IOP Journal 5

This is my final journal entry, and I want to discuss two things: The use of the word "Maman" versus "mom" or "Mother", and the different translations of the title.

In Ward's version, "Maman" is used to refer to Meursault's mother. "Maman" actually means "mother" in French, and is not just a pet name or term of affection that Meursault uses. This seemingly contradicts Ward's previous desire to "Americanize" Camus's text. By using "Maman", Meursault seems to have not just a connection, but an attachment to his mother. Is this a way to make him seem more human? Why would Ward, through wanting to detach the character, immediately make him see emotional at the first word? It doesn't matter that a few sentences later, his detachment is evident, because the first word of the book contradicts everything. Gilbert sticks to "mother", a strict translation from the French to the English. Was Ward's use of "Maman" a way to associate the text with it's French origins?

According to both Wikipedia and a French-English online dictionary (http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/dictionary/), the word "l'etranger" means foreigner, stranger, or even outsider. It can also mean unknown, unfamiliar, or alien. The older translation of this novel was known as The Outsider, but The Stranger has become a more common title and is used much more often than the other. One could argue that "The Foreigner" might be a more precise title because Meursault isn't from Algeria, he is from France, though he has no desire to move back because he is comfortable where he is. He is in another land where there are Arabs and he doesn't feel completely comfortable. It's interesting.