The Stranger

1. The Stranger

2. Chapter 1 • What do you remember about the term “existentialism?” • Talk to a partner • You have 5 minutes • You can go online and look at my posted videos • I will call on you

3. Writing Fiction Get into groups of 4 Group the following into 2 categories and put them ON THE BOARD. You have 10 minutes. I will grade you. • Bad Faith (MauvaiseFoi) • Choice • Reason • God • Condemned • Existence • Nothingness • Pretend • Freedom • Create

4. Chapter 1 • “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” • Give me one adjective describing Mersault’s personality. • Talk to a partner (30 seconds) • What’s he like? You can’t say “Weird.”

5. Chapter 1 Page 8 • An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value.[1] This issue of the meaning and purpose of existence is the topic of the philosophical school of existentialism. Description of an Existential Crisis • The sense of being alone and isolated in the world; • A new-found grasp or appreciation of one's mortality; • Believing that one's life has no purpose or external meaning; • Searching for the meaning of life; • Shattering of one's sense of reality, or how the world is; • Awareness of one's freedom and the consequences of accepting or rejecting that freedom; • An extremely pleasurable or hurtful experience that leaves one seeking meaning;

6. Chapter 1 • How is Mersault like you? • When have you acted this “numb” or “detached” or “weird,” the feeling of, “whatever?” (Ever just give up, on grades, on people, and say whatever?) • Share with a partner. • You will report your partner’s response to the class.

7. Chapter 1 Page 18 • Go Online and open the file, “Key.Words.Existentialism” You will need these words for the following assignment. Write an “on your own question” based on The Stranger.

8. Chapter 1 “On My Own Questions” based on chapter 1 • How should one handle an existential crisis? • What is the effect of sleep-walking through life, not paying attention to the beliefs and values you have? • Is it possible to suffer loss of love without grieving? • How can one get out of the state of nothingness?

9. Chapter 1 “On My Own Questions” based on chapter 1 Come up with more as a class. Is it possible that too much stress can lead to a state of nothingness? Is there a natural meaning to a state of nothingness?

10. Chapter 1 Page 8 • Begin to ask “On My Own Question.” • Use 1 “Key words of Existentialism” • Use the character “Meursault” • Write as many as you can. • First review “On My Own Question” using the “On My Own Unit.” • INDEPENDENT THINKING: See the world from your own experiences, your own life.

11. Chapter 1 Page 7 • Turn to page 7, second paragraph, “When she’d gone, the caretaker said…”

12. Chapter 1 Page 8 • “I thought what he had said made sense”. Also, who smokes over their mother’s dead body? At what emotional level is he experiencing his mother’s death? How close or distant? • -Pay attention to the light imagery • -Pay attention to “dozing” imagery. • -Explain the concept of “Motif.” • Explain the recurring “dozing” image. Meursault seems always be dozing, in a slumber. Aside from physical sleepiness, what other parts of his life could he be “asleep” from? Dozing in funeral.

13. Chapter 1 Page 8 • How much reflection or thoughtfulness do we see in Meursault? • If none, what is the consequence of this lack of awareness or self reflection? • What is the consequence of simply living for bodily pleasures, fully living in a sensual world?

14. Chapter 1 Page 10 • I remember opening my eyes at one point and seeing that all the old people were slumped over asleep, except for one old man, with his chin resting on the back of his hands wrapped around his cane, who was staring at me as if he were just waiting for me to wake up.

15. Chapter 1 • What will be Meursault’s greatest struggle in this book? What will be his epic conflict, within himself or others? • Put your name on the paper for credit. • Put the paper in the back tray.

16. Chapter 1 • Turn in your “on your own question” in the back tray. • Begin finding answers to your “own your own question” by citing the text. Find two moments in the book, along with page numbers.

17. Chapter 2 Turn to page 19 (Chapter 2)

18. Chapter 2 • When was the last time you were bored, and it was painful? • 1 Minute. Talk to a partner.

19. Chapter 2 • Introduction to Ennui. • dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement. Boredom. Dullness. • http://vimeo.com/29678556 • http://vimeo.com/35944506 • http://vimeo.com/31546871

20. Chapter 2 • Purpose of chapter 2 is to experience ennui. No characters interact with him. He sits there, watching, then eats a meal. That’s it. • Page 23: They were shouting and singing at the tops of their lungs that their team would never die.

21. Chapter 2 • Purpose of chapter 2: To show the passage of time. To show how we are a helpless creature in the shadows of eternal time. Last line is crucial: • Page 24: “It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed.”

22. Chapter 2 • Page 24: “It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Maman was buried now, that I was going back to work, and that, really, nothing had changed.” • Say-mean-matter this passage with a partner. On one piece of paper. • Use power verbs/phrases (explains, suggests) • Turn them into the back tray when finished.

23. Chapter 3 • Turn to page 29, chapter 3.

24. Chapter 3 • How is Salamano showing bad faith with his dog? • Predict how Raymond’s conflict with the Moorish girl will appear later in the book.

25. Chapter 3 • Predict how Raymond’s conflict with the Moorish girl will appear later in the book.

26. Chapter 3 • Predict how Raymond’s conflict with the Moorish girl will appear later in the book. • Talk to a partner • 1 minute (I will call on you)

27. Chapter 4 “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so.” (35) What is Meursault’s problem here? • Talk to a partner • 1 minute (I will call on you)

28. Chapter 4 “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so.” (35) If you were Meursault’s therapist, what would you recommend for him to fix this problem? • Talk to a partner • 1 minute (I will call on you)

29. Chapter 4 ‘I took him to the Parade Ground, like always. There were lots of people around the booths at the fair. I stopped to watch “The King of the Escape Artists.” And when I was ready to go, he wasn’t there…But I never thought the bastard would take off like that.’ (38) • Who is smarter, the dog or the human? • Why? • 1 minute (I will call on you)

30. Chapter 4 ‘I took him to the Parade Ground, like always. There were lots of people around the booths at the fair. I stopped to watch “The King of the Escape Artists.” And when I was ready to go, he wasn’t there…But I never thought the bastard would take off like that.’ (38) • What is Camus saying about humans, based on this quote? • 1 minute (I will call on you)

31. Chapter 4 “And from the peculiar little noise coming through the partition, I realized he was crying. For some reason I though of Maman.” (39) Why is Meursault thinking of his Maman when he realized Salamano was crying? • Talk to a partner • 1 minute: I’ll call on you.

32. Chapter 4 • Watch “Noam Chomsky – Independent Thinking.” • Watch “Why thinking for yourself is so powerful.”

33. Chapter 5 • Take out The Stranger • Turn to Page 40

34. Chapter 5 • Page 41: “I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all…I couldn’t see any reason to change my life. Looking back on it, I wasn’t unhappy. When I was a student, I had lots of ambitions like that. But when I had to give up my studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered.” • “Watch Monty Python Clips (Parrot and Walking)” • Absurdist Humor: Do something “absurd” in the classroom.

35. Chapter 5 • Page 41: “That evening Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to.” • Potential question: Is there a point when TOO much freedom paralyzes you so that you cannot make a decision?

36. Chapter 5 • Page 44: “He hadn’t been happy with his wife, but he’d pretty much gotten used to her.” • Use one of the “Existentialism Key Terms” and write an “on your own” question.

37. Chapter 5 • Take out a piece of paper • Do an “On Your Own Question” for chapter 5 • Turn it in in the back tray • Some words you can use • Absurd • Paralyze • Numb • Ambition • Love • Attachment

38. Chapter 5 • Go through an “On Your Own Question” process to create a thesis statement. • Next step? Gather evidence to prove thesis. • Page number and quote • Do this for every significant chapter

39. Practice Thesis • Take out a piece of paper • Label it “Practice Thesis.”

40. Practice Thesis • Use the terms of existentialism to come up with an “on my own question” based on the text up to chapter 4. • Examples: “How does one overcome the alienation one feels from knowing the absurdity of life, of the fact we all end up dead anyways?”

41. Practice Thesis • Answer the question using FATT. • Examples: “How does one overcome the alienation one feels from knowing the absurdity of life, of the fact we all end up dead anyways?” • In The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault demonstrates how one overcomes alienation in the face of the absurdity of life by experiencing his mortality, getting closer to death to find an authenticity to experience. • Turn in this “Practice Thesis” into the back tray.

42. Writing Assignment for The Stranger • Driving question: Use the terms of existentialism to come up with an “on my own question.” • Examples: “How does one overcome the alienation one feels from knowing the absurdity of life, of the fact we all end up dead anyways?”

43. Chapter 5 Page 41: Then he asked me if I wasn’t interested in a change of life. I said yes but that really it was all the same to me. I said people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all. Is this true? Is one life just as good as another and absurd?

44. Chapter 5 Page 41: “I learned quickly that nothing really mattered.” How do things matter? This sounds silly, but with every decision, with every experience, how do you know it matters?

45. Chapter 6 Page 56: It was then that I realized that you could either shoot or not shoot. At this moment, Meursault realizes he has choices, that he is responsible and has agency in this world. By committing a crime, can one achieve a new, empowering awareness?

46. Chapter 6 Turn to page 47.

47. Part II Chapter 1 • P 64: On my way out I was even going to shake his hand, but just in time, I remembered that I had killed a man. Does this seem like a man whose value system is working with any precision? Does he even have a value system? • P 65: He asked if I had felt any sadness that day…I probably did love Maman, but that didn’t mean anything. At one point or another, we all want our loved ones dead. • I explained to him, however, that my nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings. • 68: Why hesitate before firing the second shot? • 69: How is meaning created with religion? Touchy subject. • 69: Is Meursault a criminal? Why or why not?

48. Part II Chapter 2 • 72: In fact, I wasn’t really in prison those first few days: I was sort of waiting for something to happen…from that day on I felt that I was at home in my cell and that my life was coming to a standstill. • 76-77 Prison ruminations: Camus is forcing us to look at our condition. What is imprisoning us? Mostly us.

49. Part II Chapter 2 • “When I was first imprisoned, the hardest thing was that my thoughts were still those of a free man. For example, I would suddenly have the urge to be on a beach and to walk down to the water. As I imagined the sound of the first waves under my feet, my body entering the water and the sense of relief it would give me, all of a sudden I would feel just how closed I was by the walls of my cell.”

50. Part II Chapter 2 • “I waited for the daily walk, which I took in the courtyard, or for a visit from my lawyer. The rest of the time I managed pretty well. At the time, I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowering overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it…Anyway, it was one of Maman’s ideas, and she often repeated it, that after a while you could get used to anything.”