The Stranger Part 2

First lets talk about the presentation. In my opinion, Group 2 did not do as good of a job as Group 1. That is not to say they did a bad job, but Group 2 just did not feel natural. Thad said to avoid straight lecture, get the students involved, and just allow the students to be apart of the presentation. The first ten to fifteen minutes felt like they didn’t want to get the students involved, they said to hold all questions till the powerpoint presentation was over. While I didn’t mind too much I would have appreciated being able to discuss some of their views while on the topic. The skit was really cool; coming up with a “what if” in terms of what was going through Meursault’s thoughts as he talked to the preacher was interesting. After the skit, Group 2 just let the discussion take its course which again made me feel great by the amount of participation. I even had my hand up to ask a question, but never got to ask it because of how many others wanted that same opportunity.

The question that I wanted to ask was about how many people were arguing about Meursault’s view on emotions. The thing that irritated me was that people thought that Meursault was living in the present by not allowing the past or the future affect his decisions. Living in the present is a good thing to do, but that was not what Meursault was doing. Meursault either had a mental disease that made him not care, or had Meursault had a traumatic experience that caused him to deeply repress his emotions. Now regardless of which one is afflicting Meursault, that isn’t a good way to live one’s life. When people say it’s good to live in the present; I believe it is because some people are too obsessed and want to cling to the past, or they are too busy worrying about the future that they neglect the present. Meursault did not care about the past or future. Meursault’s mom died and he killed a man, but the story didn’t put hardly any emphasis to show remorse. And when it came time for his execution, Meursault did not believe in God.

The past actions give us reasons for living, and we can share those stories with others. The present is what we can do to change either the past or the future. The future are the goals we wish to accomplish someday. One of my favorite quotes is, “Today is a gift, that is why it’s called present”. Both yesterday was once today, and tomorrow will become today; which makes them all gifts that should be cherished.