20th Century Novel - Angelynn

I found the panel presentation on ecofeminism extremely interesting. I never realized the obvious parallels between Rochester's attitudes towards women and the island. Hearing the discussion, I could definitely see how closely the two are intertwined. Moments in which Rochester would criticize Antoinette, a criticism towards the island would also occur shortly after. The fact that the two are so closely intertwined is because they are both foreign and strange to them. The island's culture and people shock Rochester and even disgust him at times, just as Antoinette shocks and disgusts him at times. This eurocentric view that Rochester has of Antoinette and the island were extremely prevalent during the time period, and his obvious desire to dominate them both disturbs me even more.

The Stranger is my absolute favorite novel we've read. Not because of the character, but because of the way it makes you question everything you know. Mersault isn't normal. He doesn't seem to feel any emotions at all, and it disturbs me as I read about things from his perspective. But in class, the question that came up was whether his neutrality on certain things along with his lack of interest in social norms made him a bad person. It caused me to think, why is it that humans are expected to react in a certain way? Is it because we're raised with these expectations on how to react to certain situations publicly, or is it because we genuinely feel these emotions and our reactions are organic products? Mersault doesn't defend the bad, nor does he defend the good. He is simply detached from the situation, and chooses to be neutral as possible. It's really fascinating reading things from his perspective, because you genuinely can't tell whether he has emotion...