When deciding which two books from this year to write about, it seemed fitting to pick two ‘paradoxical ones’.  While I enjoyed reading The Stranger, I will stand by the claim that it is a bad book; I have a deep seated dislike for Camus and Absurdism.  Conversely, JR was possibly the biggest struggle to get through out of any book I’ve ever read.  Despite that I adore it.

Since JR wasn’t a class book, I’ll give a quick synopsis: JR, a 6th grader from Long Island, is obsessed with money.  He buys penny stocks and garbage bonds in hopes of getting rich and through sheer luck succeeds.  He sets his music teacher, Bast, as the puppet CEO of his company so that the world doesn’t find out that the newest multimillionaire is a 12 year old.  The central conflict of the book is Bast’s struggle to compose a piece of music amidst the chaos of his new life as the CEO of a business he has no control over.

The Stranger and JR take similar paths to arrive at very different conclusions.  Both explore the struggle to find meaning within a society that molds us into preset norms.  The Stranger‘s solution is essentially to just ignore it; live life how you want to and find happiness in simply existing.  That never really sat right with me though.  It seems unrealistic; for every social norm you choose to ignore, there a countless others that you are unconsciously influenced by.  Enjoying life for what it is isn’t ridiculous, but claiming that the things we do and the societies we create are devoid of meaning overlooks a crucial part of human life.

Conversely, JR recognizes this difficulty and simply acknowledges it.  The society we live in affects our lives greatly in both positive and negative ways, but it is inseparable from the human experience.  Instead of disregarding society, JR suggests that we live within it and attempt to create something of meaning through the things we do and make.  Even just the struggle to make something meaningful is enough to validate our lives.  We can’t escape the pressures and absurdities of society, but we also can’t be crushed by them.

It is this connection between literary works that amazes me the most about literature.  Through books, we can find how other people answer the big questions of life and find guidance from that.  Everyone is searching for a way to find meaning in their lives.  Whether you follow The Stranger, JR, or something completely different, the fact that these books both attempt the same thing despite being completely unrelated proves the interconnectivity of the human experience.