Meursault's Friends

When we read The Stranger, we only see Meursault's actions and the people around him from his point of view. Although he's undoubtedly a very truthful narrator, he is so detached from the people around him that he fails to pick up on social cues, or more often he just doesn't care. To us, Meursault seems very weird and off-putting because we can see inside his head. I keep wondering: how does Meursault appear to the people around him?
     
       Meursault seems to have friends, or at least not to appear too repulsive to the people around him. He gets along with Salamano and seems to be friends with Raymond. From what we see in the book, both of these relationships consist of Salamano/Raymond doing or saying something, and Meursault passively agreeing with them. Salamano and Raymond take that passivity as support and read more into the friendship than Meursault intends. Meursault, for his part, genuinely seems to want friendship, but more for an alliance/someone who likes him rather than because he takes any actual interest in them as a person.

      Most of Meursault's friends (Salamano and Raymond) seem to be pretty seedy characters: a mobster(?) who beats his girlfriend and a guy who's abusive to his dog. This makes me wonder if "normal" people see through Meursault better. Maybe the reason Raymond likes Meursault is because he knows Meursault will go along with anything he says, and puts up with Meursault's weirdness because it benefits him. I feel like if another person had been in the room when Raymond was telling Meursault about beating his mistress, they would be disgusted with Meursault for allowing this to happen. Meursault thinks he gets along well with people (the people he waves to from his balcony, etc.). He doesn't seem to hold long conversations with them, though, so maybe he's not as good at it as he thinks he is. Celeste is his only friend who seems like a relatively nice person, but it doesn't seem like they have a particularly close relationship besides occasionally talking in the cafe. This is just me speculating, but Meursault seems like the type of person where people would be nice to him, but think he's a little weird and make excuses to leave after some polite small talk.

      

Gregor the Wind-up Toy

As I was reading the story, I got repeatedly frustrated at all of the characters because they're so stuck in their ways. No one ever seems to challenge the situation they're in or try to work around it. They take their first impression and build all of their actions around it. Gregor is the most obvious example of this - when his father is in debt, he just automatically assumes that it's his job to pay it off on his own. As we later find out, Gregor's father is by no means too feeble to pay off his own debt, but Gregor assumes he is and so gets a job that he hates without even consulting his family. Even though he could probably get another job that paid just as well that he didn't hate so much, Gregor doesn't even seem to consider that he could pay off his debt any other way.

Once Gregor becomes the sole breadwinner, his parents and sister are content to sit back and let things go on as they are, even though they're in an apartment that they hate and have lives with no real purpose. Even though they seem to love Gregor, at no point do they offer to earn money of their own to help him out. In a way, I felt like Gregor's family fails him by not offering to make his life any easier. It even seems like they stay in the apartment all day - no friends or outside activities are mentioned. Are they actually happy like this? Don't they get bored? Until the very end of the book, Gregor's family is content to mooch and stay in a pointless situation.

Once Gregor becomes an insect, it really bugged me (pun intended) that he never questions why this happened, or if/how he can change back, or how he can make the most of his new life. He tries to continue on his same old track, even when it becomes obvious it's not going to work. It's like watching a wind-up toy run into a wall repeatedly until it stops. Gregor just accepts the fact that his family doesn't really care about him, and he just goes along with whatever would make them most comfortable. If I were Gregor, I'd be furious and I'd try as hard as I could to communicate with my family. Can't Gregor...I don't know, move his bedsheets into the shape of letters? Scratch words into the wall? There has to be some way for him to let them know he's in there. Instead, he pointlessly resigns himself to the way things are.

As the book goes on, Gregor's family at least begin to show some more creativity and independent will. They have to get jobs (as someone mentioned in class, this can be seen as either a good thing or a sign they're going to become like Gregor. I choose to think of it as a good thing) and take responsibility for their own lives. Throughout the book, they've lived in an apartment that they hate, simply because Gregor chose it and they never stopped him from choosing it. After Gregor's death, the story moves outside the apartment for the very first time, and they finally live someplace they actually want. They take the day off (again, they write Gregor-like apology letters, but they don't seem to agonize over it like Gregor would; they just skip work and then go out into the city and enjoy their freedom).