When A Stranger Calls... don't answer the phone.

The Stranger focuses on a character who leads to a critical moment of his life by not acting. Meusault prefers to let other people make driving decisions as opposed to acting of his own. The problem though is that not until the end before the coming of his death does he consider any opinions about his life and about others. So, while Meusault sits back so as not to disturb the peace, which is conformity (or is it?), it is possible that he has no other preference than to let that go on. So, the wants of conformity and society are synonymous with his. Is conformity sitting around and letting the world pass? I don't know. Does society want us to sit around or do we all act accordingly. I suppose killing someone is out of conformity, but then killing happens every day and society continues to go on. So, has society accepted killing. Mind you, "killing is still considered :"bad" but there is a due process for murder. Also, there is a set societal system set up for how killing should be interpreted and handled. On the flip side though, it seems in this society the killing is ignored and he is convicted upon the grounds that people do not like him for what he did to his mother. I feel he goes along with society rather than acting for or against it for a while, but afterwards he goes into his own feelings, contradicting society's views.

(Crime and Punishment) Two for One Deal! A Full Heaping of Crime with a Side Order of Guilt Please!

Shabooyah!! Crime and Punishment certainly verifies that people will act of their own accord with Rodya's thesis and murders, and what I like even more is that Rodya not only works for himself, he is on a journey to work with himself so he can find himself. A journey of self-discovery and understanding is much different from fighting for your ideals against society. While he does avoid the investigations and breaks the law, Rodya really doesn't fight against society as much as he does not go along with society's expectations. Only when he has satisfied himself, he admits to the murder. If that's not acting foremost of his own accord, I do not know what is. In addition, Dunya refuses the marriage even though that is what she ought to have done. Then of course when Rodya is in jail, he still defies society by not sulking and being content in the dungeon or otherwise spiteful at his standing. Rather, he undergoes further personal development. Still, something I realized is that I do not know the basis for Russian society very well, and something to consider is that Rodya and Dunya both were not raised in St.Petersburg, which means they are possibly products of another society.