MOM AND SISTER KILLS INNOCENT SON **NOT CLICKBAIT**

             During Mersault’s time in prison, the most memorable moment was when he was narrating the “Czechoslovakia story”, where the mom and sister accidentally beat the son to death for his money. In particular, I was intrigued by the phrase “On the one hand it wasn’t very likely. On the other, it was perfectly natural.” Is it perfectly natural? I initially only agreed with the first part of his statement. This type of event is not likely. It was a bunch of unlikely and unlucky events happening consecutively. However, he claims that it was also completely natural.

             Since the beginning of the novel, Mersault seemed as though he was disconnected from society. He seems to ignore societal norms and has a blurry distinction between right and wrong. That being said, when I first read the comment that Mersault made saying that it was perfectly natural, I thought that he was a complete psychopath. How, in any way, were those series of events natural? 

              However, thinking about the series of events in the Czechoslovakia story step by step, his statement makes more sense. On the whole, this event is unnatural, a mother and sister killing the son is not something that just happens. However, given the circumstances of this particular story, each decision that each of the characters make seem justified and reasonable. When the rich son returns home, it’s reasonable that he wants to surprise his family. The surprise itself was a bit odd, but understandable by his excitement of seeing his family after a long time. Also, given that an incredibly rich person is sleeping in your house, it’s also quite reasonable that they would kill him for selfish gain. Once figuring out that they had just murdered their own son for money, it makes sense that they would commit suicide from their intense guilt. As Mersault says, “it was perfectly natural.” In the perspective of each of the character in the story, each character’s actions were understandable.

            Perhaps this story is drawing a parallel to Mersault’s own story. From an outsider’s perspective, Mersault’s act of killing an Arab seems almost unjustifiable. He killed a man! But, was Merault’s act “perfectly natural”? Given Mersault’s circumstances, were the actions that he made reasonable? 

            I'd like to hear what you guys think!

Comments

  1. KatOctober 31, 2017 at 3:34 PM

    Meursault's response to this story, that it was "perfectly natural", reminds me of a class discussion we had about how Meursault is reluctant to pass judgement. Presumably a lot of people upon hearing that story would be horrified with what the mom and sister did; I know I was. However, this is because we are letting our human emotions cloud our view and judging the story instead of analyzing as Meursault tends to do. If, like you described in your post, we view this sequence of events purely analytically and from each character's perspective it does make "perfect sense", as Meursault said.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nina GalvezNovember 6, 2017 at 6:22 PM

    Interesting post! I think that the two stories are similar in that they both include many steps that ultimately lead up to a death. However, I disagree with Meursault’s act being “perfectly natural”. In the news article story, each of the characters are driven by emotion, they have and serve a purpose. Yet Meursault doesn’t show any emotion and had no drive to kill the Arab. Although given his lack of knowledge of societal norms, frequent discomfort from the heat, and little emotion, it may seem that Meursault views his actions as “perfectly natural”, attributing the sun to him pulling the trigger.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SolomiaNovember 12, 2017 at 7:12 PM

    I never really gave the Czechoslovakia story that much thought, but you’re right, it is a very weird Meursault moment. The thing that strikes me as especially weird is that he’s contemplating the likelihood of this happening, not the emotional weight. He says that it’s either “not very likely” or “perfectly natural” – either that it has a low chance of happening, or a pretty decent one. He isn’t at all reflecting on how it’s horrible that people murdered their own son and then killed themselves, even though he rereads the article dozens of times. Like you said, this moment just further shows Meursault's disconnect from society.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownNovember 13, 2017 at 11:43 AM

    I think that Gregor's motivation is certainly not "perfectly natural", considering how society as a whole is baffled by his unemotional behavior and inability to feel. Although the trial doesn't really focus on the murder, we can infer that his motivations to kill are not normal compared to the rest of society.

    Also, when I read the Czechoslovakia story, I drew parallels to The Metamorphosis, where Gregor basically dies at the hands of his family. His family doesn't really recognize him by the end of the story, and they indirectly kill him by saying that they don't want him around anymore. Perhaps we can draw a parallel between Gregor and Meursault? Maybe Meursault has feelings inside and wants to convey them, but his body doesn't allow him to, similar to how Gregor wants to communicate but cannot in his insectoid form.

    ReplyDelete
  5. MitchellNovember 20, 2017 at 8:07 AM

    He definitely uses "natural" in a curious way, but I think this way of viewing what most of us would see as a bizarre and horrific story reveals a lot about how Meursault understands his own crime. "Natural" here seems to mean something like "explainable with reference to circumstance"--or, the mother and sister are just doing what they think they need to do, and there's no reason they should pick up on the fact that this is their son/brother. He's the one who is "playing games," and Meursault observes that if he hadn't started all this nonsense, they wouldn't have killed him. (It is rather galling that this mother-daughter team would just routinely murder a guest they *didn't* think was their brother!) So Meursault is basically saying that he can see how it came about, or he can "understand" how something like this would happen--it's "natural," under the circumstances. By the same lights, his senseless murder on the beach is "natural" if we take into consideration all the forces that led to him pulling the trigger.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Comparing the Storylines of Septimus and Clarissa

Throughout our class discussions of Clarissa and Septimus, we frequently touched on the parallels between the two story lines. We did mention small similarities such as unwanted visitors barging into both of their houses: Peter at Clarissa’s and Dr. Holmes at Septimus’. However, in terms of their back story and their mental states, I would like to entertain the possibility of parallel story lines eventually diverging with Septimus’ suicide.             In terms of similarities of the two story lines, it’s quite evident that both Septimus and Clarissa are on the verge of crumbling beneath the societal pressures that they respectively face. For Septimus, his PTSD and the doctors’ “help” are quite stressful for him. On top of that, his fear of admitting to Rezia that he doesn’t love her adds to the pressures that he experiences in his everyday life. For Clarissa, her pressures are more a product of her aristocratic status. As a re...
Read more

wait but what is obeah??

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one while reading The Wide Sargasso Sea to think ‘What the heck is obeah?’ In the novel, obeah seems to be portrayed as a dark, malicious magic. The first time that Rochester hears about Obeah from Daniel, Daniel describes it as “devil business”. Also, Christophine seems to be reluctant to give Antoinette an obeah potion because what is implied to be an incomprehensible power. I’m not sure if Rochester sleeping with Amelie was a direct result of him drinking the obeah potion of lust, but it seems probable given the way obeah is portrayed. Naturally, to learn more about obeah, I went to Google and searched obeah. Sure enough, it was a sorcery that was developed in Africa and practiced in various regions including the Caribbean. But, what does obeah mean in the context of this novel? I think that obeah embodies the desires and cultural identity of Antoinette. When Antoinette gets Rochester to drink the obeah, he changes. Perhaps this is a response t...
Read more

The Art of Remembrance

A few days ago, in class, we spent a good amount of time talking about Clarissa and her sentimentality. While listening to the points made, I recalled the ways that memories are portrayed in The Mezzanine . I would like to take this post to discuss the ways nostalgia plays a role in both The Mezzanine and Mrs. Dalloway . This idea that memories negatively shape the way that we process things is apparent in both novels. In Howie’s case, he criticizes nostalgia because it “turned something that I was taking seriously as an adult into something soupier, less precise, more falsely exotic, than it really was” (Baker, 39).  In other words, he’s saying that memories distort things, turning them into something overly meaningful or meaningless. He expresses his dislike for that. It’s apparent that Howie takes measures to stop these memories from invading his mind as shown in the quote, “no matter how hard I try to keep sentimental distortions from creeping in, they creep in anyway” (B...
Read more