An Unconventional Resolution

Monsieur Meursault, in The Stranger by Albert Camus, is faced with his mother's death at the beginning of the novel.  In fact, on the very first page, the speaker tells the reader his mother is dead.  For most people, this would seem like a large challenge to overcome.  A challenge filled with grief, mourning, and loss.  However, as Meursault buries his mother and other people attend her funeral, he is not distraught over her death.  He quickly moves on from her death, making it seem as if there was nothing he needed to deal with emotionally.  As Meursault journeys through the rest of the novel, he encounters many different challenges one would think would take awhile to overcome.  But Meursault does not take an extended period of time to look adversity in the eye, but instead moves on to the next thing, as if it were no big deal.  At the conclusion of the novel, Meursault sits in his prison cell, waiting for his execution date.  He does not know exactly when it will come, but he knows the end is near, and he accepts his fate. 

As the course of the year goes on, and I continue to read and discuss our class novels, I have come to recognize when a character is faced with adversity, and eventually how they overcome this challenge.  I then proceed to write about it on this blog.  But while I was reading The Stranger, I found it was harder to comprehend how Meursault dealt with all of the different challenges he was faced with.  He seemed at first insensitive, indifferent, or complacent to the different situations, and I found it hard to relate to the emotional side of his character.  When Meursault chooses to accept his circumstances at the end, I finally understood how he was choosing to face the adversity.  Meursault wasn't trying to change the different challenges he was handed, but instead accepted them and moved on.  He didn't dwell on one certain problem, but realized there would be many problems to come, and he didn't want to live his life worrying.  Some might say he didn't have the capability to feel emotion toward hard things life handed him, but I would argue he overcame each challenge in the only way he knew how.  It might have been unconventional compared to some of the other protagonists I have come across this year.  However, I enjoyed reading Meursault's journey, and watching him deal with life's challenges. 

Internal Adversity

Adversity can come in many different forms.  Sometimes it can be conflict with a certain person, sometimes it can be physical fighting, or sometimes it can be emotional.  In James Joyce's The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, has an internal conflict throughout the novel.  Stephen does have some tiffs with his father, but the battles he has with himself are far greater, and more important, to Stephen.  Stephen can't decide whether or not he wants to pursue a life of priesthood, or instead become an artist.  He goes back and forth between the two, first by admiring the priests and wanting to live a life of devotion like them, and then he critiques them and their lack of knowledge.  Stephen also internally debates whether or not the sins he commits are bad enough to keep him out of heaven.  Stephen constantly goes back and forth between being a priest or not; not only because of his critiques of them, but also the fact that he doesn't want to necessarily give up the sins he is committing, even though he knows they are wrong.  Joyce's use of stream of consciousness also makes Stephen's conflicts more alive and known to the reader.  The reader gets inside of Stephen's head, and can't escape Stephen's problems, much like Stephen.  The struggle becomes real to the reader, much like how it is real to Stephen.  By choosing to examine his own life and what he wants, Stephen realizes he wants to be able to think however he wants.  The life of an artist comforts him, and he chooses to pursue it, instead of priesthood.  He is finally able to make a decision best for him, and he overcomes his adversity in a way that is both inspiring and relatable. 

Becoming Visible

In Ellison's the Invisible Man, the eponymous narrator is faced with adversity throughout his journey of self-discovery.  First, when he is forced to leave his college and move to New York City.  He again struggles when he is blown up in a chemical explosion at a paint factory, leaving him jobless and nowhere to go.  Finally, when the Brotherhood kicks him out and he does not know what his future holds, he must decide how he will respond to his hardships.

The Invisible Man is not treated well during his time in the South and not treated well in the North either.  "I was pulled this way and that for longer than I can remember. And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself."  The narrator must decide who he is and what he aspires to be, rather than listen to what outside sources tell him he should be.  By choosing to overcome his struggles, he develops into the man he is supposed to be.  The adversity the Invisible Man faces is first outside people making him decide who he wants to be, but eventually it turns into an inner struggle within the narrator.  He must fight himself  to decide who he will become.  

The inner battle to find oneself is much needed and helps the character move forward and eventually overcome the outside forces which were influencing him.  He chooses to stay true to who he is and what he believes in, rather than buy into other people's ideas.  He overcomes the outside voices and listens to his own.  

A Proving Prince

Prince Harry (not the one living today) from Henry IV Part 1 by William Shakespeare is under-appreciated by his father and the court.  He is seen as a son who is not ready to take the throne, nor does he take his responsibilities seriously.  He has to decide whether or not he wants to 'step up to the plate' or let Hotspur take his place.

The inner struggle that Prince Hal has throughout the play directly effects the relationship he has with his father.  When Hal decides he will prove his father wrong, he chooses to overcome his father's perception of him, and ultimately his character prevails.  During his soliloquy, Hal states he will "redeem time" and "throw off this loose character," revealing his plan to show his father the man he can be and the leader he can be.  He chooses to overcome his father's opinion of him, no matter how hard it is.

The conflict between Hal and his father validates the need to overcome struggles and hardship in order to become the people we are meant to be.  Hal and his father push each other to their fullest potential, ultimately leading to greatness for them both.

Forgiveness and Family

When Beck Tull leaves his family in Baltimore, Maryland, to go pursue a different life, his family is left in the lurch.  They did not choose for him to leave, but now they must decide how to overcome this struggle and move on with their lives.

In the book, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler, the Tull family seems to be faced with adversity at every turn in their life.  First, their father and main bread winner leaves them.  Then their mother has an anger problem which she takes out on her children.  The oldest son steals his younger brother's fiance, and moves away from Baltimore.  The only daughter is married and divorced three times, and the middle son struggles to keep his restaurant afloat.  Finally, the family hardly ever sees each other, making it hard to stay a tight knit unit.  Their lives seem to revolve around struggle.

For most of the book, the struggles of the characters define who they are.  Their well being and life status orbits around how they deal with certain hardships.  When the oldest son, Cody, marries his little brother's fiance, Ruth, he realizes he must move away from his family because of his actions.  He was jealous of his brother, Ezra, and his relationship, and made it his duty to steal Ruth away from Ezra.  Ezra chose to forgive Cody though.  He didn't let it bother him, even though it did.  He let Ruth go, and moved on with his life.  Cody let his struggle define him and his life, whereas Ezra let the struggle go and chose to keep moving forward.

The dysfunctional Tull family is a fragile unit, always being ripped apart at the seams and then patched up slowly and haphazardly.  They come across many hard things in their lives, and they all deal with them differently.  In the end though, they choose one another.  Beck Tull comes back into their lives, if only for a brief moment, to offer reconciliation and calmness.  The children make it through their life with some bumps and bruises, but mostly in one piece.  They overcome their different struggles, and choose forgiveness over resentment.  They become the family they always hoped to be.

A Different Ending to Romeo and Juliet?

Throughout my reading of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, I couldn't help but notice certain similarities between it and Romeo and Juliet.  They are both about people who are in love with each other, but can't be together due to family issues.  The main difference in Wuthering Heights though is how Catherine and Young Cathy deal with their problems opposed to Romeo and Juliet.

In Romeo and Juliet, they both end up killing themselves because they can't bear to live without the other one.  In Wuthering Heights though, Catherine chooses someone else over her love, Heathcliff, in order to protect him, even though it makes her unhappy.  She decides not to be self-centered, but instead shows her love for Heathcliff by her sacrifice.  During chapter nine, Catherine decides to marry Edgar, "'Nelly, I see now, you think me a selfish wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother's power?'"  Catherine knows that she won't be marrying for love of Edgar Linton, but instead she will be saving Heathcliff and acting out of her love towards him.  Catherine knows if she were to marry Heathcliff, it would only bring harm to them both.  She is faced with a problem, and she chooses to overcome it; instead of thinking of what she wants, she decides to do what is best for both herself and her love.

The same is true later on in the story when Young Cathy decides to marry Linton Heathcliff in order to save both of them from the consequences they would face with Linton's father, Heathcliff.  Young Cathy doesn't necessarily love Linton, and thinks him to be a bit whiny, but she knows his father will hurt him if they do not marry.  She sacrifices herself to make him happy even though it could cause her great pain and struggle.  In chapter twenty-seven, Cathy visits Linton and he pleads with her, "'Oh! darling Catherine! you mustn't go, and leave me, after all.  You must obey my father, you must!'"  Cathy does not want to stay but she knows that Linton will be in harm's way if she leaves, and because she cares about him, she can't do that to him.  She marries him because she feels like she can't do anything else.

Romeo and Juliet were star-crossed lovers who killed themselves because they would rather die than live without the other person.  Both Catherine and Young Cathy choose to overcome their problems in a different and healthier way by sacrificing themselves for their loves.  When they are faced with adversity, they choose compassion and create a different ending to one of time's oldest love stories.

Oedipus and my Big Question

My Big Question simply states: "How do people recover when faced with adversity?"  After reading Oedipus, I realized that my question does not necessarily fit with the reading, seeing as Oedipus does not necessarily recover once he is faced with difficulty, but instead I came up with a new question to apply to Oedipus Rex.  How does Oedipus respond to the challenges that he faces and what does this say about him?

Oedipus wants to avenge the king's death, but he does not know who killed the king because he did not live in the kingdom when the king was killed. Oedipus goes on this journey to find the killer, when really he is the killer the whole time, he is just unaware of the fact. When Oedipus finds out that he is the one who murdered the king, he also learns that the oracle that was told about his life did in fact come true.  Oedipus is faced with a situation where he feels uncomfortable and does not know what to do.  He wants to avenge the king's death, but he does want to take his own life.  He is faced with a trial and he does not know how to overcome and recover from it.  Instead of looking at things in a logical manner, Oedipus decides that he should not be allowed to see, because he deserves to be punished for the wrongful things he did.  Instead of choosing to overcome his hardships, Oedipus succumbs to the idea of losing his eyesight because he believes he will never be able to learn from what he has done wrong, and must therefore be reminded by it constantly.  Oedipus chooses to do the opposite of what my question and thinking imply.  He does not want to move on from what he has done wrong, but instead wants to wallow in his punishment.  Essentially, he chooses to be unhappy for the rest of his life because that is the only way he knows how to let go of his problems.  Through this difficulty and hardship, Oedipus becomes a man of little determination, who only wants to gauge out his eyes in order to pay for the crimes he has already committed, rather than to try to overcome his challenges.  He took the easy, less complicated way of getting rid of the pain, instead of pushing himself to become a better version of himself.  Oedipus chose to go against my Big Question and not to persevere when the hard things get in the way, making his life easier in the long run, but more painful down the road.