Albert Camus and Scott Fitzgerald
Albert Camus and Scott Fitzgerald are two very well known authors, but they usually aren’t compared to one another. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Camus’s The Stranger, there is an interesting correlation in the friendships between the main character pairs. These character pairs are Mersault paired with Raymond and Nick paired with Gatsby. The correlations include the type of relationship, the neediness and jealousy issues the characters might have. Both Camus and Fitzgerald used character relationships like this to represent a sort of social normalcy that is seen between people all of the time. Understanding the use of these relationships is not at all difficult, because human beings react and relate with people in these manners all the time.
The first correlation would be the type of relationship these characters have with one another. This relationship type would be along the lines of commensalism, a term that means “sharing a table”. This shows that they are almost mutually parasitic to one another in their friendships. In the Stranger, Raymond uses Mersault’s friendship to benefit and further his own life and relationships with outside people. For instance in chapter seven when Raymond comes to Mersault after the police leave his apartment Raymond states that Mersault “would have to act as his witness. He didn’t really mind that.” This example allows the reader to understand that Raymond assumes that Mersault knew his place as his friend and they could work together in order to fix the problem at hand. In chapter 4 as they are returning from a game of pool, Mersault comments on Raymond’s “friendliness” by saying “I found him very friendly with me and it was a very nice moment”. This also shows that Mersault reaps some sort of benefit from this relationship as well, because Mersault rarely states that anything is a “nice” moment being as closed in as he is. He uses the social interactions seen between them later on in the novel to improve his different relationships with his girlfriend and other people he comes across like the Judge. In the case of the judge he uses the friendliness and trust he learns from Raymond’s friendship to become closer to the Judge. This type of relationship also holds true in the case of Nick and Gatsby’s friendship. Gatsby tends to use Nick’s friendship a bit more, but Nick also uses the status he gets from being acquainted to Gatsby to his advantage. Gatsby uses Nick’s social understandings to improve his other relationships just as Mersault does to Raymond. An instance of this is in chapter 5, page 88 when Gatsby tells Nick about how he wants to impress Daisy as she arrives at his house, he demands Nick’s positive opinion of his house by “demanding , ‘My house looks well, does it not?'” This shows that Nick’s opinion keeps Gatsby stable in a sense, and that Gatsby and his house are socially presentable by Nick’s standards. Gatsby relies on the comforting advice that Nick gives him on his relationship with Daisy. In chapter 1 as Nick is describing Gatsby, he says “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the ‘creative temperament’ – it was an extraordinary gift for hope , a romantic such as I have never found in any other person and is not likely I shall ever find again” (2, Fitzgerald). This shows how much Nick reveres Gatsby and how much he appreciates having him in his life like he did. Also relating to the reader is an important fat about this passage, because people tend to remember a person in their life that matches this description.
Another similarity between the four is the amount of need in each relationship. Each person needs the other more than they think or want to believe. Mersault needs Raymond to be his sort of emotional guidance while they are friends. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby tends to be the needier of the two friends, while Nick sticks to his senses of pride and not ask for much at all. In chapter 5 for instance, Gatsby is extremely nervous about having Daisy over for tea and Nick calms him down by saying “‘You’re acting like a little boy,’ I broke out impatiently ‘Not only that, but you’re rude. Daisy’s sitting in there all alone'”. This shows just how much Gatsby needs Nick to be a steadfast emotional rock of sorts, to keep him in line emotionally. As Nick reminds him of the social standards that he must uphold, Gatsby is giving Nick the opportunity to play the role of “provider” that Nick seems to crave throughout the novel, including as he begrudgingly sets up Gatsby and Daisy’s first reunion since they last saw one another. The neediness is tad bit harder to detect in The Stranger, but the subtle clues are present in chapter 6, as Mersault and Raymond are walking along the beach and they come across the Arabs a second time around, Raymond stops and asks “‘So I’ll call him a name and when he answers back, I let him have it.’ I answered ‘Right. But if he doesn’t draw his knife, you can’t shoot.’ Raymond started getting worked up. The other Arab went on playing, and the both of them were watching every move Raymond and I made. ‘No,’ I said to Raymond, ‘take him on man to man and give me your gun. If the other moves in, or draws his knife, I will let him have it.'” This quote shows that though Mersault’s moral compass is a bit off, he is needed by Raymond to keep him in line with the standards of society when it comes to “playing fair” in this fight. This need is something that Raymond has Mersault keep up with throughout the book, like when he beat up his girlfriend, when meeting Masson, and when dealing with Salamano, he asks of Mersault’s personal opinion and then relates to it accordingly.
The third commonality is the reaction each character has to the others’ girlfriend or girl they admire. Each receives a less than expected response by the one judging or meeting the girl. In the case of Gatsby and Nick, Daisy causes a bit of jealousy in Nick. In chapter 5, as Daisy and Gatsby head into the house Nick says to himself “they had forgotten about me, but Daisy glanced up and held out her hand; Gatsby didn’t know me at all. I looked once more at them and they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life. Then I went out of the room and down the marble steps into the rain, leaving them there together.” This shows that Nick may be a bit jealous of the fact that Gatsby has found his love and in that moment he is the happiest he has ever been, while Nick has not yet had the pleasure of being with someone he loves greatly. He thinks of Daisy as a sort of self-centered person that really just wants to have a good time, and isn’t willing to commit herself to Gatsby. In Camus’s novel, it is Mersault’s reaction to Raymond and his lady friend that is unexpected. In chapter 4, Mersault refuses to go and fetch the police as Raymond beats his girlfriend into a bloody mess Mersault reacts as so “I told him it seemed to me that she had gotten her punishment and he ought to be happy. He thought so too, and he pointed out that the cop could do anything he wanted because it wouldn’t change the fact that she had gotten her beating. He added he knew all about cops and he knew exactly how to handle them. Then he asked me if I’d expected him to hit the cop back. I said I wasn’t expecting anything, and besides, I didn’t like cops anyway. Raymond seemed pretty happy.” (37). This passage shows how Mersault gave Raymond neither the socially expected answers, nor the answers expected by Raymond. This is because Mersault did not want to condemn the actions of his friend for fear of losing his friendship and he also doesn’t want to say his actions were the greatest either. Mersault is not only looking out for his friend, but keeping a safe distance from offending him.
In conclusion, Camus and Fitzgerald used a technique used by many authors. Hey related to their readers by adding character friendships that somewhat resemble their own. This social norm is represented through the characters’ commensalism, emotional needs and issues they might have within their friendships.
Veronikka Howell
www.interlinguisticsoftexas.com
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