Cool Blogs by Kelby

     Going through the second part of The Stranger, I often found myself feeling like something was off with the way the trial went. Although the first part of the book definitely opened my eyes to the bizarre nature of Mersault’s behavior, I found the actions and testimony of the prosecution and the judge of the trial even stranger. From trying Mersault based on morals rather than the law, to twisting Mersault’s qualities that would normally be considered admirable into a flaw and a point of prosecution, the nature of trial is most definitely odd and worth looking at.       To start, I found it most important to realize that, in the trial, the victim is in no way present. I didn’t realize until it came up in discussion, but the existence of the Arab man and major role as the victim in the trial is never mentioned once. Knowing this, it feels like the courtroom is in no way interested in justice for the Arab man. Rather, the prosecution makes a case th...

In The Sun Also Rises, we see a lot of dynamics between characters and settings that affect the attitude of the book's main character Jake. In terms of location there are clear differences in the way he acts from place to place. The place changes how much emotion he is willing to show and makes his behavior more or less genuine. The two main locations in the book are Paris and the Spanish countryside, which both bring out different sides of Jake. The situation tends to be worse for Jake when he is in Paris and his personality generally seems more closed off and even depressed. The Spanish environment brings out a side of Jake that the reader doesn't see till much later in the book when he gets to Spain with Bill but it features a version that I think is the calmer and best version of Jake. The drastic change in atmosphere from Paris to Spain eases his sadness with city life, and helps us realize that Jake is not as disconnected from his emotions as we think he is. In Paris Jake...