The Stranger

    Over time, we're force to face our real problems and reality sinks in that we were born to die one day. As I read The Strangers, I got the sense that the Albert Camus vividly sees this reality. Burying the one person that was always there to nurture you and devoted their life to unconditionally love you is a horrific reality many have to face. But on top of that, he describes the sinking fate that life will not freeze for you and allow you to grieve. You have to move on and go back to the real world and the author seems ready to do so the moment he speaks to his employer and explains he has to miss work due to his mother's passing.
    It's a sad fate, as he describes the long walks his mother and her special friend, Tomas Perez, would enjoy. To find something like a bond, or even a love towards one another at their age is devastating, because we know many take for granted what they didn't have: time. The old folks in the Home didn't have time to live life. They are sentenced to a morose path, where they now can try and live the few moments they have on this earth. Even the old woman who sobbed during his mother's funeral felt what many can relate to when they are grieving and attempting to cope with a loss. "She says your mother was her only friend in the world, and now she is all alone." the keeper explains. I guess it's a guaranteed fate for all of us. We are born alone, although we are surrounded by others. And we will die alone, even though we are surrounded by others. In the end, we'll be alone.
   As the author describes leaving his mother behind and never visiting her until now, that he had to bury her, I understand why he didn't chose to view her body. I believe he felt that he couldn't be able to redeem his actions of neglecting his mother. Many realize their faults and actions towards someone when they've passed. The author understands what he did wrong, but in a way feels that he gave his mother the greatest gift of all. Although she cried many days after he left her at the Home, he says he felt she would've been devastated if he would've teared her from her only love, her only friends, her only Home where she even found God and religion. Yes, he should've visited her, but deep down, he knows she was happy. On long walks to nowhere and long talks that only mattered at that certain moment, she finally was able to escape and find a sanctuary in this simple oasis. Although his mother was gone, he knows she was finally Home.