Maman and Perez

The caretaker at the home described Maman and Perez’s relationship as basically as a married couple. Although, there are not any specific recollections of their time together, their relationship sounds very cute and happy. Perez is clearly devastated about the passing of Maman. He is the total opposite of Monsieur Meursault. It is hard for Perez to accept this. He can’t believe Meursault and his total nonchalant demanor and especially when Meursault fell asleep during the procession!! This definitely the most loving relationship in the book. It sounds like both of them loved each very much. 

"‘There's no need to excuse yourself, my boy. I've looked up the record and

obviously you weren't in a position to see that she was properly cared for. She

needed someone to be with her all the time, and young men in jobs like yours don't

get too much pay. In any case, she was much happier in the Home.’" 

Maman and Meursault

Meursault is so apathetic. He doesn't talk much and, aside from showing up to the funeral, he doesn't do things most people going through this would do.

Something happened to Meursault that deemed him unfit to take care of Maman.

The death of his own mother totally fazes him. He doesn't recall any specific memories of her nor does he praise her like someone would for their dear mother!! Unfortunately, this gives us little information about her relationship with him as there isn’t much to base it off. He makes her death like such a regular sort of thing. He goes through it the same way one would go to school. He plans out how to get there and how long it would take. He falls asleep a couple times. He listens every now and then to the person talking. In short, it is pretty disrespectful.

Maybe they didn't get along. Or maybe they had a falling out.

I would describe this relationship as indifferent. Meursault is indifferent and overall apathetic about the passing of his mother. It is also sad as what kind of person feels nothing over the death of their mother??? He doesn't even know how old she is. This shows he has not been in contact with her for several years.

“It occurred to me that somehow I'd got

through another Sunday, that Mother now was buried, and tomorrow I'd be going

back to work as usual. Really, nothing in my life had changed.”

This line in particular made me kind of depressed, thinking of how everyday seems to blend into the other. Every day is the same routine until one day, we die. I hate it but I also don’t think I can do much but my routine.

Marie and Meursault

This seems purely sexual relationship in the first instances she is mentioned. Marie always leaves before Meursault wakes up in the morning and she always has an excuse. Then in chapter five, “...and [Marie] asked me if i wanted to marry her. I said it didn't make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to.” Meursault does not believe marriage is a serious thing. He doesn't even love her. It means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Yet, Marie still loves him or loves him in spite of that. 

She laughs a lot. I guess she is trying to find the good and humor in all of this. Meursault kind of just uses her for his pleasure and he doesn't appreciate and love her as there is no point. He always says "I want her" than saying "I love her."

Salamano and his dog

“Then they halt on the pavement, the pair of them, and glare at each other; the dog with terror and the man

with hatred in his eyes. Every time they're out, this happens.”

This is another relationship that presents an inseparable relationship however this one is more negative and very violent. I like the way that Meursault mentions how they both look like each, old and scabby. Salamano kept calling his dog a “stinking filthy bastard.” Although I don't have a pet of any kind, I don't believe this is a cute, endearing pet name. Everything about this relationship has been the same for eight years according to Meursault. The path the take when they go for a walk has never changed. Then Salamano admits that after his wife (whom he did not really like but married anyway, "got used to her." This also goes back to Meursault's point on how it doesn't matter who you marry.)  died, he was lonely so he bought a dog for companionship. I think he has a pent up anger from his marriage as he wasn't happy with her. Also it is interesting how despite eight years with the dog, the dog's name is never mentioned. Names give people/animals an identity and that's what they respond to. So when his dog goes missing, Salamano realizes how good he had it, he’s lonely again, and he is kind of taking back all the bad stuff he said about his dog. They kind of saved each other, Salamano saved the from the pound and fed him, and the dog gave him some companionship after Salamano’s wife died. Despite the fighting they always had, Salamano is really worried about him. And that despite his flaws “he was still a good dog.” Maybe he can't find him because he can't shout the dog's name for the dog to hear and come home. Salamano is so lost without his dog. “‘I hope the dogs don't bark tonight. I always think it’s mine.’” That line hit me good.

Raymond and Meursault

“His name is Sintes; Raymond Sintes.”

Raymond is a pimp! This relationship seems to be when you only talk to someone because you don't really have anyone else. They are not super close. It is mostly raymond who does the talking. And he is all talk. He tries to act tough around Meursault with the bandages from fighting against a guy who asked for it, when the cop was asking him why he was hitting his mistress, and during the encounter with the two Arabs. He causes nothing but trouble.

He goes back to the beach shortly after he has been bandaged from going up to the Arabs and getting cut by them!!! “But without taking his eyes off his adversary, Raymond asked me, ‘Should I let them have it?’” Raymond just wants to hear what he wants to hear. He plans to provoke the Arab so he can shoot him. ultimately, it is Meursault who will have to pay as he is the one the shoots the Arab.

Raymond and his mistress

“You used me. You used me, I’ll teach you to use me"

He gives her everything she wants and money. Raymond believes his mistress to be cheating on him. He wants to find a way to ultimately punish her and he is asking his friends, like yeah no big deal, on how he can accomplish this “task.” he beats her and possibly rapes her.  Meursault and Marie overhear this disaster happen. Meursault doesn't want to get the cops to stop simply because he “doesn't like cops.” He doesn't see it as his problem and he just seems so fazed about this encounter.

This is another very violent relationship. It is shallow on behalf of the mistress as she is just taking his money, but Raymond takes it too far by beating her. He could've have just cut her off and/or found someone else. Once again he took extreme, violent measures. 

s e m i n a r

I didn't know what to expect for this seminar. To be honest I thought we were doing it on Monday so I had not given it much thought. 

It started off slow, awkward, and quiet. Granted half of us (unless the AICE English Language kids never had a seminar before) didn't really know how it was supposed to go. It eventually started to flow better and the pace picked up as the conversation intensified. I was so nervous. I hate talking in front of everyone and I was kind of winging it which only made me more nervous. When I get nervous I struggle even more with words; my voice gets all shaky and quiet; and my thoughts become alphabet soup so it made things difficult for me. Later as the seminar really picked up speed, it was a little hard for me to take down all the necessary notes while listening to others and thinking of where I stand on their opinion so I could respond to them. Sometimes I’d be listening too much and forget to  finish what I had been writing down. 

The good was the fact that we were all professional both in participating and listening to others. It was nice to hear everyone else’s thoughts and ideas. I will admit I was a little torn when deciding between Allie and Phoebe as the second most important character. However, I still stand with Phoebe. I was surprised how everyone thought Allie or Phoebe were only ones picked as a response. (unless you were Josh and thought Mr. Antonelli was the second most important character) I guess all the work Scalia assigned wasn’t actually given just to stress us out but it did help as previous class discussions were nowhere near that much work. I think it will only help us as thinkers and speakers, though it makes me really nervous. Plus the speaking twice rule only allowed for the discussion to be just that, a discussion. It resulted in a lot of ideas being shared that maybe in a different classroom would not have been shared. 

I don't think there was anything wrong with it. I am also not really sure what seminars are normally like so I don't have much base it off. I think overall we did really well for it being our first one. I will definitely be more prepared and hopefully less nervous.

In my other class discussions (mostly if not all were in my English classes) we didn't have to take as many, if any, notes on what others specifically said. There weren’t any stringent rules that would impact our grade as much as Scalia enforced. (eye roll, thx) So, normally I wasn’t very vocal in these discussions and let others completely dominate the discussion. A major difference was that it was us who were in charge of the direction of the discussion. In my previous classes there a few questions the teacher wanted to ask and the teacher was normally fairly involved in the discussion. This time though, Scalia only piped in to tell us there were six minutes left and that five or six people had still had not spoken, that kind of stuff. Overall, it was a good way to end the Catcher in the Rye.