Tuesday, February 7, 2012

(The) Stranger Things Have Happened...

Now that we have come to the end of our journety through Albert Camus's The Stranger, what is your overall opinion of this book? Has it been a challenge? What have you learned after reading this book? Do you see things differently? Read/Analyze differently? What impact (if any) has this book made on you and your perception of literature. Feel free to discuss any aspect of the book you choose and do not be afraid to let your opinions be known.

16 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. My overall opinion of this book is that it is interesting. Even though it doesn't have a normal story "timeline" it still kept my attention throughout.The book helped me understand Absurdism and I definitely know now about more things to look for when analyzing books in the future.
    -Lindsey Tonnesen

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  3. When I first started reading this book, I couldn't help but think "wow... This is boring," but now that I understand the concepts and what it's about, it's much more interesting. The book really managed to capture the idea of absurdism by juxtaposing it with a culture that rejects it. This book has definitely changed how I analyze things and I think (hope) that is has made me better at analysis because that is where I typically fall short.
    -Krystal Midcap

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  4. My overall opinion of this book is that it is very boring to just read, but it makes you think about everything. It causes you to look at things differently and question different aspects of life, for example is it alright to really be different and how has our culture been changing. This makes the analysis of the book more interesting than the book itself, but also makes it challenging to truly understand the deeper meanings behind this book. I have learned alot more about absurdism and post-modernism from this book and it has caused me to look at analysis differently. Basically this book has caused me to see how cultures decline but how people will always be afraid of what is different.
    -Matthew Greene

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  5. My opinion about this book is that it was very interesting and enjoyable. I now understand "Absurdism" and why absurdest perceive reality the way they do. This book was difficult and boring until i understood that it was done to prove a point. This book changed my understanding but did little to my look on life. All and all its a great book that every one in an english class should read to grasp the concept of absurdism.

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  6. My overall view of this book was that it was a good book in that it depicted its theme very well of how Meursaut was truely a stranger. This book was deffinitly a challenge in that it took a while in some case to understand the way Camus wanted us to view some of his characters. I have learned that Camus was able to predict a lot about modern day society through Meursault's acions and to not take our moral standards for granted. I do see some things differently in that I have been able to relate to the theme of the book in an analysis of my world in that this life in some cases is really point less, but I do believe there is something worth while in the end. This book has changed how I percieve literature in that it has led me to believe that not all literature has to have action and anypoint really but can just be a dipction of the authors values.-Brandon Day

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  7. I actually feel like this was a great book now that we have reached the end. It was challenging at first to get into the mentality of analyzing the underlying meaning of everything but once I was in the habit everything really fell onto place. After reading this book I learned to read literature much differently. I don't see anything much different in regards to life in general but I do read and analyze differently. This book has impacted my perception of literature in that I no longer can see myself actually reading a book properly without knowing a little about the author.
    -Kayla Barrett

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  8. "The Stranger" was a cool book. Its given me a better understanding for absurdism. But to be honest, I think just being in Fergie's class will make one look at something in a completely different way. As we analyzed the book, certain things started to stick out, that on a normal basis, I would not have noticed. Camus did an awesome job with the book, and I think it was because he went against what was wanted of him, and wrote the book, by the ways he views the world, and by the way he chose to be his own person, and not conform to what society wanted him to be. He stuck to his believes, and him conveying it to the world shows his truthfulness. I also learned that society is a *&^%$!, in general.

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  9. My overall opinion of "The Stranger" is that even though it appeared to be simple and boring, it turned out to be interesting and actually very strange. From the beginning I first felt as if the book had no purpose and that Meursault character was just weird and unfit. However, as the story continued we broke down the context in the book and took each piece that appeared to be meaningless, but actually was important. For example, I never thought twice about seeing the sun and the water as symbols, but once we were asked what it signified it opened my eyes to realized that they both appeared multiple times in the book and were very important in the story. After finishing "The Stranger" I now take more things into consideration of having more importance than what meets the eye and that everything is not as simple as it appears to be. I feel like now I want to find things and search to see if they have any meaning behind it and make everything more complex. "The Stranger" has many concepts that question most of the literature written today and I like the fact that it doesn't give you the closure of an ending because my mind explores and creates multiple endings that are never ending. Also, I came to find Meursault's character very complex, but due to his unknown background and behavior I found him to be the most interesting compared to everyone else. A lot of stories give you most of the information that we question in books, but "The Stranger" had my mind racing the entire time when we began to break it apart piece by piece. - Alicia Wilson

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  10. The Stranger was very different from any other book I've ever read, and looking at it from the right angle to analyze it was somewhat of a challenge. This book definitly had an effect on how I will analyze characters in the future. The absurdism in this novel was also a bit of a challenge to understand, but it did give me another, much more depressing, way to look at everything. All in all I would say this was one of the worst books I've ever read, and one of the best books I've ever analyzed.
    -Alex Colling

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  11. what is your overall opinion of this book? Ironically, the book is very strange. Unlike most books where you like the main character and who usually does good things in one way or another, Meursault is the complete opposite. the biggest challenge was probably to understand the French culture and how different it is from ours today. I don't know if I've necessarily learned anything but the book has reconfirmed my idea that people are discriminated against even for having a different viewpoint. And that at points, the justice system is messed up. the book definitely cleared up some hazy spaces in my knowledge of absurdism and existentialism. This book goes to show me that there's an even greater amount of ways that a book can be organized and plotted.

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  12. At a glance, the book seems simple. Then if you delve into it, it becomes more complicated. I think the book promotes an idea of the simplest form of human emotion. Do what you want, regardless of what people think. I didn't really learn anything, besides that going against the grain of society usually results in trouble. But honestly, who cares? I think that's what I took away from this book. I hope that people greet me with cries of hate one day. Life is too short to make everyone happy. - Barack Jordan

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  13. The book overrall was interesting. at first by just reading part one it is not that good , but once we get into part two where everything because understandable I actually liked it. It has been an eye opener to really see how our culture and society can relate to a book from a different country years ago. I start to understand even more that years and years can pass, but the same things of yesterday although seen differently today are still an issue

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  14. For me, this book was a great challenge that helped me open my mind up. The book itself is deceiving. At first glance it seems like a simple book. The diction is very simple and elementary school kids could probably read and understanding whats going on. Its the deep meanings behind the words that make this such an interesting book. Camus came up with a style of literature that know one had ever thought of before. Everything about the book is absurd. After analyzing this book, I have a much broader view on literature.
    -Ashley Collins

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  15. I actually liked this book a lot. It was so different from anything I have ever read. It made me think about how you can really label a bad person. It does broaden the view on literature because this style of literature Camus used was nothing I had ever saw before. It was a challenge until you really understood what was going on. It was very interesting. I kind of helps me to learn that everyone is a hypocrite. Everyone turns to something in bad times and the fact the Meursault didn't was strange, but it makes you Appreciate him as a character, for staying true to himself.
    ~Haley Rasnick

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  16. I've learned that history doesn't seem to change much. Yes, it changes, but not that much. A book written in the 1940's describes a society that is just like ours today. The most challenging part to me was accepting the character of Meursault and being able to comprehend how a human being could be so indifferent.

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