The Stranger Passivity Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph). We used Matthew Ward's translation, published by Vintage International published in 1989.
| Quote #1 Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours." That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday. (1.1.1) |
Not only does Meursault not know the actual date, but he’s too passive to try to find out.
| Quote #2 When she was at home with me, Maman used to spend her time following me with her eyes, not saying a thing. For the first few days she was at the home she cried a lot. But that was because she wasn’t used to it. A few months later and she would have cried if she’d been taken out. She was used to it. (1.1.6) |
After a while, one can get used to, or accept, almost anything.
| Quote #3 She said, "If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church." She was right. There was no way out. (1.1.27) |
Meursault’s solution to this paradox is passivity. If you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, you should… do nothing.
