Stranger Journal 1

I found "I ran so as to not miss the bus. It was probably because of all the rushing around, and on top of that the bumpy ride, the smell of gasoline, and the glare of the sky and the road, that I dozed off"' an interesting statement because it isn't what you would expect to hear. For some people it would be hard to sleep on a bumpy ride where you smell gasoline and have a constant glare in your eyes. Meursault blames these things for making him fall asleep. Would this be an example of absurdity?

Some of the sentence structure is interest because of the way you are forced to read it. "I thought he was criticizing me for something and I started to explain. but he cut me off" could also be shorten to say "he cut me off when I felt criticized and started to explain myself"(4). In the original sentence before the word but there is a period. This period makes the first sentence sound as if that was that and it was over. As you go on to the next sentence you realize it isn't. the period creates this choppiness that changes Meursault. With the period it give the reader the sense that Meursault had an expectation where he would explain himself when he instead was interrupted. It also adds to Meursault if you think of it as his thought process. It is short an choppy but he doesn't seem to miss a beat in this passage. He is aware of everything.

On page five he talks about not visiting his mother and says one reason why he didn't do it was because it would be on a Sunday and he doesn't want to waste it. In chapter two we read that he doesn't like Sundays. My would he be upset if he wasted a Sunday when he doesn't even like them? When he doesn't want to do something he comes up with excuses. He is being a bit lazy like earlier when he responded with yes just so he wouldn't have to talk to the soldier anymore. He knows what people want to hear and sometimes he tells them what they want and sometimes he doesn't consider the ideas of others like when he claims his mother's death wasn't his fault to his boss.

Sometimes Meursault seems to be lazy and other times he just seems lazy. Is it absurdism to be one thing and then the complete opposite? I find him interest and he too finds many things interest. with his interests they seem shallow in the sense that he will find something interest and then not try to know more about it. He let's the reader know it is interesting and then stops there (most of the time).
Our protagonist isn't a hero of some kind and he seems simple when he really can be a complex being. Camus may have created him like this so we start to be come a more interested person in the things around us and so we think more often and in different ways.