Catalin's 20th Century Novels

The relationship between Meursault and his mother is one of much debate in the novel The Stranger . Even though we never see the relationship in real time, as the book begins with the mother's death, we do learn more about their relationship from Meursault's behavior both at and after her funeral. At his mother's funeral, Meursault was very distracted. It was hot and he was tired, therefore he seemed to not feel any sadness about his mother's death. The relationship between Salamano and his dog is also one that sparks a lot of conversation while reading The Stranger . Salamano and his dog are both pretty old and both have a skin disease. Even though they have these similarities, Salamano abuses his dog and they are known to hate each other. This escalates until Salamano's dog runs away from his owner while they are out on a walk. Both relationships are unusual in the way that they both aren't exactly seen as morally and socially correct. Salamano and his dog...

A weird aspect of Gregor's transformation is that no one so far in the story tries to heal him and transform him back to being a human. If one of my family members all of a sudden turned into a giant bug, the first thing I would try to do is try to turn them back. I wouldn't even start to get into a rhythm with this new character in our lives, as my first instinct would be to repair it. Additionally, if I were to turn into a giant bug overnight, I would immediately, instead of getting used to my new form, work on trying to become human again. Gregor does the opposite. When he wakes up and realizes he is a bug (which he also does in a weirdly calm way), Gregor immediately accepts that he was now a bug and that is who he would be for the rest of his life. Gregor obviously doesn't enjoy his new form, as it presents many issues and tears his family apart, so the question remains: why doesn't he try to get back to his human form? Yes, one could argue that this isn't ...