Essay Sample: Analysis of "The Stranger" and "To the Lighthouse"

The Stranger was written by a renowned writer called Albert Camus. The book talks about a man who, out of his wish, is led into activities of murder at a beach in Algeria. This fictional novel was in the setting of the 1940s. Albert Camus wrote it using the first-person narration called Meursault, where he describes his life in a memoir-like fashion starting from when he lost his mother.

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In chapter five, part one of the fictional novel, the narrator talks about his boss offering him a new position in a new office that he plans to open in Paris, France. Meursault then replies to the boss that it will all be the same even if he remains in Algeria. The reply makes his boss angry and sees him as an individual who lacks ambition in his life. This shows that normally Meursault appears to be a typical lower-class Frenchman living in Algeria eating lunch in low-class hotels. People around him try to get him to have a better meaning in his ambitionless life, but they end up succumbing to the same temptation, which makes us have the title, the Stranger. In chapter six, part one, it explains the climax of the first part of the book. Since he came back from her mother's funeral and coming back to meet Marie and Raymond and to have an affair with Raymond's mistress until when he is in the beach house, it is all explained in the first part of this chapter. The murder of the Arab by Meursault has surprised many. He wants the murder to occur out of the blues and bring a bizarre.

In the second part of chapter one and two, it talks about how Meursault's behavior is strange and surprising to the head of the courts. This makes the magistrate give a wave of a crucifix on him. The judge goes on to add that Meursault's strange actions are a threat to the well-being of society. Meursault's atheistic behavior and the way he implies to his mother's death poses a challenge to the magistrate for him to believe in the rational universe that is controlled by God and that he is the giver of life. The magistrate tries to categorize the narrator in terms of Christianity by calling him "Monsieur Antichrist" and associating him with the devil. This prevents Meursault from despising his structure of belief that is a rationale.

While in prison, after the magistrate's judgment, the narrator still behaves strangely. He does not feel guilty for being imprisoned; neither does he regret what he has done. He does not care about his emotional elements while in prison, only the practical details. There comes a time where he has a thought that the court will get him a good attorney for his case. While still in prison, he says that though he ponders about women, he does not have any thoughts about Marie. The statement shows how less physical and emotional their relationship is.

In part two of chapter three and four of the Stranger, the writer underrates the potential that any courtroom can have. The narratives now explain to the reader that the truth not only prevails but exists. The government terms the judicial systems to be just despite having several flaws. It is here when the authorities who are totally against Meursault on his case, they seek to create an explanation of their own regarding his murder on the Arab. The authorities impose a system on events that do not relate. Later on, they make Meursault appear to the society to be worse than he is, but he still he doe not give much concentration to it. The writer describes the judicial system, which is weak, hopeless, false, and irrational.

During the judgment, Meursault discovers that him failing to have a meaning in his life has made most of the people to take advantage of him. At this moment, he has lost hope in finding his purpose life since he has drifted away and lacked the motivation to find a meaning for his life. The narrator also realizes that part of his being belongs in the minds of other people. It is because, during the court hearing, different witnesses came with different versions of his character, which meant that in every testimony was exclusively constructed by the witness, and Meursault had nothing to do with it.

In chapter five-part two of the book, its where Meursault refuses to see the chaplain again. He constantly thinks about his escape from prison. Despite all of the odds that seemed to be against him, without mentioning the risks that were involved. In this chapter, the writer uses alliteration as he describes light in Meursault's cell as a "golden glow." Albert Camus uses allusions in this chapter through the narration by Meursault. He narrates of him alluding that a guillotine executed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in front of a large crowd. This now gave him hope and impression that he could now walk upstairs and meet the guillotine. All of it was false since it was an allusion.

The writer also used color in expressing some messages in the novel. Inside the prison cell where Meursault was kept, his world is brought down to gray stones, drab uniforms, and nights. The only important colors that remained in his life were the color of the sky and sun, which he could see them through those bars of the windows of the cell. The writer deployed the use of metaphors in this chapter. While describing the prison, Albert Camus describes it as an industrial complex that is a "relentless machinery" that plans on keeping men inside the prison and bury their hearts under the shadows of a heartless judicial system.

Analysis of “To the Lighthouse”

The writer, Woolf's storyline in these chapters, would turn out to be shocking to the readers who were used to linear kind of narratives, elaborative plots and mediating about the voice of the author. The writer has, however, used her characters' competing vision of reality. The writer in this chapter has forced the readers to be judges on various perceptions in the narrative. Like for instance, in the narrative, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay's opinion regarding publishing a good dissertation or having the ability to notice that they have a beautiful daughter seems to be very thoughtful. The writer has, however, described Mr. Ramsay's decision as cold, which overpowers Mrs. Ramsay's decision as a generous and full of love.

The main purpose of the writer in this context is to bring out opposing worldviews and reality visions like those that were held by the Ramsays, instead of presenting a person's character experience. The writer introduces Lily Briscoe as an artist who has an uncompromising vision. She possesses Ramsay's talent for separating a moment from the message. Later on, Lily gets to serves as an important link between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey.

In chapters 16 to 19 of the novel, the writer Woolf explains the journey to the lighthouse in an expressing and developing manner. Lily Briscoe is the center of concentration in the narrative. Through her struggles, the family confused perceptions, among many other things, led to an end of the novel. She has a good vision, which keeps her stable until the very end of it all. Lily Briscoe entirely lost in the presence of the light.

Lily Briscoe gets to resolve her insecurities and comes to peace with the memory of Mr. and Mrs.Ramsay, which is a symbol of the Victorian woman and Julia Stephens's artistic ego. She later one comes to prove a point that herself as a woman, she can indeed express her ideas through painting. The writer overcomes her anger and frustration by the fact that she did fit well as to the woman's role in society, family life, and at the same time as artists. This happens as Lily could now write and paint well. Throughout these chapters, the writer explains the literature that women can also express their ideas through reading, painting, and narrating by writing one of the most challenging novels that are difficult to understand.

In part two of chapter one to five of the novel by Virginia Woolf, she still brings out the concept of the woman playing great roles in society. The window of the lighthouse explains to the readers an open rhythm between chaos and orders that allows one to predict the direction that the lighthouse will take. The interesting scene is when Mr. Ramsay ties the knot of Lily's shoe, which predicts a "common feeling" between the two when Lily's conscience is tied to Mr. Ramsay, who was her host. But before the union could happen, the two had to be first separated where Mr. Ramsay leaves her alone and sets off for the lighthouse. For the memory between the two to grow, it required a little piece of harmony even though Mr. Ramsay was long dead before it could finally happen.

Many characters from the first section disappear due to the "time passes" section. To the lighthouse frequently brings out opinions about the passage of time. In the intervening chapters, Woolf shifts gears completely and charts the relentless, cruel, and more efficient way of passing the time. The surrounding around the deaths of Prue and Andrew relate them with Mrs. Ramsay's plans in "the window" and kind of impact that these events lacked. Mrs. McNab, while she cleans the house, experiences good memories, and the turn of events helps her in cleaning the house well.

In chapters 6-10, part two of the lighthouse, the "time passes" in this section, radically altering the author's development of the novel. The writer looks at time as a matter of dealing with human psychology rather than chronology. She now creates the character Henri Bergson who was a French philosopher. This was to show that the world is primarily intuitive and not material. Mr. Ramsay's fear that there is little hope for human immortality is found in the novel. The writer presented the death of the novel's heroine without adoration. The choice is important as it explains that human life is incidental under the natural scheme of things. Mr. Ramsay notes in the window that a stone will even outline Shakespeare.

Eventually, Lily rests on a bed as she has acquired an overwhelming type of peace in the lighthouse. There comes Carmichael arrives with a book to read by the candlelight, and Lily hears her in sleep. Here the darkened tone begins to come out towards the end of the window. It exclaims that Mrs. Ramsay's death includes the death of womanhood and the destruction of domestic power in the novel or narrative. With the death of Prue and Andrew, the world's hope and best potential seemed to be dashed and destroyed. Andrew's demise brings the impact of having wars and the masculine potential that is relevant to the context of the novel.

In chapter 8-14 of the lighthouse, the writer has based it on James' reflection on the lighthouse, which brings out the contradicting psychological and narrative structure of the book. The writer has given James a good chance to consider the subjective nature of his consciousness. He deiced that the tower can be made of two competing images at once. Just as Lily sees that she would require more than fifty pairs of eyes to have a good picture of Mr. Ramsay in mind, James concludes that in this world, nothing is ever made of one thing and the world too big for such kind of reduction and simplification. The two metaphors used by the writer explains her technique used in novel writing. With this, she hoped to capture the true likeness of her characters and the words they used in the narrative.

In the final pages, the writer explains the key to having reconciliations of competing thoughts that allowed James to view the lighthouse and Lily to see Mr. Ramsay in this particular context both in the past and in the present. The writer's act of phrasing Lily's declaration saying "it is finished" brings about the power to the moment with biblical echoes of death and impending rebirth. Ramsay children are invited to Minta and Paul's walk, which they find to be more easygoing, which develops tensions.