Word Choices - AP English Literature - Blog

Matthew is no Meursault

This is a bit late to be posting about Trust, but here goes.

One of the questions on the viewing guide for Trust was, "Is Matthew an existentialist?"  My answer, in a word: no.  Existentialism demands the acceptance of one's life.  Meursault certainly does this.  Whether refusing an offer to move to Paris or contemplating his inevitable death, Meursault rarely thinks what could have been, and so is content.  Matthew, however, thinks entirely differently.  Where Meursault is happy, Matthew is depressed.  He carries a hand grenade with him at all times, in case his despair ever becomes too much.  The grenade is not an idle threat, either, as he proves at the end of the film.  In addition, Matthew subscribes to common morality.  He despises the gas station attendent who attempts to rape Maria.  He thinks Maria's mother is immoral and sadistic for treating her daughter so poorly.  Overall, Matthew absolutely is not an existentialist.

A Little Bit of Confusion

Although I thoroughly enjoyed watch Trust in class, I felt like I may have missed a good deal of the hidden meanings or symbols throughout the film. I know that Mr. Heidkamp told us that the milk was important to the story, and I was trying to figure out its significance, but I couldn't seem to come to any conclusions about it. I was just wondering if anyone else could explain to me what they got out of this film. I'm very interested to hear what everyone else has to say about this movie and if they got something more out of it. I feel like any input would increase my understanding of the film and the overall impact that it had.Thanks!!

Displacing Anger

In Mathew's introduction scene in Trust, we see him angrily fixing (or breaking) computers and yelling at co-workers. Later when he is at the bar and sees Maria's sister, he's still mean and angry. These are just a few of the several times we see Mathew angry.

However, we never see (until the ending) Mathew getting angry or yelling at his father, who is constantly putting him down and ridiculing him. I think that displaced the anger and frustration he feels towards his father at others around him.

Mathew's father also has displaced anger. After Mathew reveals that his mother died during child birth, I realized that Mathew's father basically blames Mathew for his wife's death, and hence calls him "worthless" and "a piece of shit".

One reason why Mathew does not talk back to his father (until the ending) may be because he also knows that his father blames him for his mother's death and is too scared to stop blaming him for his mother's death.

I think that Mathew is finally able to talk back to (or rather fight) his father at the end because Maria indirectly helps him realize that he isn't "worthless" or a nutcase, or "a piece of shit". When Mathew gains some self-worth, he is not scared of his father anymore.

Resisting Identity

In the film Trust, Maria complains to the woman at the diner that she changed Mathew. The woman responds that Maria was probably changed from her relationship with Matthew too.  Maria does change because of Matthew. She wears less make-up, puts on her glasses, and begins to value education. While Maria thinks Matthew is no longer the "real" Matthew, she probably would consider herself more real than before. She is probably glad she changed.

So how does the influence of relationships affect identity? Meursault is an individual because he rejects what others expect of him. But I think Maria and Matthew are just as much individuals as Meursault, yet they let outside influence in. Maybe "being true to yourself" does not mean rejecting all external influence. If we accept Benjamin's argument, mutual recognition in relationships is the only way to form identity. Identity is not a pre-existing concept. Every single descision, memory, encounter, and relationship builds a person's identity. If we accept identities are constantly being formed, Maria's worry lacks reason. Of course she changed Matthew, but she did not alter his identity. His identity is still its vicisitudinous self.

Word choices? That's what Maria needs to do better.

Here I am again. I realize that I've already posted an entry ("The Strangeress") within this grading period and will likely get no further points, but if I cared about that I wouldn't be here.

At first I didn't think I'd like Trust, the film Mr. Heidkamp has shown us recently. At second, I didn't think I'd like it. At home plate, I didn't think I'd like it. But when I was a spectator in my seat, unconcerned with playing with the film, with "participating" - injecting my own viewpoints and predilections into it - I realized that it was a darn good movie given the constraints on its production.

Maria is not Meursault (though she's closer to him than to Marie, I'd say). Maria is not Ignatius. In fact, Maria isn't even Maria. She spends so much time trying to redefine herself - in absolutes or against others - that there is not much of a coherent identity that can be connected to her. She doesn't expect the same of Matthew, who she wants to stay as he is. I don't consider Trust to be an existential film. Frankly, I don't think I'd have liked it any more if it'd tried to be. It's better than that. It shows the limitations of objectivity as well as of subjectivity and illuminates that neither option can work well all of the time. With the energy left over, it doesn't even really try to be preachy about the nature of objectivity. It's a deceptively simple love story whose biggest offense is trying to discreetly effect Romeo and Juliet every ten minutes or so.

Trusting Heidkamp

Quite frankly, after having to sit through Desperately Seeking Susan, which I thoroughly disliked, I figured that the next film I would watch in AP College English would be insanely boring and hard to sit through especially first period.

I was wrong.

Mr. Heidkamp's choice of film was surprisingly excellent. Throughout the movie, I was fully engaged. I found myself subconsciously analyzing the camera techniques and searching for similarities between the characters in Trust and the characters in the novels read for class.

The plot was incredibly interesting. I felt myself intrigued by the characters in Trust because of their contrasting outlooks on life itself. I was most interested in Marie in particular because of her odd lack of emotional in her character and her individualism despite society. I realized that Marie subtly ties to Meursault in Camus' The Stranger.

For a majority of the movie Maria seemed unmoved by certain events that would have contributed significantly to the lives of people in contemporary society. For example, when Maria finds her sister sleeping with her fiance, she pretends as though nothing has phased her to make her mother believe that everything is ok. She also seems oddly calm by the death of her father. In short, emotional outbursts that seem rational in tough situations that present themselves frequently in her life are surprisingly lacking.  

Maria is also similar to Maursault in the way that she does not allow society to persuade her to do what they believe is right. When she goes in for her abortion, she sees the multiple protesters outside and although she doesn't go through with it the first time, she decides that it's the right thing to do in the long run despite what her community believed. 

Before we started watching the film, Mr. Heidkamp informed us that it wouldn't be necessary to complete a viewing journal. I immediately assumed that I would subconsciously refrain from paying any kind of attention knowing that there would be no grade for actually watching the movie. 

However, I found myself analyzing the film more closely than I originally planned and realized that despite my previous opinions on AP College English films, I should trust Heidkamp's judgement. 

Catch Me

For most trust is something that takes years to gain from someone, but for the main characters in Trust
it takes a matter of seconds to gain complete trust.  When they meet in the in the strange run down
house they look at each other and realize that they are both good people.  They are both invited to live in each other’s houses.   Even later in the movie Mathew propose to Maria and she falls back  off a sign that is at least 6 feet off the ground knowing that Mathew will run to catch her.  Trusting anyone is hard epically a man who carries a hand grenade with him everywhere he goes.  Somehow they both knew that they were safe with each other.  Maria’s mother does not see it this way at first understandably so; a 36 year old guy hanging around with a 17 year old girl spells trouble.  She does not trust him based on society but Maria trusted him from the beginning with no pre conceived notions.  Maybe that is what trust really is, trusting someone without what caring what others might think about it, and knowing they will catch your fall. 

Caring or creepy?  I’m not sure.

It's Just My Phone

After finishing this podcast, I can't help but feel a bit torn. Like Mike Daisey, I too love my technology. I absolutly empathize with his feelings during the beginning of his speech. I am also an owner of a shiny iPhone 4.

I've never been completely oblivious to the idea that there were people in China responsible for the assembly of my phone, but I've also never given it too much thought. Perhaps it was an "out of sight, out of mind" sort of thing, or perhaps it was because I just wasn't aware of any of the details. I never imagined that every product might be hand tested before being shipped out. I never thought that I wasn't the first person to touch my phone. Of course I have heard of the oppression of the workers responsible for the items that I own, but never have I imagined Shenzhen as the place it is.

Our blindness could be compared to Marlow's aunt, but I also believe that even with these tightly kept secrets, we are a well-informed generation of people. The products made by the people of Shenzhen are the products that inform us of their trials. Blind or not, we are all guilty. We have all been influenced by the technology created in China. What scares me the most is that at the moment, I can look at my phone with disgust, but I know that soon, I may forget what Daisy has said and my phone will cease to be a phone handmade in China and revert back to being just my phone.

Does Work Have Meaning?

Does work have meaning?  In the ancient story of Sisyphus, work seems meaningless because all Sisyphus does all day is push a rock up a hill which then rolls back down.  In the film "Trust," Maria's work seems meaningless because all she does all day is drill holes.  Her situation, and the situation of Sisyphus remind me of some of the lyrics of "Mad World" by Gary Jules.  He describes people going off to work everyday, "going nowhere."  

"All around me are familiar faces

Worn out places, worn out faces

Bright and early for the daily races

Going nowhere, going nowhere."

Does the fact that work provides the money for support of ones family give work more meaning?  Meursault finds no meaning in his work, but his work was not adequate to support his mother.  If his job paid him enough to take care of his mother, would it then have had meaning to him?

Sometimes work is meaningless because we cannot see the goal or the larger project to which we are contributing.  There is a story of two stone masons who were part of the project to build the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  Their job was to break up stones with sledgehammers all day long.  When asked, "What are you doing?" they had different answers.  One said, "I'm just breaking up these rocks."  The other said, "I am building a great cathedral."  The second stone mason found meaning to his work because he could see the larger project to which he contributing.  The other couldn't see this and found his work meaningless.  

Future Predictions?

The ending of Trust is very vague about what is going to happen in the future with Maria and Matthew. Originally, they were both set on getting married but then Maria tells Matthew that she had an abortion and no longer wants to get married. Matthew seemed very upset by this but by the end of the movie (when Maria came into the factory while Matthew had his hand grenade), they were back to talking about being together and running away. Then, Matthew gets taken away by the police for using the hand grenade and Maria stands watching as the cop car drives away. The ending makes me question the future of Maria and Matthew. I’m not sure how much trouble Matthew will be in but if he is allowed to leave after a short amount of time, will he go back to Maria and will she want to get married? I personally think that Matthew definitely would go back to Maria and I think they would run off together and possibly get married.

If Matthew isn’t allowed to leave right away, what will Maria do? Will she go back to her mother and sister or will she start a new life? Once Matthew and Maria found each other, they began to stop accepting how their parents treat them. Both of them eventually stuck up their parents, which I think is because they found strength through each other and realized that they shouldn’t let their parents treat them like that. Matthew actually fought his dad and Maria talked back to her mom when she told Maria to get her hair clip. Maria also told her mom that she has her own life and can make her own decisions when her mom asked if she was going to marry Matthew. I feel like Maria and Matthew rebelled against their parents because they saw life differently after being with each other. But if Matthew now has to go to jail, I just wonder if Maria will give in and go back to her mother because she has no other choice or start a new life somewhere without her mom.  What do you think she will do?

So Many Meursaults!

In watching the movie Trust, I've noticed that there is not one clear character who entirely embodies Meursault in The Stranger, yet I get the sense of Meursault throughout the movie. At first, I thought it was possibly just the way the plot progressed, but now I'm noticing that it is more likely that almost every character in the movie seems to demonstrate certain definite elements of Meursault while none of them perfectly embody him. Perhaps Matthew is the closest character to Meursault, although even he is not completely like him. While Matthew demonstrates the same insistence on honesty and staying true to your beliefs along with Meursault's characteristic lack of deep emotion, he does at times seem to express emotion or compromise his morals for something else he finds important. For example, when his dad yelled at him early on for leaving his cigarette in the bathroom instead of cleaning it, Matthew initially seemed to apathetically agree with his father and take the consequences, but he seemed to snap into emotion as he tells his dad "I don't know what you want from me," instead of just agreeing with his dad. He then demonstrates a willingness to put aside his morals twice in order to gain a different benefit. First, he agrees to work fixing televisions even though he is against television in order to make money, and then he returns to the company that he knows is immoral in their manufacturing practices because he thinks he'll need the medical benefits when he marries Maria.

Another character that shows similarities to Meursault is Maria. She seems somewhat willing to trust anyone and not judge them as a whole but only by their pieces, which is similar to how Meursault acts when meeting and dealing with people such as Raymond and Salamano. Maria refuses to see her mother as cruel and Matthew as trouble, even when she is told so on numerous occasions.

Maria's mother also demonstrates the lack of reasonable emotion that is characteristic of Meursault in that she doesn't seem to truly care that her husband is dead except for the income loss, and she doesn't have any heart or sympathy towards her daughters at all. Peg seems to hold to her morals some of the time, such as initially refusing to seduce Matthew, but she is too willing to push them aside to truly represent Meursault. However, she does seem to lack emotional attachment to most people. Even the woman who Maria meets on the bus seems to represent Meursault's lack of emotion, although she doesn't demonstrate his strict moral code. She is deadpan and miserable, but is all too willing to steal a baby off the street.

Is it just me looking in to these characters too much, or do all of the major characters in Trust seem  to reflect Meursault in one way or another?

Matthew and Maria, meant to be?

Within Trust, the two main characters Maria and Matthew have an interesting relationship. I feel from a shallow viewpoint one can see a creepy thirty year old man desperate for a woman. He needs someone to commit to him because he feels it is the time to marry in his life and would take a depressed and fragile seventeen year old to fill this position. If we were to look at it in almost deeper sense, there is the hope that this plot was not the director's intentions. Matthew can parallel Mersault in the sense of pushing the boundaries of human nature. They are both complex in the sense that they perceive the world in an almost emotionless way and yet in the same instance  simple because they objectify their observations and do not allow the complications of feelings. Matthew does this by not expressing any feeling or emotion, he for the most part goes through his day with a lack of motivation. When he meets Maria, it seems that he has found something in his life that is not routine, he has found a sense of purpose. It is as if it's something he could potentially have feelings about. Maria is also looking for direction. She is a young girl who is pregnant and a drop out, she gradually begins to understand the need to change her life. Matthew brings a sense of structure in her life. He represents a possible future that could entail not so much, happiness, but something different, something that is for the most part honest. I feel that these two are meant for each other because they both share something, providing security for each other, which is what entails the key component to trust itself.

Parenting,how should we see it?

Within the movie Trust, it seems patenting or the idea of parents becomes a central motif. Even in the very opening of the movie, there is this deep disconnection between the mother and father's opinions over their child being pregnant and kicked out of school. After Maria kills her father, her mother kicks her out. As the story progresses though, it seems that her mother has less and less of a hold on happiness and good look on life. She tries to forcefully put her older daughter with Matthew, she says she stopped truly loving her own husband, and just seemed like her life was full of regret and sadness. This then begs the questions of whether she is a qualified parent or whether parenting is a very qualified job? If parenting is qualified, and by this I mean enough to seem a justified system, then we can say that Maria's mother does not properly tend to her children. She has not be successful in having her daughters find the traditional pieces of being "successful." Peg is divorced woman with children, something society frowns upon and Maria is pregnant and out of high school. If we were to assess the sole idea of parenting though, we can find that this system of parenting in a sense is detrimental. The mother is miserable with being married to the father of her children as well as being exhausted over having to demand things from her children. The children are also miserable because they are berated constantly by their mother to do chores and demands which they are for the most part compliant to, including Peg trying to seduce Matthew. This then can express the negative effect of parenting and questions whether it is needed within the structure of society or whether it is an unnecessary institution?

Not Quite Like Mersault

In the beginning of Trust I could clearly see the parallels between Matthew and Mersault. They don't take the rules of society into account when they go through their days. And that's where I thought their similarities end. Although they don't consider what others think about their actions, Matthew is more expressive than Mersault. His short temper and condescending attitude towards the multitude of people he encounters portray his obvious aversion to the accepted role one plays in society. Mersault outwardly gave the appearance of an accepting person, while not being outgoing. He was able to blend into society, unlike Matthew who actively clashes with society's victims.

Further into the movie it appeared that Matthew was giving into society's demands. Something Mersault never allowed himself to do. I predict that Matthew will return to his ways but with the almost morbid undertone to the film, I cannot say this with confidence.

Terrible Parents

When Matthew sees Maria's plight he responds with protection.  I think he does this because he is worried that she could end up in his situation, under the overcareful protection of a parent who works him too hard.

Matthew's relationship with his father is complicated.  Even though his father treats him so terribly, making him wash the bathroom time and time again, he still tries to protect Matthew and defend his genius when he is fired from the television repair shop.  Deep down, he is still the normal father who wants the best for his kid, but he does not express that sentiment most of the time.

This seems similar to Maria's relationship wit her mother.  Even though her mother was so terrible after she blamed Marie for killing her father, she still let her stay at home.  But she takes advantage of Maria's guilt and works her too hard and tries to set up her fiancee with Maria's sister.

Do you think the director and or writer are making a statement that deep down all parents love their children, or that all parents are terrible to their children despite this love?

Parallels Between "Trust" and "The Stranger"

I see two characters in "Trust" that are similar to two characters that are in "The Stranger."  Matthew Slaughter is similar to Meursault, and Maria is similar to Marie.

Matthew is similar to Meursault.  Both characters are seemingly detached from everything.  Both seem to only care about certain things.  Both seem incapable of lying.  It almost seems that Matthew's character was based on Meursault.

Maria and Marie are also quite similar.  For one thing, their names are almost exactly identical.  They also both fall in love with a man who can never love them back.  Meursault thinks that it isn't important to love, and Matthew would agree.  Matthew goes further however, and says that he "respects and admires" Maria.  What we often get from Meursault is saying how Marie is a beautiful woman. 

Maria and Marie are also similar in their both wanting to marry a man that does not love them.  Not only do they fall for men (Maria actually literally falls and forces Matthew to catch her) who cannot love them, but they are willing to marry them.  However, Marie is more willing to marry Meursault, saying that she probably loves him because he cannot love her.  Maria forces Matthew to say that he loves her, even though he does not truly believe it.

Those are the main similarities that I noticed in between the movie and the novel.  Did you notice these, or any other similarities?  Or do you disagree with my findings?

Matthew and Meursault?

In some ways the qualities of Meusault seem to be present in Matthew Slaughter in "Trust." He seems to be emotionally detached from almost everything he encounters. He offers to marry Maria, who seems to be a complete train-wreck of a person, with almost no thought and a lot of ambivalence. I believe he offers to marry her out of connivence. This relationship he has with her is similar to the ones he has with the other characters of the movie in terms of emotional attachment. 

However, I think Matthew's character is also strikingly different from Meursault. After just one day of working Matthew seems to be defeated by the world. He gives into society's pressures and norms in almost a heart beat. This contrasts to Meursault, who under pain of death, refused to be a member of mainstream society.    

Maria's mother, express what is needed in society?

Maria's mother is clearly very controling, but she has depth to her role within the movie. To begin, even when she learns of Maria's pregnancy, she is still very strict about what Maria should do. After her husband dies, though she seems to audience to be devastated, we later learn that she was almost releaved that she did not have deal with her husband anymore, she felt that he had "poisoned [her] life for twenty years." When we first see her though, she is wearing black and mourning over her husband and kicks out Maria. It almost seems that her first initial actions to the death of her husband was the way that she was "supposed" to feel about it when concerning society. When she realizes how she really feels about it I think she feels miserable knowing that she did not really care for her husband. This then also explains her other actions,such as pushing Peg towards Matthew because she feels they are good fits by society's standards. She feels that they are of similar age and are both in times of their lives to settle down and have a life together. I feel she knows that her action to do this and how she really feels are two very different situations.

Baby Kidnapper

I'm pretty sure the wife on the bench stole that baby. And I'm sure other viewers of Trust could see that. But why? When I thought about it, it totally makes sense. The wife wanted a mess to come home to. Babies are really good at making messes. Hence, she stole the baby so there would be a mess to clean up.

Matthew's father on the other hand would hate to come to a mess, because he knows someone is there (Matt) who should be cleaning the house. But Matt left the house. Will Matthew's father wish there was more mess now that Matthew is gone? I'm willing to bet so.

You could totally connect that to Salamano and the dog, Salamano being the father and the dog being Matt. After the dog escapes from his collar, Salamano becomes distressed and doesn't know what to do. I think others have made this connection in the blog, so I'll leave it at that.

Matthew: The Perfect Catch

After seeing the first hour or so of the movie, we have come to understand and connect with the characters of the movie to some degree. I want to expand on the character of Matthew, the mysterious man who recently proposed to Marie.I think that after the initial shock of seeing a 30 year old man propose to a pregnant teenager, we can accurately reflect on the true character of Matthew.

For one, Matthew displays his concern for Marie when he goes to talk to her when he himself had a rough day. This act shows a quality of compassion and understanding of others, a very important quality in a good friend. He also has "handyman" abilities, which complement his love for literature, apparent in all of the books scattered in his room. Finally, his sincere commitment to take care of a girl who has made some bad decisions in her life and raise a child that is not his are evidence of admirable qualities in a person. Although married couples say they love each other for their faults, they often do not learn of these faults until later in their marriage. Matthew already knows of Marie's past and present immaturity, yet still wants to marry her.

I think maybe Matthew sees a change in Marie's character that is honest and pure. But aside from her controlled attitude and behavior, and a "nun-like" attitude, she has yet to convince me she is a good candidate for a wife.

Three Peas in a Pod: Meursalt, Maria, and Matthew

So far I think the film, Trust, is a very interesting movie.  I can see how it relates to The Stranger, especially between Matthew and Meursalt.  They are both characters who are indifferent to the overriding social constructs.  However, I feel that Matthew is more of a prideful character than Meursalt, especially when it comes to getting a job.  I think that Matthew seriously resents having to bend to any one's will in order to obtain an easy and relaxed lifestyle.  That is why is he is so stubborn about getting a job, and why he always resorts to staring at his hand-grenade after his father beats him or bosses him around.  He is a character who wants to be free of those who impose their will on him.  Meursalt is a character who never really strove to be free from anything, but lived his life freely by acting without regard for societal standards or expectations.  I'm having a hard time understanding how Maria fits into the film's structure.  I feel like she is a character who goes through massive amounts of transformation in such a short amount of time, while Matthew stays the same throughout the whole film (so far).  I feel like all of her efforts to reform her life are going to end up with her in the same predicament that she is in now.  Is she representation of what happens to humans when they lose their sense of reson?  Is Matthew a contrast to that representation?

Matthew not Maria

When watching "Trust" and thinking about Meursault and the other themes in The Stranger it was fairly easy to see the similarities.  All three characters isolate themselves from society and seem to have no care for the customs of society.  When I really thought about the characters in the movie though, especially Maria I began to think that maybe they aren't as isolated and against society as Meursault was.  

Maria isolated herself because she was kicked out of her house, blamed for killing her father, and was pregnant. In the aftermath of her father's death and being kicked out of the house Maria went around aimlessly looking for help from anyone after even her "best" friend refused to help her.  I feel like her isolation was not a result of her choice but out of helplessness.  She wanted to find someone and that someone happened to be Matthew when he found her in the barn.  

Matthew on the other hand drew a much closer correlation to Meursault.  The beginning of the movie shows his lack of care for rules and regulations and even holding a job.  His general lack of enthusiasm for anything also shows a correlation to Meursault.  One quote that really stood out to me was when he said "TV is the opiate of the masses" and then right after that you see a line of people with TVs stretching out the door and down the street.  All of these characteristics make Matthew seem much more similar to Meursault that Maria does.  

 

Respect, Admiration, and Trust at First Sight

When we first started watching Trust in class, for some reason I expected the characters to be portrayed as extreme existentialists like Meursault in The Stranger. However, now that we've begun to watch the film, I see that it is portrayed much more subtly.   I think that the pending marriage between Maria and Matthew, is in a wierd way an example of existential behavior. While, yes, the idea of marriage does play into accepting the rules society assigns, the couple defies the common idea of why two people should get married.  Both Maria and Matthew respect, admire, and trust (aka love) the other, yet they are not "in love." I think that society has the notion that two people should not get married unless they are head-over-heels in love with the other person even though their relationship may lack the respect, admiration, and trust that Maria and Matthew's relationship has. Matthew even goes as far as to say that when people are in love they do crazy things like getting jealous or hurting each other. This shows that those "in-love" couples really do lack trust and respect, key pieces in Maria and Matthew's definition of "love."  The couples that claim to be "in love" do not, by Maria and Matthew's standards, love each other. Even though they do succumb in the social norm of marriage, Matthew and Maria show existential tendencies by redefining what they think it means to be "in love."

Meursault is Not Alone

After reading The Stranger, I noticed that Meursault was different from characters I have encountered in books and in movies. However, once I started watching Trust, I noticed that two characters are somewhat similar to Meursault. Maria and Matthew both have personalities that isolate them from the rest of society. This is similar to Meursault because he drifts from social constructs as well. But these three characters have some differences too. In The Stranger, Meursault is the only one of his kind that drifts from social norms. In Trust, Maria and Matthew both have socially unacceptable personalities and are brought together because of it.

To me, it makes sense in The Stranger that Meursault is the only one of his kind. It makes him seem a lot more unique and significant in the story. In contrast, it seems unusual that there are two characters with characteristics similar to Meursault in Trust. I wonder if there is significance behind both characters sharing similar characteristics. I think that since both Maria and Matthew share unusual personalities, perhaps there is a message in the movie that says it is okay to not fit in with the standards set by society.

Like Father Like Dog?

In the movie Trust, there is a character named Matthew, who is struggling because he seems to have an anger issue and has a bad reputation. Things aren't great at home, because his dad is always hard on him and always yelling at him or hitting him. In the movie, Matthew and his dad gets in an argument and Matthew says that he was "going to move out". His dad then laughs at him and tells him to clean the bathroom. Matthew's dad has the mindset that Matthew will never go any where and be stuck at home with him forever.

In the book, The Stranger, we see a common relatonship with Salamano and his dog. Salamano treats the dog poorly and yells and beats it on a daily basis. When the dog comes up missing a few chapters later, Salamano panicks and doesn't know what to do. In my opinion, he took out all the anger he had harboring from his wife's death on the poor dog.

Do you think there is a reason why Matthew's dad treats him that way? Is he scared of Matthew growing up? Is there something in the story that we have yet to find out?

The Simplicity, or Complexity, of Trust

While watching the movie "Trust," I couldn't help but think of ways in which people in the movie "trusted" one another. I have noticed different levels of trust that have been shown between different characters in the movie. The main instance that took me by suprise was how easily Maria trusted Matthew when they first met. Maria had just ran out of a scarring instance where she trusted a man, and that trust failed. When Maria went to the store to buy beer, the man at the counter said she could only have it if she went out the back door. Maria hesitated, but reluctantly went around to the back, where there actually was no back exit; the man just wanted to take advantage of her. Maria trusted the man, but his trust failed her. What left me puzzled, was why, so close after her trust with a man had just failed, Maria was willing to trust Matthew so easily? When he approached her in the barn, she seemed so easily swayed and didn't seem to have her guard up in terms of not trusting anyone.

Maria acts as if trusting people comes easily to her. She trusted her ex-boyfriend before she was pregnant; she trusted him that he would help take care of the baby. However, he broke that trust also by saying he wanted nothing to do with it. What is it that leads Maria to be trusting of people so easily? Especially with Matthew, why was she so readily open and able to trust him?

One is the Loneliest Number

Initially I had no idea why we were watching the movie Trust. I did not see any connections between Maria and Matthew, and Meursault. In The Stranger, Meursault went through the motions throughout his whole life and showed no opinions. Maria and Matthew did the opposite. Maria flunks out of high school and gets pregnant, and Matthew refuses to follow his father's orders and take a job fixing computers. 

However, once I looked at the bigger picture I realized that Meursault, Maria, and Matthew actually have a lot in common. First of all, they all feel alone. They all are struggling to make meaning of their lives and fit social norms. They also all experience problems with their parents. Meursault cannot afford to support his mother, Maria shocks her dad to death and is on bad terms with her mom, and Matthew's dad is unhappy with Matthew's unaccomplished life.

Despite the many similarities between the characters, I think that the most significant similarity is that they all lack healthy relationships and have a hard time maintaining the relationships they do have. They all try to pretend as if they are strong on their own, but all seek the attention of others. Maria's boyfriend breaks up with her and she confesses that she expected him to take care of her. Meursault doesn't particularly like any of his friends, but misses his mother and obsesses over attention from Marie. Lastly, Matthew has no one but his father, and then asks Maria to marry him so they can be together forever. As different as the stories may seem, all three characters show that life is never easy alone and isolated from society.

In the end of The Stranger, Meursault comes to the conclusion that life is only a period of time leading to an inevitable death. Do you think that Maria and Matthew will come to the same conclusion, or make meaning of their lives?

Connections Between "Trust" and "The Stranger"

We started watching a movie called "Trust" a few days ago in English, shortly after finishing "The Stranger".  At first I was pretty disturbed by what I saw.  The movie was strange and I didn’t really get the point of it at first.  However, as the movie progressed, I saw more and more aspects of "The Stranger" closely linked with this movie.  Once I saw the character Matthew in the movie, I immediately linked him to Meursault from "The Stranger".  Like Meursault, Matthew was a very emotionless character.  He went through the motions every day, didn't care about his jobs because they didn't really interest him, wasn't interested in relationships, etc.  Similarly, in the start of the movie, the other main character named Maria showed many similar traits to Meursault.  She really didn't care too much about others, wasn't concerned with school or a job, and didn't really value her relationship with her parents.

The interesting thing in this movie is that throughout the movie we see these characters change from being self-absorbed and having individual traits to valuing each other and caring about their effects on others more.  After Maria is kicked out of her house she goes back and promises to work her heart out for her mother and change her behavior.  She sees how her actions hurt others and she makes a conscious decision to change it.  Little things like this are interesting because they show how people can change and have profound effects on each other.  

 

Matthew v. Meursault

In the movie Trust the character of Matthew presents many similarities with Camus' character of Meursault. Matthew, similar to Meursault, experiences the many absurdities of life from the first scenes of the movie: his father abuses him, emotionally and physically, he is socially and emotionally isolated, to the point that he contemplates suicide, and has almost no connections with the material world. Meursault experiences the oddities of life in the fact that he is sentenced to death, and murders the Arab. However, both approach their situations differently. While Meursault rejects the norms of society and attempts to create his own path within life Matthew appears to give up, he isolates himself from all other social stimuli. While Meurault and Matthew experience similar paths in life, they take extremely different approaches to their situations.

Salamano's Dog Cleans Bathrooms And Smokes Cigarettes

At first, I had trouble linking Trust to The Stranger. Then an idea struck me like a big yellow school bus and it has stuck with me ever since.

Matthew, the young man who is too old for Maria, perfectly mirrors Salamano's dog!

Both Matthew and the dog are dependent upon an abusive authority figure. They are both physically and emotionally injured for no reason. Yet neither the dog nor Matthew want to leave their situation. And the abusive authority figure knows this. In fact, this knowledge is the abusive authority figure's source of power.

Would Matthew's dad have treated Matthew any differently if he knew that Matthew was perfectly capable of writing him off? I think so. I think daddy felt like he could take advantage of Matthew because he thought Matthew didn't have any other options.

Clearly, Salamano didn't truly appreciate his dog until the pup ran off. He never dreamed that the bastard would leave. And he did, just like Matthew.