Wednesday, 2/1: More Existentialism and the Stranger!

Objectives:

• Understand all tenets of Existentialism
• Apply the Absurd and Existentialism to The Stranger 

Starter

• Watch this video by DanIsNotOnFire about existential crises
  
• Did DanIsNotOnFire terrify you?  How are you feeling about studying this topic a bit?  Are you worried you might spill  milk all over the counter while making cereal one morning?  If so, there’s no use crying over spilt milk. 

CLASS BIZ
Individual seminar prep​ (Due for TUESDAY's Seminar!)

• Remember to TYPE your individual seminar prep and email it to me by 10:15 TUESDAY am AND print it for seminar. 

AGENDA
Finish Existentialism Powerpoint

THE STRANGER Discussion 

1. Read aloud pages 55-57: "Shoot or not shoot?" "Stay or go".   What do those statements have to do with existentialism (free will/angst; indifference of universe; immorality).  Do you agree that those things "really amount to the same thing" as Mersault suggests?
2. 57-9: Why does Mersault always seek escape? What does he seem to be avoiding? Why would Mersault shoot 4 more times? 
3. Once Mersault goes to jail, in what ways does he seem alienated from himself? Do you see any shifts in the ways in which he defines himself or comes to know himself?
4. Page 66: Mersault wants to say to his lawyer, "I'm just like everybody else".  In what ways is he like everybody else and what does Camus mean by that?
5. 67-70: Why does the Magistrate want to know WHY M did it? How does this scene relate to the Absurd?
6. 75-6: Marie's visit:  Anything stand out here to y'all?  Why would Camus show us all these different scenes of visitors coming and going? 
7. 79-81: What is the significance of the story about the Czech man?
8. To what extent is prison like death?

Part 2, Chapter 3

1. In what ways does Camus illustrate the concept of alienation during the trial? (p. 85)
2. In what ways does Mersault change over the course of his prison time AND in particular during the trial?  (see for instance pages 90 and 97)
3. FOOD FOR THOUGHT: What might the trial represent?  How so?