Nicole 20th century

A big discussion we have in class about Meursault is when did he officially cross the line into the bad side. Was it when he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral, slept with Marie a day later, seemingly not care about Salamano’s dog, accept food from Raymond, help Raymond abuse a woman, or when he kills the Arab? At first glance I thought the first instance where we see Meursault's indifference allow the abuse of someone else, this being Salamano’s abuse and especially when we learned of Raymond’s abusive nature. However, in class people mentioned the of Salamano’s dog is ignored by Meursault and everyone else in the building who seems to know of the situation, the only reason we are really mad at Meursault is that we have seen more examples of him being heartless. A question that continually came up in my mind throughout the first part of the novel, before we really see him commit crimes, what is the role of a bystander? Google defines a bystander as “ a person who is present at an...

Kafkalternate reality The whole premise of the metamorphosis is strange a man turns into an insect, seemingly for no particular reason. Not only that but his family dynamic and job are extremely peculiar, he is a few minutes late and a representative from the company is already there to check on him. Also the parents seemingly rely on him to pay the debt but don’t seem to treat him very well. Throughout the entire story, I had this image that Gregor and his job and family were particularly peculiar, but I then I realized that maybe Kafka set this story in an alternate reality. Not an alternate reality where people turn to bugs but an alternate reality were work for young men is very intense. The amount of concern Gregor has for missing one day of work is in our reality very strange and hints at what would be considered an abusive work environment. So maybe an explanation for why Gregor sees his family as eternally benevolent is that that's how he and many others were raised. ...

Does Jake's preconceived notions and alcoholism make him an unreliable narrator The book starts off with Jake introducing Cohn in a very rude and often antisemitic manner. Later we find out why Jake may have has some issues with Cohn and why he would introduce him so negatively despite how they seem to have had somewhat of a good friendship. There is almost never a moment where Jake and all the other characters aren’t heavily drinking. A panel presentation in our class brought up the evidence of alcoholism in the book and how it explains a lot of the characters behaviors. Therefore maybe Jake wasn’t a very reliable narrator because his opinions of people are often based on their interest in Brett and their masculinities, he is also, in theory, wasted all the time. An easy connection to make for why Jake doesn’t like Cohn and is so rude to him is because Cohn was pretty annoying about Brett for a long time. First of all Cohn didn't pick up the obvious hint that Jake and Bret...