Essay outline

So I've already posted my question and my thesis, so here's my outline.
Intro
Thesis

Paragraph about how Marie and Mersault's love is traditional. Start with something like their traditional male-female emotional, mutually exclusive, and physical relationship makes mersault and Marie the opposite of outsiders. I will end it with a point about how all of the other relationships in the book are "abnormal" so Marie and mersault are actually outcasts.

Then a paragraph about how their relationship alienates them from the rest of the world/makes them appear abnormal. I'll say something like Marie and Mersault's love is strange and unique, which makes them seen as weird by society. I'll include quotes about the prison, the beaches, the courthouse, and anything else I can think of.

Then I will write a conclusion about how a normal thing makes them outcasts and how Camus gives his story a message without loading his language. Boom

Camus 44-80

I didn't know if I had to do this because I was gone but whatever I'm doing it to be safe. So from 44-80 the book was good. The nature of the writing largely remained on course, one question that kept popping up in my mind was whether or not M would break or start showing extremes of emotion. I know he won't, but I still have hope. Okay that's enough blogging for today.

Blog

I just finished reading to page 104. It's a good story. Here's my question for the essay: how does Marie and M's love make him both normal and an outsider? My general thesis will be that because he loves a gupirl in to the traditional way and planned on marrying her, he was like all other men. But, the nature of their relationship is weird and gets attention so it also makes him an outsider,

Camus to page 44

So I read to page 44 (or so) in The Stranger. It was good. So far Meursault has been to his mother's funeral, "saw" a former lover, had dinner with a neighbor and went back to work (I think). I sense something looming on the horizon. Either he will kill himself or he will do something bad and wont know why he did it.
I think he might kill himself because he's dejected, he's been hanging around with bad people, he's been in a haze and he doesn't have a good, reliant friend or relative. Also, from all the books I've read, his writing/speech pattern matches those of characters who have committed suicide.
For those same reasons, he might commit a crime for no apparent reason. He needs to let out his emotions and remain an outsider and repress all of that relationship stuff, so he will harm someone.
But that's just what I think. Maybe he will continue what he's been doing and it will just be how he deals (or doesn't deal) with his emotions. Or maybe there will be some unexpected plot twist that comes way out of the blue. These 44 pages were set-up, we will find out what happens as we move forward.

Comparing the writing styles of Conrad, Kafka, and Camus

Conrad Kafka and Camus represent the high, medium, and low ranges (respectively) of loaded writing. What do I mean by loaded writing? Loaded writhing, for me, is when an author loads his words with themes, metaphors, images, motifs, etc. instead of just narrating a story. These varying concentrations of loaded writing parallel the authors' respective attitudes towards the stories. Marlow cares deeply about the goings on in africa, but he cannot express his distaste for European imperialism outright. So he loads his language and writes sentences like "the word ivory would ring in the air for a while-and in we went into the silence, along empty reaches, round the still bends, between the high wallsof out winding way, reverberating in the hollow claps the ponderous beat of the stern-wheel."
Gregor cares about his situation very much (because he's been turned into a bug). So, he includes both loaded language, obvious motifs and vivid images. A good example of this is when Gregor watches his family through a crack in the door (I did not include a quote because I'm short on time and lazy). Basically, he makes vivid images with emotional details that, when read in to, reveal more about the average German family, industrialized, Europe, and the dehumanization of the worker. Gregor cares, so he loads his language a little bit accompanied by obvious messages.

Camus doesn't load his language at all. He just describes the world as he sees it. Yes, he uses detached phrasing and language to mirror his detachment, but the story truly speaks for itself without the help of specific language. This is what a man does in the wake of his mothers death. The fact that he tells his boss he will take off two days even though he meant the weekend shows the post-loss delirium. His encounter with his coworker shows that he can forget about his moms death readily and cares more about his base urges than his emotions. Really, camus does such a good job crafting his story that he doesn't need to load his language.

genesis and darwin paragrpahs

Note: I did not know whether or not I needed to cite the books, so I assumed not because the handout had no citation. Also, this is fairly rough so be warned.

The bible's declarative and assuring language is designed to make people believe the story, while Darwin's use of grandiosity coupled with defensiveness amazes his supporters and placates religious conservatives.

The bible uses dramatic, definitive phrases to make people believe the creation story. The first line of Genesis demonstrates this quite effectively: "When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—God said, “Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that the light was good” (B’reishit 1:1-4). The writers of the bible never say this is what could have happened or what they think happened, they say this happened and god is omnipotent. Also, the idea of god bringing light and life to infinite darkness makes him seem all-powerful and makes people believe in and fear him—the main reasons for writing the bible. The part about the creation of man carries the same weight, "and God said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth” (B’reishit 1:26). The confidence the writer shows by declaring exactly what happened combines with the portion about the dominance of man to make readers of the bible believe what they're reading because people who say things so definitively predominantly speak the truth, and love god because he made them (the humans reading the bible) the dominant species. In these ways (among others), the writers of the bible used declarative and dramatic language to make people believe that the bible is accurate and respect (through fear and love) god.

Darwin uses grand predictions of the impact of his findings to draw in and amaze those who were convinced by the rest of the book and defensive retreats to avoid conflict with people who would be angered by his implied challenge to religion. Of the impact of his findings on the future of humanity he says, “a grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on correlation of growth, on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct action of external conditions, and so forth.” Darwin, as he demonstrates in this quote, thought that the very essence of human thought, scholastics, and inquiry would be dramatically altered by his findings. However, only someone who trusts the accuracy of his research and theory (I would like to note here that evolution is just a theory, like gravity or the combustibility of wood) would be enticed by this notion, someone who remains unconvinced would simply shrug it off because he does not say that this will replace religion. In this way, Darwin uses specific language to astonish his supporters and placate strongly religious people. In the last paragraph of his book, Darwin says “To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth and death of the individual.” This statement appeases many religious believers by stating that evolution does not eliminate god, rather it gives him more legitimacy. And, it gives people who would have trouble reconciling religious views and Darwin’s text a way to believe in both. Again, Darwin uses careful wording to attract followers and avoid conflict with religious conservative—a skill necessary to make his views less abhorrent to his contemporaries.

Small paragraph about metamorphosis

The title, "metamorphosis," suits the book because Gregor and Grete both to through transformations that are necessary and beneficial. Gregor transforms into a bug, has a hard life, and dies; however, this transformation is natural and beneficial (metaphorically natural). Gregor is so steeped in the colony-like work structure that he actually becomes a worker bug. Even when he is in a new body, terrified, and confused he still seeks forgiveness from up his boss. He tries to say "a person can be incapable of work momentarily, but that's precisely the best time to remember earlier achievements and to consider that later, after the obstacles have been shoved aside, the person will work all thee more eagerly and intensely"(Kafka 16). Even though he has just turned into a bug and is incapable of work, Gregor still feels the need to apologize to and resume working for his boss, like a worker bug. In this way, Gregor shows that he was really a bug all along, and so his transformation made him closer to his true self. Grete's transformation is summarized in the last sentence of the book, "and it was something of a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions when at the end of their journey their daughter got up first and stretched her young body" (Kafka 53). The dreams and intentions mentioned in the quote refer (partially) to their desire to find Grete a new job, a husband, and put her new body and skills to better use. So basically, Grete transforms into a post-pubescent body and now she is going to use it to find a husband, work for more money, and take advantage of life. If Gregor hadn't transformed, she would have stayed in the home doing nothing and maybe gone to music school. Gregor's and Grete's metamorphoses allowed them to become who they really are and live a better and truer life.