on, Marie's memory would have meant nothing to me. I wasn't interested in her any more if she was dead. I found it quite normal? (pg. 110). Sometimes, being around people annoyed him, because he could not understand their way of thinking. He showed apathy towards his surroundings and the world around him. He wandered through life with no emotions. Mitty, on the other hand, escaped from his hopeless situation, his nagging wife, into a fantastic imaginary world he invented. He put all his energy, hopes and fears into his dreams. He ran from his problems instead of facing them and invented this, almost comical, private world so he could escape the real one. In one of his fantasies, "Dr." Mitty saved the life of a very important man. During the operation, two renowned specialists could not save the man, so they turned to Dr. Mitty for help. "If you wish," he said phlegmatically (pg. 75). In every dream, Mitty was a hero, yet in reality he was a coward. He never challenged his wife, or defended himself. Meursault and Mitty were desperately trying to keep their singularity: Meursault by keeping a simple and unemotional life, Mitty by escaping into his private world of heroic dreams. As hard as Meursault and Mitty tried to run away from the reality of life, it was inevitable to come face to face with the one thing they desperately tried to escape. Meursault's beginning of the end came when he killed the Arab on the beach. He was put in jail and was charged with premeditated murder. He could not escape the society any more. At one time, the priest came to Meursault to tell him how he should behave in society. Meursault did not want to compromise his way of thinking just to make society happy. The harder the priest tried, the more annoyed Meursault became. "Then, for some reason, something exploded inside me" (Pg. 115). He started to shout at the priest and grabbed him by the collar of his cassock. The guards had to pull the priest out from the...
