with a mad curiosity, what sort of live they led. Some of them fascinated me. Others filled me with terror. There was an exquisite poison in the air. I had a passion for sensations….” (52).
10. “But you should not say the greatest romance of your life. You should say the first romance of your life.You will always be loved, and you will always be in love with love” (53).  

Characterization of Meursault in Part One

Characterization of Meursault in Part One

In part one of Albert Camus’s “The Stranger,” it quickly becomes clear that the main character Meursault is very awkward in social situations. He says thing that are uncalled for, such as when he asks his boss for time off for his mother’s funeral: “I even said, ‘It’s not my fault.’ Then I thought I shouldn’t have said that” (3). He is unsocial and avoids conversation when possible. For example, he is asked a question about his journey to his mother’s funeral and lies so that he “wouldn’t have to say anything else” (4). Little things irritate him easily, such as the silence of the elderly people when they are keeping vigil over his mother’s body. Normal interactions and gestures with other people seem to confuse and shock him: “On their way out, and much to my surprise, they all shook my hand — as if that night during which we hadn’t exchanged as much as a single word had somehow brought us closer together” (12). In addition, some of his behaviors are simply odd. The day after his mother’s funeral, Meurault goes to the beach and goes out on a date with a woman he likes, which is a strange thing to do immediately after the funeral of one’s mother. Meursault’s awkwardness in social situations distances him from others, causing him to become somewhat compassionless. 

In addition to being awkward, Meursault can be quite callous at times. When he and his mother’s friends keep vigil over the body before the funeral, one of the women starts crying. Not only does he not comfort her, he is also annoyed by her: “I  wished I didn’t have to listen to her anymore” (10). Meursault has a similar reaction when Salamano is upset about losing his dog, which has been his only companion for years. Instead of comforting the elderly man, Meursault states that he must wake up early the next morning. When in the funeral procession, Meursault repeatedly sees his mother’s very dear friend falling behind due to his age and his limp. Most people would offer to help the man or ask the procession to slow down for his sake, but Meursault continues to walk on with little regard to the struggling man and then he casually states that the man passes out at the funeral. Another instance of his callousness occurs when Marie proposes to him. He says that he does not care whether or not they get married and that he probably does not love her. He is brutally honest with her and does not sugarcoat this, which could easily upset someone, especially a romantic interest. Meursault’s callousness makes him seem cold, detached, and inhuman, and it affects his morals. 

Meursault also displays having loose morals. When asked if the situation between Salamano and his dog is pitiful, Meursault always responds that he does not think it is even though the dog is often beaten. Meursault defends Raymond beating his mistress because Meursault believes that she deserved since she might have been cheating on Raymond. He also is willing to lie to the police about the incident with Raymond and the mistress, beat up a man on the beach if one shows up while Raymond and Masson are fighting the others, and shoot a man if he hurts Raymond during their fight. These questionable actions all lead up to Meursault fatally shooting a man and then continuing to shoot the body: “Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace” (59). His loose morals are often harmless, but they have the capability to result in a murder that will trouble Meursault throughout the novel. 

Chapter 8 Poem: "Leda and the Swan"

The poem “Leda and the Swan” by William Butler Yeats is about the ancient Greek myth of Leda, who was seduced by the god Zeus while he was in the form of a swan. Their coupling resulted in the births of Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor, and Pollux. The poem alludes to the fates of the children: “A shudder in the loins engenders there / The broken wall, the burning roof and tower / And Agamemnon dead” (9-11). Helen is most well known for being the predominant cause of the Trojan War between the city of Troy and the Greek nations. After ten years of fighting, the Greeks tricked the Trojans by building a hollow horse, which they hid inside, and leaving it as an offering to the gods. The Trojans took the horse as a spoil of war and had to break their own city’s great walls to bring the horse inside. At night, the Greeks emerged from the horse and burnt the city to the ground. Once the war ended, the Greek leader Agamemnon returned to his home in Mycenae and was killed by his wife Clytemnestra because he had sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia before the war. The allusion to the destructive and murderous fates of Helen and Clytemnestra highlight the violence of Leda and Zeus’s relationship. Modern descriptions of most Greek myths about gods and mortals having children together depict the god seducing the mortal women, but according to the original myths, their relationships were often violent and resulted in rape. This sort of violence is referenced several times in the poem by the use of words such as “helpless,” “terrified,” and “brute” (lines 4, 5, and 13). Alluding to the future destruction and pain caused by her daughters emphasizes Leda’s own destruction and pain at that time because of Zeus’s actions. 

1984 Essay Outline

1984 Outline

Thesis: Winston and Julia’s reunion at the end of the novel shows the effects of the Party on society and inherent truths about humanity. 

• Elimination of passion — Winston is horrified by the idea of sex with Julia, to whom he used to be strongly attracted. He used to think about lustful thoughts about her, but the Party has completely driven that desire out of him so that he would be dedicated to only the Party. 
• Metaphorical death — Winston describes Julia’s waist as similar to a corpse, which is fitting because Julia used to be full of life and her hips were a physical representation of her vitality and passion for life. However, her hips are now like a corpse’s, showing that the Party has killed her and her desires. 
• Loyalty only to the Party — One of the Party’s main goals is to destroy any positive feelings between two individuals and replace it with a loyalty to the Party. People no longer feel anything positive for family, spouses, or coworkers. The only person an individual can now like is Big Brother. There a sense of disdain between any two people. 
• Selfishness — Humans are inherently selfish and will betray one another if it benefits them. Both Winston and Julia betrayed each other to spare themselves, even though they repeatedly promised each other that they would not betray the other. 
• Safety — At one point, Winston considered being with Julia as a safe place. The Party’s actions have made being near her unbearable, but he still craves a safe place because humans want the comfort such a place brings. Since he can no longer find that comfort with Julia, he has to find it in the Cafe. 
• Individuality — The Party detests individuality because it prevents them from completely controlling everyone. Winston and Julia both tried to be individuals, but the Party has made them conform. They now lack originality, which disables them from thinking or going against the Party. 

There was no telescreen, but there must be hidden microphones: besides, they could be seen. It did not matter, nothing mattered. They could have lain down on the ground and done that if they had wanted to. His flesh froze with horror at the thought of it. She made no response whatever to the clasp of his arm; she did not even try to disengage herself. He knew now what had changed in her. Her face was sallower, and there was a long scar, partly hidden by the hair, across her forehead and temple; but that was not the change. It was that her waist had grown thicker, and, in a surprising way, had stiffened. He remembered how once, after the explosion of a rocket bomb, he had helped to drag a corpse out of some ruins, and had been astonished not only by the incredible weight of the thing, but by its rigidity and awkwardness to handle, which made it seem more like stone than flesh. Her body felt like that. It occurred to him that the texture of her skin would be quite different from what it had once been.
He did not attempt to kiss her, nor did they speak. As they walked back across the grass, she looked directly at him for the first time. It was only a momentary glance, full of contempt and dislike. He wondered whether it was a dislike that came purely out of the past or whether it was inspired also by his bloated face and the water that the wind kept squeezing from his eyes. They sat down on two iron chairs, side by side but not too close together. He saw that she was about to speak. She moved her clumsy shoe a few centimetres and deliberately crushed a twig. Her feet seemed to have grown broader, he noticed.
'I betrayed you,' she said baldly.
'I betrayed you,' he said.
She gave him another quick look of dislike.
'Sometimes,' she said, 'they threaten you with something -- something you can't stand up to, can't even think about. And then you say, "Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to So-and-so." And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving yourself, and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.'
'All you care about is yourself,' he echoed.
'And after that, you don't feel the same towards the other person any longer.'
'No,' he said, 'you don't feel the same.'
There did not seem to be anything more to say. The wind plastered their thin overalls against their bodies. Almost at once it became embarrassing to sit there in silence: besides, it was too cold to keep still. She said something about catching her Tube and stood up to go.
'We must meet again,' he said.
'Yes,' she said, 'we must meet again.'
He followed irresolutely for a little distance, half a pace behind her. They did not speak again. She did not actually try to shake him off, but walked at just such a speed as to prevent his keeping abreast of her. He had made up his mind that he would accompany her as far as the Tube station, but suddenly this process of trailing along in the cold seemed pointless and unbearable. He was overwhelmed by a desire not so much to get away from Julia as to get back to the Chestnut Tree Cafe, which had never seemed so attractive as at this moment. He had a nostalgic vision of his corner table, with the newspaper and the chessboard and the everflowing gin. Above all, it would be warm in there. The next moment, not altogether by accident, he allowed himself to become separated from her by a small knot of people. He made a half-hearted attempt to catch up, then slowed down, turned, and made off in the opposite direction. When he had gone fifty metres he looked back. The street was not crowded, but already he could not distinguish her. Any one of a dozen hurrying figures might have been hers. Perhaps her thickened, stiffened body was no longer recognizable from behind. 

1984 Book Two Quotes

1. “Party members were not supposed to swear, and Winston himself very seldom did swear, aloud, at any rate. Julia, however, seemed unable to mention the Party, and especially the Inner Party, without using the kinds of words that you saw chalked up in dripping alleyways. He did not dislike it. It was merely one symptom of her revolt against the Party and all its ways, and somehow it seemed natural and healthy, like the sneeze of a horse that smells bad hay” (122).

2. “But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act” (126).

3. “He wondered vaguely how many others like her thee might be in the younger generation — people who had grown up in the world of the Revolution, knowing nothing else, accepting the Party as something unalterable, like the sky, not rebelling against its authority but simply evading it, as a rabbit dodges a dog” (131). 

4. “There were times when the fact of impeding death seemed as palpable as the bed they lay on, and they would cling together with a sort of despairing sensuality, like a damned soul grasping at his last morsel of pleasure when the clock is within five minutes of striking. But there were also times when they had the illusion not only of safety but of permanence. So long as they were actually in this room, they both felt, no harm could come to them. Getting there was difficult and dangerous, but the room itself was sanctuary” (151).

5. “Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, ‘just to keep people frightened.’ This was an idea that had literally never occurred to him” (153).

6. “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right” (155).

7. “He had moved from thoughts to words, and now from words to actions. The last step was something that would happen in the Ministry of Love. He had accepted it. The end was contained in the beginning. But it was frightening; or, more exactly, it was like a foretaste of death, like being a little less alive” (159).

8. “For the first time in his life he did not despise the proles or think of them merely as an inert force which would one day spring to life and regenerate the world. The proles had stayed human. They had not become hardened inside. They had held on to the primitive emotions which he himself had to relearn by conscious effort” (165). 

9. “When he spoke of murder, suicide, venereal disease, amputated limbs, and altered faces, it was with a faint air of persiflage. ‘This is unavoidable,’ his voice seemed to say; ‘this is what we have got to do, unflinchingly. But this is not what we shall be doing when life is worth living again’” (175).

10. “There is no possibility that any perceptible change will happen within our own lifetime. We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone” (176).

Pathedy of Manners

Pathedy of Manners

The speaker used to feel admiration for the woman she is describing, but now she only feels pity for her.

The first half of the poem describes the woman when she was younger and focuses on her characteristics and skills using selection of detail. The reader learns many seemingly random tidbits about the woman that show how she is an interesting and respectable person. She is brilliant; she is adored; people want to dance with her; she speaks as if she were wealthy; she earned a diploma; she travelled; and she “learned to tell real Wedgwood from a fraud” (12). Such details are unnecessary and insignificant. However, they do paint a vivid picture of an intelligent and cultured woman whom dedicated her life up to that point trying to broaden her horizons. She is someone who should be admired because she achieved a wide variety of things at the young age of twenty and is capable of much more amazing accomplishments. The selection of detail in the first half of the poem displays the speaker’s admiration for the woman because the woman is shown to be unique, interesting, and intelligent. 

The second half of the poem focuses on the woman’s life then and how it did not turn out as expected. In the first stanza after the shift, the word “Ideal” is repeated (15-16). After living such a fantastic life as one described earlier in the poem, it is expected that this woman’s life continues to be fantastic. However, the fifth stanza describes the woman at forty-three, and her life did not turn out the way anyone expected: she is alone and imagines “lost opportunity” that she missed. Words and phrases like “afraid” (21) and “shuns conviction” (23) are used to emphasize her uncertainty about her now life, and how this uncertainty leads to negative side effects. The poem ends with the woman walking “Alone in brilliant circles to the end” (28). This once vibrant woman who was full of life is now lonely and dull. The speaker no longer admires her, but instead, she pities her. She, like others, expected greatness from this woman, and when the woman lived a mediocre life, people, including herself, pitied her because they thought she could have done more with her life. The speaker’s diction of words such as alone, afraid, and lost show that the speaker pities the woman because the woman did not live up to her expectations.