The Perpetual Social Vortex

Since I was about six years of age, being social and interacting with other people somehow went astray from “the golden rule.” Some kids developed poor attitudes, others engaged in bullying for a variety of reasons, but for the most part the other pressures in life that begin to develop following kindergarden, like achieving hard marks in school, began to weigh on my colleagues and myself. Some people naturally had better tools as far as managing stress was concerned, but others coped with it in negative ways. It’s a fact of life. Often times, the poor attitudes, stress, and bad vibes that people impose on themselves and others, affect us individually. The advice that my father consistently and constantly gave me came from his father and it was “don’t get sucked into the vortex.” The meaning of this statement was pretty straightforward: don’t let peoples bad vibes and actions pull you into their bullshit, by staying out of the way. This quote relates directly to the Stranger and the season three episode of Seinfeld, as the negative actions of other characters (George and Raymond,) pull the main characters ( Meursault and Jerry,) into situations that they would otherwise have not been a part of.

In this episode of Seinfeld, there is a gentleman in the neighborhood who assumed an occupation in which he moved the other residents cars in order to keep them from receiving tickets. This gentleman decides to go on vacation and one of Jerry’s friends agrees to fill in for him in his absence. Long story short, his friend ends up crashing all of the cars as a result of being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of them. He also manages to delay an ambulance from reaching a man suffering from a stroke, and costs Jerry insurance money because he trusted him to drive his car. Jerry trusted his unorganized and inexperienced friend to park his car along along with 50 others, and as a result he lost money. He was sucked into the vortex that George had created by volunteering for such an arduous task, and as a result, Jerry ended up footing a few grand for damages to his car. In the Stranger, the main character Meursault befriends a man named Raymond. Raymond had an abusive relationship with a women who subsequently had violent Arab relatives. After forming a bond with Raymond, to the point that they vacation with one another on the beach, he is put in a precarious situation with said Arabs, that ends with him shooting one of them in self defense. The way that he describes himself committing the act is through another medium, when he states “the trigger gave.” Raymond’s past was as transparent to Meursault as it was checkered. By getting so deeply involved with Raymond, Meursault ended up taking another man's life, an action that he would not have committed had he stayed away from a risky friendship. He put himself in harms way by associating with a person whose life was in disarray and riddled with violence and unhealthy relationships. Prior to the murder, Meursault thought to himself, “The sun glinted off of Raymond’s gun as he handed it to me.” This quote is symbolic of the change that Meursault's association with Raymond changed his life. Raymond handed him the gun that was used to kill, just as the friendship that the two of them forged put Meursault in the situation in which committing murder was a necessity. Similarly. in Seinfeld, Jerry choosing to involve himself with George’s occupation of parking cars, ended with him owing thousands of dollars. In the Stranger, by developing a friendship with Raymond, Meursault committed murder. Both men allowed the actions of others to dictate their futures and consequences, and they were sucked into the vortex of the individuals they chose to associate with.

Human beings by nature are social creatures. In a perfect world, social interactions would not be dictated by stress and outside influences, but it’s a fact of life that they are. Often times, the decisions and social choices that we as people make determine our own futures. In the case of Meursault in A Stranger and Jerry in Seinfeld, both mens futures were affected by the actions of the people they chose to associate with. They were both sucked into their own respective vortexes.