Apathy in The Stranger Essays

Apathy in The Stranger Essays Apathy in The Stranger Paper Apathy in The Stranger Paper Essay Topic: Literature The Stranger In The Stranger, Albert Camus portrays the main character of the novel, Meursault, as a largely apathetic character. Right from the beginning of the novel, when his mother passes away, something most people would think of as extremely tragic, his apathetic attitude is made apparent. This attitude continues throughout the novel, and can be clearly seen in Meursaults interactions with the other characters. One such interaction is between him and Marie, when she attempts to talk to him about marriage. The most prominent example of Meursaults apathy, however, is seen when he kills the Arab. This apathetic attitude of Meursaults persists throughout the novel, and is apparent in his relationships with strangers, to his romantic relationships, all the way through to his relationships with his immediate family. Right from the first two sentences of the novel, Camus already paints readers a picture of Meursault as being apathetic. Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I dont know (Camus 3). The fact that he talks about his mothers death so nonchalantly is an obvious expression of his apathetic nature. While it is true that Meursault sincerely does not know the details of his mothers death, for all that was said in the telegram from the home (Camus 3) was Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow (Camus 3). Because of this, one would assume that Meursault would be having racing thoughts of what the circumstances were surrounding Mamans death. This is not the case, though, as his first thoughts are how he will take the two oclock bus and get there in the afternoon. That way [he] can be there for the vigil and come back tomorrow night (Camus 3). The fact that his first worry is being aback home as soon as possible is a clear insight into his apathetic nature. Once Meursault gets to the funeral home and talks to the director, his apathy continues to show and it becomes apparent to readers that he was apathetic to his mother even while she was alive, as he says to the direction, I didnt go [to visit Maman] much this past year It took up my Sunday not to mention the trouble of getting to this bus, buying tickets, and spending two hours traveling (Camus 5). Then, as the director continues to talk to him, Meursault admits that he wasnt really listening anymore (Camus 5). It appears as if Meursault Is not even taking his mothers death seriously at all, which is also seen when he dozed off for a while (Camus 9) during Mamans vigil. Thereby, readers are able to see, through his relationship, or lack of relationship, with his mother, and his indifference towards her death, that Meursault is a fundamentally apathetic person. After returning home after Mamans vigil, Meursault decided to go for a swim [so he] caught a streetcar to go to the public beach (Camus 19). Then, while at the beach, Meursault ran into Marie Cardona whom [hed] had a thing for at the time (Camus 19). It appears as if he was focusing a lot of attention on her, as he notes small details about her, such as that her hair was in her eyes and she was laughing (Camus 20), that a random passerby would not have noticed. It starts to seem as if Meursault finally met someone who is able to bring some sort of emotion out of him. This can be inferred by Meursaults actions towards Marie, such as when he let [his] head fall back and rest on her stomach (Camus 20), and when he put [his] arm around her waist, and [they] swam together (Camus 20). After they spent the night together at his house, Meursault tried to find the salty smell Maries hair had left on the pillow (Camus 21). It is actions like that which leader readers to believe that Meursault is sincerely developing feelings for Marie, and that he will finally be able to learn how to openly express emotion. It turns out, however, that this is just not the case. As Meursaults relationship with Marie develops, readers start to see his apathy again, though Marie apparently doesnt. Marie came by to see me and ask me if I wanted to marry her (Camus 41), Meursault says. The fact that Marie proposed to Meursault can signify that she felt that they were ready to take their relationship to the next level, but had no indication from him that he was going to ask for her hand, so she had to take the initiative. Then, Meursaults answer, I said that it didnt make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to (Camus 41), confirms this assumption. He goes on to say, I probably didnt love her (Camus 41). That signifies that Meursault actually did not have any intentions of marrying Marie, but rather was using her for his own pleasure. Their relationship, according to him, was little more than physical. Also, the fact Meursault had such a casual attitude towards marriage shows that he does not really care much about it. Thus, the first impression that readers get about Meursaults attitude towards Marie is wildly misleading, as it made readers start to believe that Meursault might actually have some type of emotions within him that he was able to express. In the end, however, Meursaults relationship with Marie is ultimately another example of how much of an apathetic person Meursault truly is. The most prominent example of how Meursaults relationships with others allow readers to see his sense of apathy, however, is his confrontation with the Arab. Meursault originally claimed that he was stepping towards the Arab in an attempt to get away from the gleaming sun, though he then says, I knew that it was stupid, that I wouldnt get the sun off me by stepping forward. But I took a step, one step, forward (Camus 59). It was only after seeing Meursault move towards him that the Arab drew him knife and held it up to [Meursault] (Camus 59). So, Meursault possibly knew that by taking that single step, he would be causing a problem between the Arab and himself. Nevertheless, he still did not care, and continued to take that step. It is then that Meursaults apathetic disposition becomes even more visible in his relationship with the Arab, when he shots the Arab, especially because he seems as if he is shooting the Arab not because of their previous problem, but rather because of his anger towards the heat. Meursault uses the analogy of a knife to describe the sun. In regards to the sun, he says It was like a long flashing blade cutting at my forehead that slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes (Camus 59). Though this was due to the fact that the Arab raised his knife in the first place because, after he rose it, the light shot off the steal (Camus 59) towards Meursault, it is not as if the Arab deliberately intended for that to happen, since he was just raising his knife in self defense. It was simply Meursaults apathy getting the best of him, so much in fact that, even after he shot the Arab once, he fired four more times at the motionless body (Camus 59). Relationships that most people would hold near and dear to their hearts, such as that with their mother, or with their significant other, seem to mean nothing to Meursault. Though Meursault does not have a personal relationship with the Arab, the idea of taking the life of another human being does not seem to faze Meursault, either. Therefore, it is these relationships that Meursault has with others throughout the novel that demonstrate Meursaults apathetic nature. They are essential aspects of the plotline of the story, as they allow for the whole theme of existentialism to be established, using Meursaults apathy as a prime illustration of this theme.

Repairing a MySQL Database With phpMyAdmin

Repairing a MySQL Database With phpMyAdmin Using MySQL with PHP expands and enhances the features you can offer on your website. One of the most popular methods of managing a MySQL database is through phpMyAdmin, which is already on most web servers. Occasionally, database tables become corrupt and you are no longer able to access them or they dont respond as quickly as youd like. In phpMyAdmin, the process of checking the table and repairing it  so you can access the data again is fairly simple. Before you begin, make a backup of the database in case phpMyAdmin cant repair it. Checking Your Database in phpMyAdmin Log in to your web host.Click the phpMyAdmin icon. If your host uses  cPanel, look there.Choose the affected database. If you only have one database, it should  be chosen  by default so you dont need to do anything.In the main panel, you should see a list of your database tables.  Click  Check All  to select all of them.At the bottom of the window just below the list of tables, there is a drop-down menu. Choose  Check Table  from the menu. When the page refreshes, you will see a summary of any table that may be corrupted. If you receive any errors, repair the table. phpMyAdmin Repair Steps Log in to your web host.Click the phpMyAdmin icon.  Choose the affected database.  In the main panel, you should see a list of your database tables. Click Check All to select all of them.Choose Repair Table  from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the screen. When the page refreshes, you should see a summary of any tables that were repaired. This should fix your database and let you access it again. Now that it is fixed, its a good idea to make that database backup.