Everything from here on is for Coming of Age

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The Dalloways vs the Smiths

While reading and discussing Mrs. Dalloway, I kept thinking of two very similar questions. The first of these was “do Clarissa and Richard love each other” and the second being “do Septimus and Rezia love each other”. There are no clear answers to either of these questions provided in the book. After finishing the whole novel, I feel like most people would answer both of these questions with the same response: “it’s complicated”. The reasons behind these similar responses are pretty clear. The dynamics of both of these relationships have many parallels. The most striking of these are the problems caused by characters lack of feeling. Clarissa and Septimus both express through the book that they recognize that they can no longer feel strong emotions. After the war, Septimus notes the fact that he no longer feels and a large part of why he decides to marry Rezia in the first place is in the hopes that he will develop feelings. Clarissa consistently brings up how she fe...
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Gregor's Relationship with his Family

Over time, as Gregor's family begins to realize that he will never be able to work, they begin to see Gregor in the self-deprecating way that he sees himself. They come to view Gregor as a burden on them. Their view of Gregor shifts to viewing him as less human as Gregor seems to become more human. At the beginning of the story, Gregor is solely focused on work and it seems like his whole life revolves around his job. He wakes up and leaves the house early and does not get back home until late. Even when he turns into an insect, he can only focus on how this change will impact his ability to perform his job. It seems like his only defining personality trait is that he works as a traveling salesman. In the beginning, Gregor sees himself as totally worthless because he can no longer work and provide for his family. When he first transforms, his family treats him as a human. While they aren't exactly the most welcoming of him, they do do things like provide him food and move the f...
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Raymond and Meursault

I think one of the most interesting relationships in The Stranger is that between Raymond and Meursault. Right from when they meet, their dynamic is interesting, with Raymond basically just asking Meursault to help him write a letter to his mistress so that she is tricked into coming back to Raymond and he can take his revenge on her. Raymond serves as a really good foil for Meursault. At the beginning of The Stranger , one might think Meursault is cold and heartless for smoking and drinking coffee at the vigil for his mother. It’s even worse that Meursault then goes to the beach, meets a woman, takes her on a date, then has sex with her within days of finding out about his mother’s death. When the character of Raymond is introduced, this complicates things. While Meursault’s actions are definitely insensitive, they aren’t inherently wrong. It’s just that it’s kind of weird for someone to be so nonchalant about their mother’s death. The same can’t be said about Raymond. I...
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