How to Memorise paragraphs

Resource Description

How to Memorise Paragraphs:

Memorising a full body paragraph is hard to do and then churn out 3 in a row. So when you have a paragraph, the most important thing to practice is not the words or phrasing, but the flow of ideas.

For this mod a paragraph:

Embodying his absurdist philosophy, Camus presents a character who dispassionately views society from the outside to reveal the limitations society places upon the individual. Through the presentation of the world of colonial mid-20th century Algeria from the perspective of a seemingly emotionless central character, Meursault, Camus achieves the illusion of objectivity. This is achieved through his use of what Roland Barthes termed ‘White Writing’, utilising perfect past tense and short sentences which refuse to exploit the momentum of preceding ones. “I caught the bus at two o’clock. It was very hot. I ate at the restaurant, at Celeste’s, as usual.” Through this short phrasing and temporal detachment, Camus creates the sense that each sentence exists in a single moment of time and removes any sense of causality between them. This creates the illusion of an emotionless objectivity in his character, Meursault. This causes moments of expected emotionality, such as the death of his Meursault’s mother, to appear as a reductive representation of the fact “Maman died today.” Camus presents this objectivity as being distinctive of the societal norms of colonial Algeria, presenting social institutions as absurd for trying to place meaning upon the irrational. This becomes evident in Meursault’s trial by the justice system, in which the court fixates of Meursault’s “insensitivity” at his mother’s funeral, rather than his inhumane murder of an unnamed Arab. As his lawyer protests “‘is my client on trial for burying his mother or murdering an Arab?’ The spectators laughed.” Camus uses the spectator’s reaction and Meursault’s subsequent conviction to reveal that society sees no difference between the two, positing that such institutions do not punish individuals for their crimes, but rather their lack of adherence to social norms. “He did not understand me, and he was sort of holding it against me.” It is therefore through the representation of social institutions from the seemingly objective perspective of an outsider that Camus represents the limitations to true individual authenticity that society imposes. 

It’s dense with a few ideas scattered through. But if you break it down it becomes a lot easier: