Journal #3

I think Camus divided The Stranger into two parts for a few reasons. The most apparent reason that shows up is the way the plot is set up. The first half of the book in mostly describing the situation that Meursault is in and giving some vital information about him as a character. Then the second part of the book seems to be more action filled and a lot more happens to Meursault that affects him. To support this idea there seems to be a very great shift in amount of dialogue used in the book. In the first part of the book barely any dialogue was used and most of the time Meursault just restated or described what other characters discus with him. But once we get into part two of the book a lot of the characters are quotes and Meursault has a lot more conversations.

Part 1 use of dialogue:  "Raymond called me at the office. He told me that a friend of his (he'd spoken to him about me) had invited me to spend the day Sunday at his little beach house, near Algiers." (Camus 40)

Part 2: "'You see, you see!' he said. 'You do believe, don't you, and you're going to place your trust in Him, aren't you?' Obviously, I again said no." (Camus 68)

Meursault in the first part of the book is living life and not really taking the time to look at his life. But as soon as we get into part two of the book we see Meursault looking back on what he had done in his life and reflects a lot on his decisions and his relationships with some of the characters.(Marie and his mother 'Maman')