Journal # 8

The first time, I disliked The Stranger, but the second time through, I really enjoyed it, and I got so much more out of it. The thing that I enjoyed the most was all of the irony. Maybe that is not the right word, because I don't mean irony in the literary sense of the word. I mean more of a semi-ironic juxtaposition sort of thing. First of all, there were some interesting paradoxes. For example "The whole time there was nothing but the sun and the silence, with the low gurgling from the spring and the three notes." (Camus, 55) and right after that "the double silence of the flute and the water." (Camus, 56). These are really intriguing to me. In the court, I missed this the first time I read it, the lawyers are ripping Meursault apart and he admires their logic. Same with the jailer and the magistrate. He always examines people objectively. Most people would hate the person simply for being against them, but Meursault does not allow emotions to get in the way of his logic and appreciation of a job well done. I love that about him.
I am glad that we read this book as a part of the curriculum. Especially right after Their Eyes Were Watching God. The two books are so different in style, in atmosphere, in figurative language. I think by reading the two back to back, my view of literature has been widened. Earlier in school, it is all about using big vocabulary and long sentences, but then The Stranger is a wonderful book, and it uses short sentences and not too much fancy vocab.
A great piece of literature is one that you can read and forget that it is a book and get caught up in the plot. Also it needs a universal theme. It needs complex characters and everything in the book has a purpose, it is not to be funny or because they couldn't think of a better word. And you can tell all these things. I used to think that there was no way the authors thought of all the stuff we analyzed, but after writing my pastiche, I know that they do. The Stranger definitely achieves these criteria. (On a random side note, my favorite three books I've read in high school, The Stranger, Fiela's Child, and Cry, The Beloved Country all take place in Africa. That's cool.)