Oh, I did mangle my free association yesterday! But I had the excuse that I was working with vague memories--and there were a milion things happening at once.
Every time I see "Tomes in Towels" I am tickled. The idea is delightful although I've scarcely heard of most of the books on the list. I do welcome the opportunity to participate, however.
I am at a loss to understand why there have not been more complaints against Poet's habit of stretching out to hog the best wood in the sauna--and more to the point--against that skimpy red towel she wears. I believe that linen towels in a sauna show questionable taste; but there...I have said my piece on that.
BTW, my translation is Gilbert with intro by Walter Fowlie. Anyone else have the same one?
Here are two different interpretations of the "sun" imagery. I much prefer the second by Smith. I think it expresses and adds to my understanding:
http://cityhonors.buffalo.k12.ny.us/city/rsrcs/eng/camkel.html
The Sun as a Symbol/Motif in Albert Camus's The Stranger
by Nicholas Kelly (Class of '98) for his International Baccalaureate Course
Many artists, authors, and composers have put the beauty and warmth of the sun in their work. The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh created landscapes that expressed his joy with bright sunshine. The American poet Emily Dickinson wrote a poem called "The Sun," in which she described the rising and setting of the sun. The Russian composer Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov included a beautiful song, "Hymn to the Sun," in his opera The Golden Cockerel.
Uniquely, Camus' usage of the sun opposes its warmth and beauty in The Stranger. The sun is a symbol for feelings and emotions, which Monsieur Meursault cannot deal with. There is a sun motif present throughout the novel, which perniciously characterizes the usual fondness towards the sun. The sun is a distraction from Meursault's everyday life and he cannot handle it.
The sun first presents a problem to Meursault at his mother's funeral procession. Even before the procession embarks, Meursault remarks of the sun, calling it "inhuman and oppressive." Meursault has shown no emotion towards his mother's death and he directs his bottled-up anxiety at the sun. To Meursault, the sun is an influence on all his senses, as he cannot hear what someone else says to him. He pours with sweat, symbolizing the flow of emotions. Meursault constantly thinks about the sun when one would expect him to be mourning his dead mother. He says, "I could feel the blood pounding in my temples," which is strong imagery.
At the beach with Raymond, the sun provokes Meursault to commit a crime. He says, "(the sun) shattered into little pieces on the sand and water." While going to get a drink of water, the foreign Arab uses a knife to shine the sunlight in Meursault's face. Meursault knew that all he had to do was turn around and walk away. His emotions (again not shown externally and reserved) took over. Camus states, "All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead and, instinctively, the dazzling spear flying up from the knife in front of me. The scorching blade slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes." This strong imagery forces Meursault to fire and kill the Arab with a revolver. What makes it worse, he fires four more times to make sure the sun is dissipated for good.
In prison, Meursault changes his views on both the sun, and on his view of life, which are similar. Meursault was first introduced to the harsh sun at his mother's funeral. Then, the sun took him over and led him to murder another human being. But in jail, Meursault realizes that the sun (and life) is warm and friendly. He discovers that you assign meaning to your own life and that the sun does not need to cover his emotions anymore. In prison, Meursault adulates the sun. He says, "I moved closer to the window, and in the last light of day I gazed at my reflection one more time." The sun symbolized his emotions and inner-self, and he knows this. He would not have admired his own reflection earlier in the novel.
Although most creative thinkers have used the sun as a positive being, Camus' existentialist approach sees the sun as a barrier to Meursault's emotions. It is not until Meursault can comprehend this and grasp that there is "gentle indifference to the world," that the sun motif is consummated.
http://cityhonors.buffalo.k12.ny.us/city/rsrcs/eng/camreply.html
Greg Smith Replies to Nicholas Kelly's "The Sun as a Symbol/Motif in Albert Camus's The Stranger"
In Camus' novel The Stranger the predominate motif of the sun has been variously interpreted by many critics as a symbol of Meursault's repressed emotions.
This is an interpretation I simply cannot accept, for I have always regarded the sun as symbolic of the superego - the force of society within Meursault.
Like the sun, society is generally thought to be a positive thing. People usually regard a good strong society that instills its members with a strong, unified code of morals as something to be desired. In the same way, people tend to think of a bright, warm, sunny day as something good and positive.
However, both the force of society and theforce of the sun can become overpowering. They beat down on people, smothering and suffocating them, just as the sun beats down upon Meursault throughout the novel. The sun is present whenever the force of society is strong within Meursault. At the funeral the sun bears down on Meursault as society smothers him with expectations that he will grieve his mother's death in a typical manner. At the beach when he kills the Arab the sun is ever present and overpowering, making Meursault disoriented and confused.
In the same way the power of society suffocates and confuses Meursault as it bears down on him with its views on morality. The sun is also present at the trial, just as is the force of society which claims to possess the right to judge people. The force of society is absent in the prison, likewise the sun is absent from Meursault's dark cell, and because the overpowering force of society has been removed, Meursault is finally able to "[open himself] to the gentle indifference of the world."
At one point Meursault leans from the window in an attempt to feel the sun's last rays at evening. This represents how Meursault has come to terms with the force of society within him. He feels free to bask in the rays of the sun that once smothered him.
In the same way, at the novel's end he feels free to bask in the society that hates him, and his final hope is that "there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet [him] with cries of hate."
- 5 Dec 1998 |
