Albert Camus essay

Albert Camus

Annotated Bibliography for Albert Camus *The Stranger*

Annotated Bibliography for Albert Camus

The Stranger essay

Brittany Anselmo

Ryan Gallagher

English 12 CP

6 Dec. 2010

The Stranger 

Albert Camus, in the story The Stranger overall is showing how people can be ignorant towards this and how people are given options at one time or another and they sometime don’t bother with them, but when they need those options there not there anymore. In the book, the narrator and protagonist Meursalt, takes what he has for granted basically. He has everything but doesn’t really care for it, he’s ignorant to things in his life. Meursalt was given many chances to care about people but he chose not to care. When Meursalt ends up in jail everything is taken away from him and he then realizes that he took things for granted, and starts to show some kind of emotion for things he never cared about.

             In the passage when Monsieur Meursalt is having a conversation wit Marie, Marie had asked if he would marry her and he gave her and I don’t care type of attitude. In "The Stranger", Albert Camus shows how Meursalt has no feelings towards anything and is ignorant towards the feelings anyone shares with him, by showing this he also shows how this effects the relationships Meursalt has with people. This is all shown by the way Camus has Meursalt talk.
    "Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way i had last time, that it didn't man anything but that I probably didn't love her." Monsieur Meursalt hangs out with Marie as much as he can, they're always at the beach together, and he's showing affection towards her. Marie is letting Meursalt know she cares about him and he doesn't give it in return. He's showing this I don't care attitude when he says that. Not caring about her feelings when he so bluntly says "it didn't mean anything but that i probably didn't love her." He doesn't care.
    A little more into the passage, Marie asks Meursalt if he would marry another girl if had asked and he said "sure". By that one word he is showing he could care less if Marie wants to get married or not. Asking someone to get married is a big deal. Meursalt just blows if off like its nothing. He's being really ignorant, you can't just marry someone and just do it because you have a what ever feeling about the situation.
    "I didn't say anything, because I didn't have anything to add, so she took my arm with a smile and she wanted to marry me." Marie just expressed to Meursalt her feelings and he has nothing to say. I find that odd. In a relationship both people need to show they care and love another, but they also need to be able to talk. Meursalt and Marie's relationship is like a one person thing. She's giving and expressing her feelings and Meursalt has nothing to add or say. He can't be in a relationship and act that way. He shouldn't be in one if he doesn't know how to act.
    Meursalt puts up and act. He doesn't care about anything; he has no emotions towards anything. When acting like this he's going to ruin everything with the people he has a relationship with. In order to be able to talk to people he needs to express how he feels and be able to listen and give feedback to what others say.

In the passage on page 117 to 118 in part two, Meursalt it’s being preached abo9ut god and feels if he’s guilty then he’s guilty. He refers to his cell in this passage as well, which symbolizes his trial. Albert Camus is trying to show the reader that when your mind sets to something, it stays set to that one thing. Camus is also saying that when you have something to say then you should just say it.

The chaplain is trying to convince Meursalt that yeah he might be sentence but he should have faith in got, so he can receive forgiveness. Meursalt was asked “how [he would] face [the] terrifying ordeal.” (117) Meursalt would “face it exactly as [he is] now.” (117) If  a human is going to die…should it really matter when they do? Meursalt does not think it does. Chaplain asks Meursalt if “[he has any] hope at all? And [does he] really live with the thought that when you die, you die, and nothing remains?” (117) and he answered “yes.” (117) Meursalt honestly doesn’t believe in all the religious things the chaplain is preaching. The chaplain can’t change Meursalt’s mind. Once you believe something. It’s what you believe.

Throughout Meursalt’s court case he was kind of forced to believe that he didn’t care about his mom because he didn’t cry at her funeral, he was forced to believe that he was guilty in the way they had decided, he was forced to believe that he didn’t have a say when it came to his like, and that he didn’t have a soul. While being forced to believe all this, he eventually did. The minute Meursalt showed any type of emotion towards something it was shut down before really ever being heard.

In the passage on page 118, Meursalt says how the jail cell didn’t have many options. The jail cell symbolizes the court room, in both places there wasn’t really an option Meursalt had over the two. Obviously there isn’t going to be a lot of room in the jail cell, but in the court room Meursalt didn’t have a say in anything, no options. He was said to be guilty and there was no if, ands, or buts about it. It’s a little ironic how he goes from the jail to court, back to jail and court again. Both places he doesn’t have really have a say.

In general the author is showing the reader how Meursalt didn’t have much options, and we he did when it come down to god, and not willing to believe. Meursalt has the choice to not believe in all the faith talk that the chaplain is trying to put in his head, but he should have been given the chance to stick up for himself in court when he felt like he wanted to say something.

All in all, Albert Camus, shows the reader Meursalt's ways in the book "The Strangers". He shows us how Meursalt goes from this emotionless human being to someone that soon realizes he for once wants to have say in his life. Meursalt knows why he does things the way he does so no person can actually really tellhin he doesn't careabout anything because they can't see inside his head.

           

The Stranger part 1 essay

    In the passage when Monsieur Meursalt is having a conversation wit Marie, Marie had asked if he would marry her and he gave her an I don't care type of attitude. In "The Stranger", Albert Camus shows how Meursalt has no feelings towards anything and is ignorant towards the feelings anyone shares with him, by showing this he also shows how this effects the relationships Meursalt has with people. This is all shown by the way Camus has Meursalt talk.
    "Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way i had last time, that it didn't man anything but that I probably didn't love her." Monsieur Meursalt hangs out with Marie as much as he can, they're always at the beach together, and he's showing affection towards her. Marie is letting Meursalt know she cares about him and he doesn't give it in return. He's showing this I don't care attitude when he says that. Not caring about her feelings when he so bluntly says "it didn't mean anything but that i probably didn't love her." He doesn't care.
    A little more into the passage,  Marie asks Meursalt if he would marry another girl if had asked and he said "sure". By that one word he is showing he could care less if Marie wants to get married or not. Asking someone to get married is a big deal. Meursalt just blows if off like its nothing. He's being really ignorant, you can't just marry someone and just do it because you have a what ever feeling about the situation.
    "I didn't say anything, because I didn't have anything to add, so she took my arm with a smile and she wanted to marry me." Marie just expressed to Meursalt her feelings and he has nothing to say. I find that odd. In a relationship both people need to show they care and love another, but they also need to be able to talk. Meursalt and Marie's relationship is like a one person thing. She's giving and expressing her feelings and Meursalt has nothing to add or say. He can't be in a relationship and act that way. He shouldn't be in one if he doesn't know how to act.
    Meursalt puts up and act. He doesn't care about anything, he has no emotions towards anything. When acting like this he's going to ruin everything with the people he has a relationship with. In order to be able to talk to people he needs to express how he feels and be able to listen and give feedback to what others say.

independent book essay

       In Lorri Antosz Benson and Taryn Leigh Benson's memoir Distorted, the character Taryn is strugleing with an eating disorder. She is bulimic. Not only is she hurting herself but she is hurting her whole family as well. She goes on a huge roller coaster of up's and down's through the book.
       From the beginning her mother, Lorri, has the idea of perfect, perfect, perfect. Nothing is wrong with them."I often told myself that if we just did everything right, if we gave our girls the right balance of love, respect, and discipline, we might get through the teen years without an incident." (1) Taryn had an eating disorder, and intill it got to the extremes, her mom looked at it as a phase. "Fat. Awful. Gross. I hate my body. I am going to lose 15 pounds and then i'll be perfect." (7) Perfect is how her mother looked at things so it's clear that its going to fall back on the children, and it did just that with Taryn.
       When the eating disorder got so bad an uncontrolable, Taryn's mom convinced her to go to an eating disorder facility. When going there Taryn wasn't going to change, she didn't want to. With any type of addiction, a person is not going to change or get better unless they want to. She did get help but she changed her mind when she found out her mother had read her journal, "I knew it wasn't over. Two more weeks and i would e home again, and if all went according to plan, back into the eating disorder in less than three." (84) When Taryn is hurt, angry, sad, or anything her eating disorder brings her back to peace.
       "I vomited it up on the plane a few hours later. I raced around the Atlanta airport on my layover, stocking up on binge food and purging twice more on the plane. " (97) She hasn't changed, she doesn't want to. She was purging more now than before she left. As time went on the disorder was way worse then the first time, off she went to another place. But this time it worked. She recovered, "Lucky for me, I never gave up on me. I finally fought back and learned what a waste of a person I was while bulimia ruled my life. More importantly I learned what an amazing person I actually am all by myself." (215) She         changed because she wanted to.
       In the end, the main point that is trying to get across, is that if you have a problem it's only going to get fixed if that person really wants it to, not everyone else. Taryn's mom tired so hard to convince Taryn to change but nothing happened, it wasn't until Taryn wanted to, that she did. Taryn says at the end of the book that she has reached for the light at the end of the dark tunnel. (212)

edited Plum Plum Pickers, by Raymond Barrio

In “Plum Plum Pickers”, Raymond Barrio suggests that people can only be pushed around and worked to a certain limit until they just break. Raymond Barrio shows this by the tone this story is written in. He also shows this through repetition of words. Raymond Barrio shows this through the picture he creates with this story. These men are worked until exhaustion takes over, and they are pushed around and know they can't say or do anything about it, till the end when Manuel stands up for the others pickers and himself.

In “Plum Plum Pickers”, the tone is exhaustion. The workers and day is being empty. In the story, Raymond Barrio uses repetition of the word “drained”, which creates an emptying sensation. Barrio talks about how the day is out of light, how their bodies are out of energy, how their sprit is out of will. Everything is empting out. Their exhausted, they have no more energy, no more will, to do anything else. When exhausted its as though the human body is empty, it's like being to tired to do anything. This shows that humans can only work to a certain point before they’re too tired to do anything else.

In the story the author tries to show what’s going on with his words. Barrio sets his writing up in a way to separate each piece, so you look at certain words. It's much easier to understand what is being said.

The author tries to show how the protagonist feels through the story. They are over worked. When he writes, "The hot dry air. The hot dry air sucking every drop of living moisture from his brute body." Right their Manuel is working really hard and he needs water to be able to replenish him. Towards the end of the workday, the job really takes a toll on ones body. You can see this when he says, " His fingers burned. His arms flailed the innocent trees. He was slowing down. He could hardly fill his last bucket." There's only so much someone's body can take in one day. Exhaustion is clearly taking over. These workers are clearly being pushed to a breaking point.

  Back to what the author is suggesting about people being pushed overboard, you can see when Manuel opens his mouth. "You promised to take nothing! " Manuel heard himself saying. It's clear Manuel knew it wasn't right for them to work till they where so tired, and have what they earned taking away from them. If it weren’t for Manuel, Roberto Morales would have taking those 2 cents away from all the workers that day. When he stuck up for everyone, you can see that he was tired of being pushed around to do all this work, and have someone come take what he earned. It's not right and Manuel knew that.

In the end this story is a good example of, people allow themselves to be kicked and kicked until that point comes when they stop the foot before being kicked again. It's all about how much you actually willing to take before you want to do something about it. People have breaking points, and limits their human its a normal thing.

Plum Plum Pickers by Raymond Barrio

    In Plum Plum Pickers, Raymond Barrio suggests that people can only be pushed around and worked to a certain limit until they just break. Raymond Barrio shows this by the tone this story is written in. He also shows this through repetition of words. Raymond Barrio shows this through the picture he creates with this story. These men are worked until exhaustion takes over, and they are pushed around and know they can't say or do anything about it.
     In Plum Plum Pckers, the tone is exhaustion. The workers and day is being empty. In the story, Raymond Barrio uses repetition of the word drained which creates an emptying sensation. He talks about how the day is out of light, how their bodies are out of energy, how their spirt is out of will. Everything is empting out. Their exhausted, they have no more energy, no more will. When your exhausted your empty, it's like your to tired to do anything. This shows that you can only work to a certain point before your to tired to do anything else.
     In the story the author tries to make you really see whats  going on with his words. He sets his writing up in a way to seperate each peice, so you look at certain words. It's much easier to understand what is being said.
    The author tries to show you how the protagonist feels through the story. They are over worked. When he writes, "The hot dry air. The hot dry air sucking every drop of living moisture from his brute body." Right there you can see he's working really hard and he needs water to be able to replenish himself. Towards the end of the work day, the job really takes a toll on ones body. You can see this when he says, " His fingers burned. His arms flaied the innocent trees. He was slowing down. He could hardly fill his last bucket." There's only so much someone's body can take in one day. Exhasution is clearly taking over. These workers are clearly being pushed to a breaking point.
    Back to what the author is suggesting about people being pushed overboard, you can see when Manuel opens his mouth. "You promised to take nothing! " Manuel heard himself saying. It's clear Manuel knew it wasn't right for them to work till they where so tired, and have what they earned taking away fromt them. If it wasn't for Manuel, Roberto Morales would have taking that 2 cents away from all the workers that day. When he stuck up for everyone, you can see that he was tired of being pushed around to do all this work, and have someone come take what he earned. It's not right and Manuel knew that.
    In the end this story is a good example of, people allow themselves to be kicked and kicked until that point comes when they stop the foot before being kicked again. It's all about how much you actually willing to take before you want to do something about it. People have breaking points, and limits their human its a normal thing.

college essay ! (unedited)

Brittany Anselmo

Ryan Gallagher

Senior CP, Period 1

19 Oct. 2010

WHY?

Why?  Why am I the person I am today? Why to I do the things I do?  Why did I become this person? These are questions I don’t fully know the answers to. Who am I? I am Brittany Anselmo, 18 years old, senior in high school, a girl trying to do what she has to do to get where she has to go. I’m a girl who has an extremely outgoing personality, someone who isn’t scared to be noticed. I’m a girl who isn’t afraid to take the risk of doing anything and possibly fail. I’m a girl that will totally learn from everything I ever do. I’m a girl that a look at life not only through my eyes but also to try from everyone else’s as well. I’m the girl that’s going to tell you the truth no matter what; I’m the girl that’s going to stick up for what is right and what is wrong, no matter what.

Like this always? Nope not at all! Before high school, I was just a shy girl who was extremely shy; someone who was afraid to voice her opinion because she felt like it wasn’t worth much. I was someone who let people walk all over me and do absolutely nothing about it at all. When soon realizing this, I told myself once I get into high school this is all going to change. I was sick and tired of feeling like I didn’t matter, and I wasn’t worth as much as everyone else. So I did change, I went into that first day of school a totally different girl.

When first changing, I’m not going to lie it was easy but there where some down falls at first. My mouth was getting me into trouble because I felt like I could say what ever to who ever, which clearly isn’t the case especially when most of my time was spent in school. My mouth seemed to be getting me in trouble a lot; I didn’t know how to control what I wanted to say. I felt I had the right to say anything, and what made me what to say everything was because for so long I said nothing at all. I can say for at least a good year I kept my mouth up. Not only was it affecting school but also it had an affect on my home life.  My mom and I started fighting a lot; I felt I didn’t have to listen to anyone that I didn’t want to. I had the mind set that it’s my life and I can do whatever I want and no one will stop me.

My outlook on life changed towards the end of last year. I realized I was being totally immature, and in order to get someone where I need to respect the people who know what’s best for me, the people that can actually help me get somewhere. Once I started to actually see that the reason I felt that my teacher actually weren’t out to get me like most student say, I grew to like them as they did to me, and it made things a whole lot easier and going to class was actually fun. Not only did my out look change towards school but it changed for everything else. I started to use my mouth for good and stick up for what was right and for what was wrong. When I would see kids getting picked on in school I would use my voice to stick up for them because they where to scared like I once was to say anything to anyone, so I understood what they were feeling at the time. I have like the biggest heart in the world, and this might be corny but I have a place for everyone. To this day I try to help anyone I can, whether they ask or not, its just how I am.

In life I feel, it’s always good to look at things through other perspectives. In certain situation I look a things how I see them but then I look a things how other people see them. When doing this I think you get a better understanding about how things really are, it opens up your eyes a little bit more then maybe what they were before. I do this all the time with everything; I’m never too quick to judge things.

With this new attitude towards how I see things and how I do things, I know what I want for myself in life. I want an education that will take me way beyond that what it has to. I want a job that makes me happy when I do it, and other people happy as well. Everything I do is for me, but secretly a little bit of it is for everyone else as well. 

Journal entry

"Nearer the sun, and the wax that held the wings melted in that fierce heat, and the bare arms beat up and down in the air, and lacking oarage took hold of nothing. Father ! he cried, and Father ! until the blue sea hushed him, the dark water men called the Icarian now."


Icarus should have paid more attention to his father when he was explaining the rules to him about how to fly. If he had listened he wouldn't have gone so close to the sun and he would still be alive instead of dead.

Letter

Hey, i'm going to make this short and simple. My name is Brittany. I'm an extremely outgoing person. I try and put my self in everyone shoes, to see how they see and think of things before i start to judge.  I will admit that english is my favorite subject in school, and i'm not just saying that because this is for english class. This sums it up for now.

=)

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

           In the poem "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus", William Carlos Williams is very simple at telling what happened. There 's not much there but when you really look at the poem and actually try and and understand, there is a bigger meaning. In "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus", William Carlos Williams suggests that human beings are selfish and there are consequences to peoples actions, he shows this by the allusion he creates and his chose of words. In all three pieces, what William Carlos Williams is suggesting is shown. 
           From the poem "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus",  you can see how people are selfish and there are consequences to everyones actions. In stanza six, line one, when William Carlos Williams says the word insignificantly, he is describing Icarus as being insignificant. In stanza one, line one, when William Carlos Williams says the word unnoticed, he's referring to Icarus's death as being unnoticeable. By using these words the author is showing how people are being selfish. They obviously know whats going on but no one is doing much about it. In the poem in stanza five, when the author says, "sweating in the sun that melted the wings wax", from the story Icarus flew to high up after being warned, therefore he fell into the water and drowned. The poem actually said more then what was written.
         In the painting, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus", Bruegel suggests that people notice what they want, some people really do just care about themselves. In the painting you can clearly see that someone has fallen into the water. Bruegel has drew someone on the shore line right where Icarus is drowning in the water. Bruegel has also drawn two other people just standing around, no minding anything that going on. From the poem, William Carlos Williams, is writing it from someones point of view, and the painting is a piece that is describing the poem and you can clearly see that no one is doing anything. So that goes back to what William Carlos Williams is suggesting about how people are selfish.
        In the story, 'The myth of Daedalus and Icarus", Ovid suggests that there are rules and that everything happens for a reason. Ovid shows us this when he has Daedalus explain to Icarus the rules of being able to fly with these wings. He tells him no to go to high because the wax on the wings will melt, he tells him no to go to low because the water will weight them down. So Icarus flew to high and his wings melted, he ended up drowning, if he had listened to the rules this wouldn't have happened. This all goes back to what William Carlos Williams is suggesting that human beings are selfish and there are consequences to everyones actions. 
        From all three pieces the same point comes up, Icarus did what he wanted, therefore being selfish, in the end he died. His consequence for flying to high was death. William Carlos Williams showed how people can be selfish and how everything people do, if bad, there will be a consequence for it. 
      

500 words on Bruegel

In this picture I see a variety of different things. I see a yellow sky with a tint of blue, but also a surrounding of green as well. In this sky you can see how the color form the clouds. It almost looks like the sun is setting. In the back right corner of the picture you can see mountains, so you can tell that there in the distance. In the far left of the picture you can see a little city, with buildings and some mountains behind that. It looks like the sun is shining over the little city still. Where the city is it looks like it could be a peninsula. Right next to that there is a green area it looks as though it could be bushes or trees. After that there are huge, tall rocks that are a tan type color and along side of that is another area of green trees and bushes. The water is a green and blue color, a blend of the two. In the water there is a small island, it looks sandy, and looks like it has some green trees. There are four sail boat’s in the water, two which have a faded look to them, so you can tell there kind of far away. There is a bigger ship in the middle of all the smaller sail boats, which you can see more clear then them, you can see its white mass and its brown boat, but still you can tell its in the distance. There is another island in the water, but on this one there is this huge dark rock with an opening in the front of it. Its on sandy ground and had green trees behind it. Right in front of that island there is a random rock sticking out of the water, and then there is a much smaller one next to it as well. As you get closer to the land you can see another ship, but this time it’s bigger and you can really see what the shit looks like. It has big white sails, you can see the long pole that stand in the middle of this shit with the nets on them, you can see the little thing you can sit in at the top of the pole. You can even see this white thing on the deck, which looks like it could be a person. When your looking at this boat you can see waves in the ocean. As you move away from the boat a little you can see that someone is in the water, you can see there legs and feet up out of the water. As you get close to the shore, you can see three people, one is standing down by the water leaning towards it, the other looks like he’s watching either sheep or cows, with a dog along his side, up more is the last guy who is making a horse more. Up on the shore there are grass type areas and sandy areas. There are some twigs along the side of the shore, as well as trees up more ahead. Also there are two sets of stairs when you are up on the shore. The colors up on the shore are kind of dark, the more dark greens and browns. So that is basically what this picture looks like.

Red Shift essay

       In the poem "Red Shift, the author Ted Berrigan suggests that the speaker is a lonely person. This is shown through the words the writer chose for the speaker to say, the tone of the speaker is very emotional. The way the author wrote this poem, you can tell how the speaker is feeling. The meaning of the word red shift means the measure of waves. This whole poem goes from down to up back to down.
      The title being "Red Shift" can make the reader look at the poem with a different understanding. Since red shirt can be the measure of waves the title makes sense to what was written. In the beginning the words are choppy, and short, so the sound waves would be low. In the middle the sentence start to get longer and filled with more emotion, so the waves will be much higher. Towards the end of the poem, the speakers words start to die off again, causing the sound waves to go back down like before. So the tone of the speaker is down and up. The meaning of red shift can also apply to the speaker emotions because they to change from down to up. 
      From reading this poem, its pretty obvious what the tone of the speaker is. The speaker sounds disappointed, the he sounds like he's upset, sad, then he almost sounds like he's crying, and towards the end he actually sounds like he's about to die.  All these tones make him sound depressed, and most depressed people feel alone. So, going back to the beginning to what the author is suggesting, the speaker is alone, and filled with emotions. This also goes back to the meaning of the word red shift, his emotions keep changing, so that means the waves would keep changing as well.
      A way the author shows the speaker as being alone is in the line 28 and 29. The speaker says "nor even for stupid permanent estrangement which is only our human lot & means nothing." When breaking down this sentence you get a better meaning. The word permanent means forever, the word estrangement means taken away from or separated. When knowing those two meanings its like he's saying forever separated, or forever taken away from, therefore it's like no one is there, he's alone. 
      Right from the start of this poem the speaker was alone. He sounded better when he first started reading as the poem goes on he's is only talking about the past, not not because there nothing to talk about because he's alone. Towards the end, he forms some kind of attitude and he once again is still alone. Him being alone explains his tone and why is emotions are always up and down. The speaker is like a red shift, or a measure of waves.
      Red shift, the measure of waves, describes what this poem is about and who the speaker is. He is an up and down emotional person. The author Ted Berrigan tries to suggest that the speaker is alone with all these emotions. This poem was a good way of showing that.