Camus

GHOST IMAGE © by CAROLINE GERARDO

Ghost Image

photograph © by Caroline Gerardo

© STRANGER CAMUS


Themes: absurdity blank empty lack feeling light dark black sleep death friendship sad religion existential absurdist


What Meursault does not do?


He is not sure if she died today or yesterday


Puts Mother in an old people’s home rather than traditionally taking care of her because he claims he cannot afford to care for her.


Borrows arm band and black tie


Sleeps on the way sleepy during and after


Goes to her funeral without much planning


Doesn’t care about crying woman or coughing he dozes


Wears inappropriate clothing


Sleeps in the vigil- supposed to be awake grieving


Does not kiss Mother Goodbye


Does not greet any of the mourners


Does not act kindly to her “boyfriend “Perez who is grieving and unable to keep up


Blood red earth spilling over Maman’s casket






Happy to go home


Goes swimming


Sexual desire for Marie in water – makes “love”


Bored after sex goes to see a comedy movie


Watches the street removed stranger to the world events below


Detachment- “nothing had changed”


Washing hands compulsion about towels


Salamano beats mangy dog


Raymond talks but M. does not care


Raymond bully to revenge Arab girlfriend- hurt her


Pals


Beats girlfriend wants to trap her as a prostitute for no reason


Has M write fake letter


Marie asks, “If I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything.” P35


Raymond beats Arab girl


M is hungry= so apathetic


Raymond wants to go to a brothel to relieve his tension after beating exgirlfriend


M gets drunk


Raymond asks him to write a letter to hurt her M says no but does it anyways


Then they are “pals”


Makes love with Marie but doesn’t love her just likes the sex


Raymond beats the Arab girlfriend and M does not want to call the police


Salamano’s dog runs away “bastard dog”


M hears Salamano crying through the door- thinks of Maman


Boss offers M a promotion job in Parsi – “all the same to me” “people never change their lives” p41


Boss says “I had no ambition”...” I learned very quickly none of it really mattered.”p41


Marie “asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could is she wanted to.” P41


He has “no way I could know about that.” P 42 she asks does he love her


Dinner Celeste’s alone old woman sits with him at random- eats fast- writes bill- writes radio programs she will listen to for the week- “robot-like” life


Salamano – “get another dog” p44


Salman got dog after his wife died who S. was not happy with to fill the loneliness he got the dog that he beats “no cure for old age” p45- M acts bored yawning always tired


Handshake- scale- no connection p46


“Funeral face” p 47 she wears white


M lies to police as witness


Arabs following Raymond


Happy p 50


Heat sun ocean- passive “I wasn’t thinkib about anything, because I was half asleep from the sun beating down on my bare head.” P55


Arabs confront the Masson punches one and knocks him face down in the water- Raymond’s has a knife- cuts Raymond- the Arabs run- arm and mouth. Masson takes Raymond to DR. Raymond goes back to the hot beach to find the Arabs. “There was nothing but sun and silence,” p 55


“Take him on man to man and give me your gun” p57- drunk and hot


“To stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing.” P57 M does not want to climb the stairs


Arab lying down laughs


Heat – shoots the guy- then 4 more






Doesn’t care about an attorney


Magistrate asks him to plead to God for forgiveness he is passive Antichrist


Dark cell


Sees Marie as beautiful and fails to tell her


Killing time p 78- withdrawals to silly details


Newspaper about Czech man who surprises his mother and sister who beat him to death


Meaningless


Court uncaring they analyze his lack of caring as cold-blooded intentional murderer- premeditated murder


“Emptiness of a man’s heart…becomes an abyss threatening to swallow up society.” P101


During the trial for his life he daydreams about the ice-cream vendor


Refuses chaplain refuses God


“I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world” p122






Is he stoic or stone hearted?


In the end, he is conscious of the world from which he is apart