The Stranger

“I had been right I was still right I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just as well lived it another. I had done this and I hadn't done that. I hadn't done this thing and I had done another. And so?”(The Stanger) Meursault believes nothing matters. This is what makes him different. He doesn't fain emotions. He just does. Do you ever feel the walls of society slowly closing in? Molding you into something you're not? “I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn't.” Sometimes holding on to simple things can allow your true heart to shine. Meursault simply believes that there is nothing after death. What he does doesn't matter. Eventually everyone is doomed to die. If everyone is going to die what's the point of life? Meursault is a true atheist. Meursault doesn't change even in the face of punishment and death. The popular thing is to beg for mercy and to convert to a God not known and he decides that there is no point to going with the grain.


There is another twist in The Stranger. Meursault won't lie. This virtue eventually leads him to his death. Instead of twisting the truth into something pleasing he stays with what really happened. "It was the sun." he says that made him kill a man. In his mind the sun was hot and the trigger slipped and so he killed a man. Society is full of little white lies and Meursault won't give into any lying. Society immediately sees him as a threat. What makes Meursault great is this amazing capacity for not caring. He doesn't care. He won't lie. This molds his personality. This choice creates a man who fights the idea of pleasing others. Honestly, although Meursault killed a man, Meursault fights the crowd in a way I have never seen. Try not to lie for an entire day. No white lies. You have to offer up the truth. You can't exaggerate anything. I dare you to try this man's lifestyle.

Invisible Man

How do we define who we are? When do we start to decide to create our own path? Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison plays into the concept of humanity's struggle to find oneself. The Invisible Man struggles from place to place trying to prove to the people around him that he is worth something. After he watches society crumble around him because of his associates in the Brotherhood he finally decides to wait away from society until he can decide who he is. He asks, “What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?” Part of being yourself is allowing time to find yourself.


This book also plays with the idea that no one person truly has only one personality. At a concert a person may dance and sing but in school they may quietly mind their way through the halls. The circumstances a person puts them-self in can decide the side of them they will reveal. Sometimes accepting yourself is accepting your multiple personalities.