Execution is Sad :(

I’ve always hated books that end with the main character dying. Death is one of the most important phases of life, so killing your main character always offers a huge theme for readers to explore within the ending. However, in my opinion, it always feels like a cheap ending. Oftentimes, it feels like the author can’t think of an interesting way to end the story, so they kill off the main character to create complexity. Because of this, I wonder what specifically makes this type of ending feel cheap to me, and if The Stranger fits this criticism.

The Stranger ends with the main character, Mersault, awaiting execution by guillotine. I think the large purpose of having Mersault sentenced to death was to show him go through various emotions, which is significant because Mersault notably showed very little emotion up until this point. Nearing the end of the book, he has an unexpected burst of anger when the chaplain comes to visit him and continues to pester him about religion. During this time, Mersault has slowly come to accept his death and has come to the conclusion that basically most of life is just waiting for death. He seems to think that since he will eventually die, it doesn’t matter if he dies now or in 50 years. 

So was the ending of The Stranger the only interesting finale Camus could think of? At first glance, I feel like the ending seems to have a certain disconnect with the first part of the book. It can be hard to connect the two, because part one Mersault doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of deep feelings or insights on life, whereas part two Mersault is creating huge life and death philosophies. On closer inspection, however, I do feel like part one has many significant moments to the finale of part two. For example, the theme of death is already very important to the story, as The Stranger begins with Mersault discovering the news of his mothers death. The events in part one are also all laid out in the trial in part two, as Mersault’s reaction to his mother’s death is extremely interesting to the court. It almost felt like his actions in part one relating to his mother’s death were on trial instead of the actual crime he committed. 

Because of the trial, I would say the events in part one are very significant to part two and Mersault’s final conclusion on life, prompted by his death sentence. While many books will use the ‘kill off the main character’ trope as a shocking twist in the story to surprise readers and make the ending more interesting, I don’t think that was the intention or effect of The Stranger. Camus seems to build the entire book up around the ideas of life and death, and makes many moments in the story significant to Mersault’s final conclusions on the topic. This makes for a well-thought out ending that is vital to the structure of the story. Despite this, I still wish it didn’t end that way. It makes me sad.

Brett's Lost Love

            For the majority of The Sun Also Rises, my opinion of Brett was quite poor. It feels really easy to see all the negative sides of Brett, because many of her actions negatively affect Jake with seemingly no good reason. At first, Brett’s character is confusing because she goes from partying and drinking and generally seeming like a constantly happy, free spirit to the scene in the taxi where she suddenly becomes very somber and serious about her relationship with Jake. Brett’s persona in the taxi is completely contradictory to her actions outside of it, which we soon learn is really how she acts alone with Jake versus when other people are around. My impression of Brett throughout the entire story was that she didn’t truly care about Jake because despite claiming to love him, it felt like she was also pushing her other relationships in his face.

It wasn’t until the end of the book that I realized there could be another side to the situation. It’s mentioned that Brett and Jake met and fell in love when she was a nurse. This perplexes me because I can’t imagine Brett working as a nurse, therefore I imagine her character has changed since they met. Likely, she would have woken up at normal hours, and drunk a more appropriate amount of alcohol, and she would have had to be more serious of a person. Like many people in Paris after the war, I would guess that Brett has adopted a more carefree and partying persona as a response to the trauma she experienced as a war nurse. I also think Brett could be distracting herself from the reality of her and Jake’s relationship, and maybe even unconsciously punishing herself for not being able to accept a relationship with Jake without sexual relations. I often questioned why Jake constantly welcomed and supported Brett despite her treating him poorly. At one point in the book, Jake alludes to Brett losing the love of her life during the war as an explanation for the way she acts. I think Jake could have been referring to himself, because Brett calls him the love of her life at another point in the book. I think Jake cares for her despite the way she treats him, because he knows she is reacting to losing him as the love of her life. He isn’t judging her for the way she reacts to losing him, because he knows what it feels like to lose her.