One of Meursault's most predominant character traits is his apathy. He doesn't really care about anything or anybody. He is indiffent to Marie when she expresses her desire to marry and has no qualms about participating in the heinous plot to get revenge on Raymond's girlfrend. He doesn't even seem to care about the death of his own mother. It has been said the the opposite of good is not evil, but apathy. Do you agree with this statement? Is not caring really worse than evil? Use examples from real life as well as the novel to support your point of view.
Keith Knudsen
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement; for there to be evil, there has to be people who don't care for others, rules, feelings- when there is a lack of boundaries that protect these things, meaning people don't care (doesn't necessarily mean they are "bad" people) a crack is created, one that allows the bad people to come through... when there is no one who cares, who stops evil from taking over? Apathy IS the cause of evil... if everybody cared, there would be no motive to do wrong...
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Brianna Parlette
ReplyDeleteWhen you dont care about something as big as death or murder than I believe it is considered to be evil. We have people that murder and keepmurding and have no remorse. Thats evil. Evil comes from people that dont care about the law, the social codes, the stuff like that. If everyone cared about the law and not breaking it then there would be no crime and no evil in the world. Howwever there are people that want to cheat it and dont care if they get caught. Thats pure evil in my opinion.
Brianna Parlette continuation....
DeleteApathy is where you just dont care. Meursault has apathy about the death of his mother he doesnt care. He also murders someone and doesnt even care. On trial he didnt care. He mainly got in trouble because of his attitude and the fact that he just didnt care. I agree with the statement that the opposite of good is apathy in some cases. however not caring isnt nessarily as bad as evil. Evil is wrong doing or being treterous and apathy is doing something and not caring, apathy doesnt also have to be in a bad way.
McKenzie Johnson
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement because to have no concern or feelings for anything besides yourself is to be evil. If you have concern or remorse for the acts you're committing then you have a heart and you care about what you are doing. To be apathetic is to not have remorse for things you do and to continue to not care throughout your life and without the feeling of caring you will be more open to doing things that are respectively thought of as evil. Not caring is worse than being evil because one can be evil in a sense but then later feel remorse for what they did and apathetic people do not have this leisure to do so.
i personally disagree with the statement because there are people who hold in their feelings of regret and remorse because that is how they were raised. But there are certain times when it just becomes to unbearable and the remorse floods out in tears. For example when my old coach him died, i didn't cry but i felt sad because i lost someone close yet my brother, who was more attached to him than i was, cried floods of tears for his death. So in reality i guess people are only as sad for the loss of a loved one as the relationship with the person.
ReplyDelete-Brandon Bernard
Giovanna Sutherland
ReplyDeleteI do agree with this statement because people that are apathetic do not show any emotion and can be unstable such as an antisocial person. At least an evil person shows his emotions so you can tell what is wrong with him or whats going on in his head. Most people would show that they are upset when their mother dies. The fact that Meursalt didn't show any emotions or showed he didn't care makes me feel like he is an unstable person that could break at any time (and that's why he ended up killing a man). When my mother is angry at someone most people (including me) feel better when she shows the fact that she is upset because when she doesn't she can act like a lunatic. No one likes to be in the dark when they are dealing with people's emotions so showing them beneficial.
Jessica Vilberg
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement because apathy is having no feelings with the situation, while being mean at least means that you have some sort of feelings toward the situation, and that you must care about it somewhat. Apathy is like ignoring someone when they are yelling at you, and that makes them more mad because they rather have any kind of reaction from you. So any reaction is better than none at all.
Onecia Burton
ReplyDeleteI agree with this statement. For someone not to care about anything, even his own mother's death is pretty terrible. Being apathetic is way worse than being evil. To genuinely not care is more severe then being evil because traditionally, something causes someone to be evil. There's at least an emotion behind it.
Quantavia Brown
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement. For you to not feel any emotion at all is worse tham being evil. To have no emotional connection to anything is a sad thing in itself.
Andie Sifontes
ReplyDeleteI agree with this statement. If everyone was "good" and cared, they wouldn't do things that would be considered bad. They would have no motives, everyone would have the same morals. If someone doesn't care, they simply just do not give a shit about what they're doing. They don't take the time to consider if it's 'bad', they just do it. In order for evil to exist, there must be apathy. Apathetic people aren't necessarily evil, or bad people because they don't realize that what they're doing is wrong. Since they don't care, they don't consider. And since they don't consider, they just DO things and their actions are what makes them "evil".
I agree with the statement because not even caring about you flesh and blood mother's death is high in severity because even the strongest get weak at that point.Being apathetic is worse than being evil because you don't give a flying duck about age,gender,size,and life.. When evil you care at least a lil and something drives you apathy just gives you a freerun.
ReplyDeleteJamaal Roberson
Stephana Reid
ReplyDeleteI agree that the opposite of good is apathy, because and evil person may kill someone but feel guilty and regretful, but an apathetic person doesn't care about their actions and will just do whatever they want, sort of like murderers with antisocial personality disorder. They kill people and have no remorse afterwards. Mersault is not necessarily evil but being as apathetic as he is can be very dangerous.
Shonique Edwards
ReplyDeleteI agree that apathy is the opposite of good. Apathy is in a way what causes evil. You have to not care to be truly evil. The little girl in China is a great example, because walking around someone dying without caring is the same, if not worse as killing someone, which makes it just as bad as being evil. The fact that Mersault was so apathetic to his mother's death was horrible, worse than killing her, because it shows that he truly doesn't care if she was dead or alive.
Marlena Hill
ReplyDeleteI think that evil is a form of caring, just in a manipulative harmful way. I totally agree then that the opposite of good is apathy. If you dont care and are apathetic, then that is the extreme opposite of good, and caring. Mersault's character didn't even care to his own mothers death, if anything it was a burden to him, since he couldn't go take a walk in the country. This apathy shows great disdain towards the idea of good.
i personally agree with the statement. evil is a form of caring, just in a manipulative harmful way.The fact that Mersault was so apathetic to his mother's death was horrible, worse than killing her, because it shows that he truly doesn't care if she was dead or alive.In order for evil to exist, there must be apathy. apathy is lack of feeling or emotion. -Brandon Bernard
ReplyDeleteTori Miller
ReplyDeleteI believe that evil is still present in our modern society and apathy is a form of evil. Maliciousness is far more flattering and less scary than straight up indifference. I would rather my enemy have a purpose to why they were so viscous than to not have a reason at all. It makes it seem as though they are lifeless and completely void of human emotion. Apathy is seen regularly in our modern society. An example is recycling. Nobody in America really recycles. The celebrities say they do - but they don't. We just don't care enough about our future and world to keep it clean. We care more about getting cheap oil than supporting a totalitarian government in the middle east.
Mickale
ReplyDeleteEvil is like playground time for apathy. When someone becomes apathetic they don't have a distinct goal for anything or specific harm to anyone they just do and accepts what happens next.Evil has an agenda to do harm and good knows to stop them but to stop someone who is apathetic is like trying to slice water in half until you can't anymore...meaning you may try to stop it but honestly you must accept that you can't beat it. For example Timmy Turner.. nahh i'm just joking, but on a serious note when we stop caring, I mean honestly stop caring we might as well change the world's most wanted to list to our names because we are causing more damage physically and emotionally to everyone than anyone could ever fathom.