Elorch 1

A historical essay about France around 1942:

Source Citation:
Perkins, Kenneth J. "French Foreign Legion." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and
North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004.
855-856. Gale World History In Context. Web. 16 Dec. 2010

Summary:
Basically, this article talks about how the Algerian and the Moroccan soldiers helped the French
during World War II.

Important Quotations:
Legionnaires participated in many of the military operations that resulted in the establishment of
a French protectorate over Morocco. They formed part of the forces that consolidated French
power along the ill-defined southern Morocco–Algeria border during the first several years of
the twentieth century and were involved in occupations of the Moroccan cities of Oujda and
Casablanca in 1907. Thereafter, they helped maintain security in the areas around both cities.
In 1911, a company of the legion was among the troops that lifted a rebel siege of Fez, the
sultan's capital, thus paving the way for the inauguration of the protectorate the following
year. During the pacification of Morocco's mountainous and desert regions in the 1920s and
1930s, French commanders relied heavily on the legion. Its men also took part in the fighting
that ended the rebellion of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim alKhattabi in 1925 and 1926.

Insight to The Stranger:

I chose this source because readers need to know what was going on during that period of time,
especially because of the fact that Algerian soldiers were needed in the French battlefield,
which for me means a lot because it explains how those two countries have a very good
relationship and also how they have been accepting a lot of Algerian immigrants.

An essay about the immigrant experience:

Source Citation:

Keaton. "Pritsker: Varieties of Religious Experience Suite." American Record Guide Nov.-Dec.
2010: 173+. General OneFile. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.

Summary:
Immigrants usually live a bizarre life, especially during the first weeks, when they get to know
what is wrong from what is right, because when they come to a country that has a lot of
different point of views, it is sometimes hard to adjust to that lifestyle.

Important Quotations:
 Elorch 2

We are all immigrants. Our only difference is that some of us arrived earlier and some of
us later” a great quote from Ruiz (1997). From the 1930’s to the 1970’s most people that
immigrated here were from Europe, it is only recently that people from Mexico began
immigrating here (Christie, 1998). The only difference is, when people were emigrating here
from Europe, they already had high income and educational levels (1998). People that are
emigrating here now from Mexico have trouble keeping the economy up (1998). Economists
Beverly Fox Kellam and Lucinda Vargas (1998) wrote in a recent report for the Federal Reserve
Bank of Dallas, “U.S. immigrants, on average, earn less that native workers, and the deficit has
been growing-mainly because the gap in education and skills has been widening.” However, that
does not stop many Mexican immigrants from coming to the U.S. in hopes of find a good job.
Moreover, people of Mexico put their lives on the line every day to reach the other side of a
2,000-mile international boundary (azcentral, 2001).

Insight to The Stranger:

The book’s protagonist (Monsieur Meursault) was an immigrant, which maybe means that it
is one of the reasons why he is acting like nothing matters, maybe because after he left his
home, he felt like nothing matters anymore, which makes some sense.

An essay explaining Existentialism:

Source Citation:
Existentialism." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity,
Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 42-43. Gale World History In
Context. Web. 21 Dec. 2010

Summary:
This is an introduction to the word Existentialism, what it means and by who it was found.

Important Quotations:

“Existentialism” refers to a loosely knit movement holding, in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre,
that “existence comes before essence.” This proposition should be understood in opposition to
both rationalism and empiricism. Both philosophies, existentialism argues, overlook the unique
character of being human, of being an “existent” thrown into a world without pregiven meaning
or significance. Moreover, the human condition is such that it does not fit into even the most
exhaustive system of objective concepts. Instead, it calls for a new language of analysis that
finds its expression in the works of not only Sartre but also Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus,
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean Wahl, Karl Jaspers, Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel, Miguel de
Unamuno, José Ortega y Gasset, Nicholai Berdyaev, and Lev Shestov. (Par.1)
 Elorch 3

Insight to The Stranger:

The Stranger is often referred to as an “existential” novel, but this description is not necessarily
accurate. The term “existentialism” is a broad and far-reaching classification that means many
different things to many different people, and is often misapplied or over applied. As it is most
commonly used, existentialism refers to the idea that there is no “higher” meaning to the universe
or to man’s existence, and no rational order to the events of the world. According to this common
definition of existentialism, human life is not invested with a redemptive or affirming purpose—
there is nothing beyond man’s physical existence.

An essay explaining ‘The theory of the absurd’:

Source Citation:
http://www.samuel-beckett.net/CH_3.HTM

Summary:
This will be a little piece of information to help us understand The Theory of the Absurd, so we
would be able to connect it with The Stranger.
Important Quotations:
Absurdity is a key word in Beckett's dramatic writings as well as of the whole Theatre of the
Absurd. This chapter is a brief introduction to the philosophical background of Absurdity, in
which I deal with three main problems: what Absurdity is, in what fate life moments it appears,
and what consequences for a human view of life it holds with itself.
One of the most basic philosophical questions asks whether there is any meaning in our existence
at all. The human necessity of unifying explanation of world has always been satisfied by religion
and creators of the philosophical systems who made the human life meaningful. The natural
desire to get to know and understand the world in its most hidden spheres was fulfilled by
religious dogmas about the existence of God, which guaranteed the meaningful contingency of
human life. In 1883 Friedrich Nietzsche published his magnum opus Thus Spoke Zarathustra,
where of the revolutionary thesis that "God is dead"10 appeared. From that time of Zarathustra the
old everyday certainties of life started to loose their certainty. World War I and World War II
caused deep destruction and loss of human ultimate certainties and definitely brought about a
world missing any unifying principle, a world senseless and disconnected with human life. If one
realises the absence of sense, and this is the expression of the spirit of epoch, in which the
Theatre of the Absurd is rooted, the world becomes irrational and the conflict between the world
and the human being who begins to be estranged from it arises here. Martin Esslin mentions
 Elorch 4
Ionesco's parallel concept of the absurdity: "Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose. ...Cut off
from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become
senseless, absurd, and useless".11
Albert Camus (1913-1960), a French novelist and essayist, who worked out the theory of
absurdity and who also applied this thesis in his literary writings IV , deals with the absurd fate of
man and literally demonstrates it with the legendary ancient myth of Sisyphus in his stimulating
analysis The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus goes into the problem what the absurdity is and how it
arises. He also gives the characteristics of human basic ontological categories as the feelings of
"denseness"(11) and "the strangeness of the world" (11), which are the feelings of the Absurdity
of man in a world where the decline of religious belief has deprived man of his certainties.
Insight into The Stranger:
Thematically, the Absurd overrides Responsibility; despite his physical terror, Meursault is
satisfied with his death; his discrete sensory perceptions only physically affect him, and thus are
relevant to his self and his being, i.e. in facing death, he finds revelation and happiness in the
"gentle indifference of the world". Central to that happiness is his pausing after the first, fatal
gunshot when killing the Arab man. Interviewed by the magistrate, he mentions it did not matter
that he paused and then shot four more times; Meursault is objective, there was no resultant,
tangible difference: the Arab man died of one gunshot, and four more gunshots did not render
him 'more dead'.

A Biographical essay about Albert Camus:

Source Citation:

“Albert Camus." 2004. Books & Authors. Gale. Gale Internal User 21 Dec
2010 http://bna.galegroup.com/bna/start.do?p=BNA&u=gale

Summary:
These are some brief informations about the author Albert Camus.

Important Quotations:

Birth Date:
1913
Death Date:
1960
Known As:
Mathe, Albert, Bauchart,Saetone
Place of Birth:
Algeria, Mondovi
Place of Death:
France, Paris
Nationality:
French
 Elorch 5
Occupation:
Novelist

NOVELS

• L'Etranger, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1942, translation by Stuart Gilbert published as

The Stranger, Knopf (New York, NY), 1946, reprinted, Vintage (New York, NY), 1972,
translation by Matthew Ward published under same title, Knopf (New York, NY), 1988,
published as The Outsider, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1946.
• La Peste, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1947, translation by Stuart Gilbert published as The
Plague, Knopf (New York, NY), 1948, reprinted, Vintage (New York, NY), 1991,
translation by Robin Buss, Allen Lane (London, England), 2001.
• La Chute, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1956, translation by Justin O'Brien published as The
Fall, Knopf (New York, NY), 1957, reprinted, Vintage (New York, NY), 1991.
• Le Premier homme, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1994, translation by David Hapgood
published as The First Man, Knopf (New York, NY), 1995.

A poem from the Poetry Out Loud:

Source Citation:

http://poetryoutloud.org/poems/poem.html?id=178448

Poem:

Mountains, a moment’s earth-waves rising and hollowing; the earth too’s an ephemerid; the stars—
Short-lived as grass the stars quicken in the nebula and dry in their summer, they spiral
Blind up space, scattered black seeds of a future; nothing lives long, the whole sky’s
Recurrences tick the seconds of the hours of the ages of the gulf before birth, and the gulf
After death is like dated: to labor eighty years in a notch of eternity is nothing too tiresome,
Enormous repose after, enormous repose before, the flash of activity.
Surely you never have dreamed the incredible depths were prologue and epilogue merely
To the surface play in the sun, the instant of life, what is called life? I fancy
That silence is the thing, this noise a found word for it; interjection, a jump of the breath at that
silence;
 Elorch 6
Stars burn, grass grows, men breathe: as a man finding treasure says “Ah!” but the treasure’s the
essence:
Before the man spoke it was there, and after he has spoken he gathers it, inexhaustible treasure.