...We are all strangers in some form or another. Whether it’s buying food from a store or at a party of some sort, we meet new people who we feel quickly connected to while conversing in topic after topic. This happens a lot and has its own excitement to it in some ways depending on the individual. However this doesn’t happen as often as we would think due to fear of not being accepted by others. In the essay titled “stranger,” Toni Morrison explains her experience with a stranger and what became of it. I agree when the author says that there are no strangers but our conscious that allows us to push others away. I disagree when she thought of the fisher-woman as deceitful after they had no chance of reuniting. In the essay titled “strangers” Toni Morrison concludes, “It took some time for me to understand my unreasonable claims on that fisherwoman...there are no strangers...only...
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...PAULO COELHO THE DEVIL AND MISS PRYM Translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Nick Caistor Harper Collins Ptty/stars 77-85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith London W6 8JB The HarperCollins website address is: www.fireandwater.com Paulo Coelho's website address is: www.paulocoelho.com.br First published in English by HarperCollinsPwfe/js/ws 2001 This edition published 2002 13579 10 8642 © Paulo Coelho 2000 English translation © Amanda Hopkinson and Nick Caistor Paulo Coelho asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 00 711605 5 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Omnia Books Limited, Glasgow All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, Hail Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who turn to Thee for help. Amen. ALSO BY PAULO COELHO The Alchemist The Pilgrimage The Valkyries By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept The Fifth Mountain Veronika Decides to Die And a certain ruler asked him, saying, 'Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And Jesus said unto him, 'Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that is God.' Luke 18: 18-19 Author's note The first story about division comes from ancient Persia: the god of time, having created the universe, sees...
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...Madison Heuer 12/12/14 P. 2A Emotionally Unavailable The wild and bizarre story of Meursault in The Stranger hints at many different teachings Camus might convey to his avid readers, but they can only be found by reading between his stories thought-provoking and intricate lines. Meursault is suddenly bombarded with situations that most people would find devastating and earth-shattering. However he seems to have no emotional matters to deal with. It’s a very shocking and peculiar situation to be immersed in for the reader. In The Stranger, the world he lives in believes him to be a cold-hearted, cruel, and unpleasant monster that should not walk freely due to the cause that he does not conform to how society believes he should be behaving. Meursault shows no sad emotion at his mother’s funeral, he then quickly sparks a romance with a woman he has no true love for and finally his controversial shooting of the Arab all lead to Meursault’s conviction and ultimately his death. At Meursault’s first trial he is attacked by the fact that he seemed to not be bothered by the death of his own mother. It was evident he wanted nothing to do with his mother since he didn’t even have the decency to take care of the woman himself. He relied on a home to take care of her and never gave her a second...
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...The Strangers That Came to Town Essay The story “The Strangers That Came to Town” is primarily a story about freedom. In his short story, “The Strangers that Came to Town”, Ambrose Flack is showing that true freedom is about being accepted. In the beginning of the story Mr. Duvitch and his family couldn’t walk around the town being judged or feeling uncomfortable. This was also a big problem for Mr. Duvitch’s children. They deal with bullying and not being welcomed as well. Although at the end of the story Andy’s family changes things for the Duvitch’s. The town begins to realize that they aren’t as bad as they thought and weren’t actually that different from them. Mr. Duvitch’s and his family were unable to walk in their own town without being judged or feeling uncomfortable. People around the town used call their family the “marked ones”. Some even considered them to be unattractive physically. The Duvitches were the only struggling family in town, it was often embarrassing and irritating to the other people. People who would walk by them on the street used to stop their noses at them. “It followed the Syringa Street Young, meeting him on the street, sometimes stopped their noses as they passed him by- a form of torment all the more acute when Mr. Duvitch had to share it with the children that happened to be with him.” Mr. Duvitch’s was known as untouchable and the other women in the town began to start rumours about Mrs. Duvitch. They only did this because...
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...Albert Camus THE STRANGER THE Stranger By ALBERT CAMUS Translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert VINTAGE BOOKS A Division of Random House NEW YORK 1 Albert Camus THE STRANGER VINTAGE BOOKS are published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Random House, Inc. Copyright 1942 by Librairie Gallimard as L’ÉTRANGER Copyright 1946 by ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper. Manufactured in the United States of America. Distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. 2 Albert Camus THE STRANGER Contents Contents ........................................................................................................................ 3 Part One ........................................................................................................................ 4 I.................................................................................................................................. 4 II .............................................................................................................................. 14 III ............................................................................................................................. 18 IV.............................................................
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...RUNNING HEAD: SHORT STORY 1 Short Story Kathe Gunckle Baker College Ms. Stacy Dacheux RUNNING HEAD: SHORT STORY 2 Abstract Wendy is doctor in a small town. She loves her job and specializes in rare diseases and how to cure them. A stranger asks her to go to a far away land where her help is needed to help people who are dying. She is concerned about going because she is afraid of stepping outside her small town and her comfort zone. While traveling she encounters those who are trying to stop her, becomes unsure about her ability to help and becomes sick herself and does not understand what she is suffering from. In the end she is able to help those in need and bring back valuable information to help others in her small town and elsewhere. RUNNING HEAD: SHORT STORY 3 Short Story Helping those who can’t help themselves is so much a part of me now; it’s hard to recall just when it started. As kids, Caitlin Morse and I would play hospital for hours on end. Each and every blond haired, blue eyed baby doll as well as each cuddly teddy bear had been bandaged, operated on and cured of every imaginable disease by the time we were 12. Caitlin went on to marry a doctor and I chose to become one...
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...In Albert Camus' The Stranger the Meursault is clearly disillusioned of life and two examples of this disillusionment occurred in the instances of his mother's death and an offer to be transferred to another work environment. The novel The Stranger by Albert Camus portrays how Meursault is disillusioned about things that seem to be the most normal basic human concepts of understanding such as his mothers death. With his mother's death, he seemed indifferent at the loss of her life in every way possible. He was so uninterested in her funeral that he remarked the following: "...I can be there for the vigil and come back tomorrow night" (Camus 3). His mother appeared to slow him down. As if he felt he had better things to do. He claimed he never went to visit her in the nursing home because she enjoyed it too much. Nonetheless, he admitted, that the visit "took up my Sunday -- not to mention the trouble of getting to the bus, buying tickets, and spending two hours traveling" (Camus 5). This shows the true lack of care in his mothers death. To further define his insensitivity, Meursault shed not even one tear in this part of the novel; moreover, he expressed no form of sorrow whatsoever. Secondly, Meursault's attitude and reaction toward an offer to be relocated to a Parisian location was a monumental indicator of his insensitivity. One would expect him to accept or decline the offer graciously and respectfully. Meursault proved, again, to be unpredictable when he states, in...
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...I Spy by Graham Greene Charlie Stowe waited until he heard his mother snore before he got out of bed. Even then he moved with caution and tiptoed to the window. The front of the house was irregular, so that it was possible to see a light burning in his mother's room. But now all the windows were dark. A searchlight passed across the sky, lighting the banks of cloud and probing the dark deep spaces between, seeking enemy airships. The wind blew from the sea, and Charlie Stowe could hear behind his mother's snores the beating of the waves. A draught through the cracks in the window-frame stirred his nightshirt. Charlie Stowe was frightened. But the thought of the tobacconist's shop which his father kept down a dozen wooden stairs drew him on. He was twelve years old, and already boys at the County School mocked him because he had never smoked a cigarette. The packets were piled twelve deep below, Gold Flake and Players, De Reszke, Abdulla, Woodbines, and the little shop lay under a thin haze of stale smoke which would completely disguise his crime. That it was a crime to steal some of his father's stock Charlie Stowe had no doubt, but he did not love his father; his father was unreal to him, a wraith, pale, thin, and indefinite, who noticed him only spasmodically and left even punishment to his mother. For his mother he felt a passionate demonstrative love; her large boisterous presence and her noisy charity filled the world for him; from her speech he judged her the...
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...What is Existentialism? , Existentialism is a way of life, for example some people who live a life of an extensialist don’t care about anything or anyone. They take each day as it comes. They don’t worry about anything and act like their okay when they really aren’t. In the movie “The Dark Night” by Christopher Nolan’s and the book “The Stranger” by Albert Camus gives great examples of people who live the life of extensialist. Living an extensialist life comes with many consequences. Good or bad it doesn’t really matter. “I guess the joker is as crazy as they say” (Nolan). In the movie the Dark Night a man who works for the joker says how the joker is actually crazy like everyone says. Now in the story the stranger Mersault is crazy when he doesn’t cry or grief because his mother has passed away. They look at both of these characters as crazy. But are they actually crazy? Or are they crazy because society says they are? In a society many people see who is crazy who is not, but in these both stories they really aren’t, the joker just does things as they come and people are the ones who actually cause the crazy ness he just takes the blame for it, well that’s how I see it. In the book Mersault doesn’t cry for his mother’s death because he says they never really had any relationship at all. Society says he’s a jerk and he’s heartless for not doing so but he’s an estensialist and they really don’t show emotions at all. An extensialist does things as they come, they don’t plan...
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...Book Report Do you like funny and amusing tell tales especially with the use of animals as caricatures? Well, set in Angel’s Camp, a gold mining community of California during the mid -19th century, Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog by Mark Twain is a classical anecdote to chew on. The narrator, clearly an educated man from the East, presents the story of Jim Smiley, told in Simon Wheeler’s uneducated dialect. The author uses this dialect to present the contrast between East and West: educated verses the uneducated, or refined verses coarse. The narrator claims to have visited the camp populated primarily by men to find Simon Wheeler. Many of them looking for their fortune and probably seem to be full of loud, uncouth, and uneducated people compared to the more genteel East. Within this context, the author uses symbolism, imagery and allegory quite skilfully through his narrator using absurd characters to tell tale. Since tall tales traditionally have been more appreciated in the West, the setting is appropriate. Humorously, the names for the dog and the "educated" frog hint at some possible political undertones. The dog, who didn’t look like much but was feisty when it came to fighting, was named for Andrew Jackson, a westerner and the seventh president of the United States. He was a man of the people and believed in democracy for all. The moral of the tale could be that the uneducated, common frog was only able to beat the educated...
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...A Simple Exchange of Niceties Joanne Fedler’s essay begins with the narrator making it obvious that she is pregnant, as well as that she does not care about too much. The narrator shares with the reader her intimate relationship with her favourite bench at the park, conversations she has had with strangers on the bench, as well as personal memories and opinions. The essay revolves around the narrator, her pregnancy, and her intimacy with the specific bench at the park. Fedler created the narrator as an extreme pessimist, not viewing things very positively or in a nice manner. The narrator grew up with a rough childhood – often believing her mother would exchange her for opulent desires, and not knowing whom her own father is. Another hint that the narrator grew up without luxuries, is that she was once a shoplifter. Children and adolescents that are normally caught stealing, are taking it because they can not afford to pay for it – and when the narrator’s bail turned out to be only $500, her mother would not pay for it. From this, the narrator views herself as an underachiever, taking more out of the world than what she contributes. She does not feel worthy of many things in life, bringing many issues upon herself. A fine example of this would be the areas she goes to; one place being where she met Damien (her baby’s father). Damien approached her in a pool pub, which is normally not a nicer area to be (in America), quickly flirting with her via body language; inquiring if...
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...There is always that one annoying “I am different and unique” kid that nobody likes or understands. In Albert Camus’s novel “The stranger” he explores the other side and allows us to see through that one kids eyes of what it is like to live alone. Furthermore, showing us the most predominant theme in the novel “The Stranger” is being alone and alienated is a painful existence. Right off the bat the book is showcasing the predominant theme throughout the entirety of the first scene. Mersault in the first scene is physically alone. He is sitting by himself at the wake and receives the pain itself of alienation. As stated in the novel on page 10 “It was then that I realized they were all sitting across from me, nodding their heads, grouped around the care taker. For a second I had the ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge me.” The death of his mother had not altered his emotions in any way, and he was being excluded or separated because of it. This separation continues to the next scene, the funeral. He walks lengths ahead of the group and is mostly entertained by the thought of going home as seen on page 18 “Maman’s casket, the white flesh of the roots mixed in with it, more people, voices, the village, waiting in front...
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...Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” and Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” have a lot of similarities and differences between the two characters; Krebs, and Bartleby. Throughout the short stories each relate to each other in some way. Krebs just has returned from Europe while fighting in WWI and Bartleby a hired Wall Street scrivener, each struggle in fitting in with present day society but each struggle comes with a different background. According to Merriam – Webster’s definition for ‘post – traumatic stress disorder’ is, “medical: a mental condition that can affect a person who has had a very shocking or difficult experience (such as fighting in a war) and that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, etc.”. In World War I times it was known as “shell shock”. All throughout Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” we get the idea that Krebs is diagnosed with that disorder but back then they had no idea what this was. In the quote “He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences. Besides he did not really need a girl. The army taught him that.” (Hemingway, 188). My perspective on this quote is that Krebs seems sexist. Basically, he is saying that he does not need a woman because they carry on too much baggage. A very disturbing scene comes up in the story as Krebs is awfully rude to his mother; “yes don’t you love your mother dear boy?” “No” Krebs said. His mother looked at him across the table. Her eyes were shiny...
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...albert camus does a great magnificant job in the stranger developing the chaaracter of mersault by using reptition and basic words to show just how robotic mersault is in this story. the style and way mersault decides whether he likes something or not is so basic as he says it himself and is extremely blunt with it. furthermore albert camus shows how emotionless mersault is by showing little to no importance on his mom dying and no cares about marriage or murder which further develops mersaults character as a crazy sociopath. in addition to his emotionless response to the death of his mother he also is drawn as a ruthless killer when he shoots the arab four more times after the one kill shot and says how it was like knocking on a door of unhappiness...
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...I Spy by Graham Greene Charlie Stowe waited until he heard his mother snore before he got out of bed. Even then he moved with caution and tiptoed to the window. The front of the house was irregular, so that it was possible to see a light burning in his mother's room. But now all the windows were dark. A searchlight passed across the sky, lighting the banks of cloud and probing the dark deep spaces between, seeking enemy airships. The wind blew from the sea, and Charlie Stowe could hear behind his mother's snores the beating of the waves. A draught through the cracks in the window-frame stirred his nightshirt. Charlie Stowe was frightened. But the thought of the tobacconist's shop which his father kept down a dozen wooden stairs drew him on. He was twelve years old, and already boys at the County School mocked him because he had never smoked a cigarette. The packets were piled twelve deep below, Gold Flake and Players, De Reszke, Abdulla, Woodbines, and the little shop lay under a thin haze of stale smoke which would completely disguise his crime. That it was a crime to steal some of his father's stock Charlie Stowe had no doubt, but he did not love his father; his father was unreal to him, a wraith, pale, thin, and indefinite, who noticed him only spasmodically and left even punishment to his mother. For his mother he felt a passionate demonstrative love; her large boisterous presence and her noisy charity filled the world for him; from her speech he...
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