The document analyzes quotes and images from various works that relate to themes of domestic violence and human capacity for corruption. A quote from The Stranger describes a character beating his mistress. The author compares this to an image of Rihanna's injuries from being beaten by Chris Brown, showing domestic violence continues today. Another quote and image illustrate how people deny responsibility for starting fights, as when the character Raymond claims he didn't start a confrontation. The final quote and image suggest the human mind is capable of justifying terrible acts, as seen in Heart of Darkness and a Criminal Minds episode about a serial killer.

1. Anthony Jones
ENG 230
In the first quote I chose, “. . . But I first smacked her around . . .” I retrieved it from The
Stranger, by Albert Camus. In the novel, it is Raymond who says it. We find out that Raymond
has a mistress, and he „knows‟ that she is cheating on him. And because of that he beat her until
she bled. According to him, he beat her to teach her a lesson, and hoped she would come back.
Albert Camus is showing the reader that during this time, not only did people have mistresses,
but men beat their women if they did something wrong, or even if they suspected something was
wrong.
I chose the picture of Rhianna because it relates to the quote. One side shows how she
looked normally, and the other half shows the picture of her wounds from where she was beaten.
Though Raymond beat his mistress because she was cheating on him, Rhianna wasn‟t cheating
on her boyfriend, Chris Brown. This picture and this quote together shows us that domestic
violence still goes on today as it did in the early to mid twentieth century. Raymond beat his
mistress because he thought she was cheating on him though there wasn‟t hard evidence.
Nobody knows the real reason why Chris Brown beat her so it could have been over something
small as well.
We find out that Raymond is considered a pimp, and the same mistress who is an Arab
also has a brother who finds out. He is angry so he confronts Raymond. After arguing, the Arab
says, “You‟re yellow” (Camus, 29). So Raymond gets down and „lets him have it‟. Meursault
tells us that Raymond says he didn‟t start it – “So you see, I wasn‟t the one who started it.” It
was Raymond who threw the first punch so it was him who started. But Raymond sees himself as
a good guy, and didn‟t want Meursault thinking he started a fight.

2. The picture I chose is from the show American Dad. The alien, Roger, has been arrested
and is in court. While in there he keeps telling the judge and jury that he didn‟t start a fight, just
like Raymond did. And just like Raymond did, Roger tries to defend himself, telling that he
knows inside that it was actually him who started it. This is what Raymond does because he
starts off by saying that he‟s not a bad guy. When he says he didn‟t start it, it‟s like he‟s trying to
convince even himself so that he doesn‟t look like a bad friend. This can help us understand that
many people today are exactly like the people during the early to mid twentieth century; that they
don‟t take responsibilities and don‟t fess up. They want to get away with it and not be punished,
just as Raymond does because he later on asks Meursault to testify in court.
The final quote is “The mind of man is capable of anything – because everything is in it,
all the past as well as the future.” from Heart of Darkness. The whole idea of the novel is to
show the reader how the Europeans were corrupted of power, and how Kurtz was the most
corrupted. Joseph Conrad shows us how the Belgians commit genocide in order to get rid of the
„savages‟. The reader sees that they don‟t care, and they justify it as being for the greater good
and that they‟re not human like the Europeans.
The picture I select is from the show Criminal Minds. In this episode, FBI agent Reid
Spencer has been captured by a serial killer. The serial killer, Raphael killed many people in a
really brutal and bloody way. In the past, his father beat him and taught him that everybody who
didn‟t ask God for forgiveness should be killed.
This image can help us see how there are similar people to those of Heart of Darkness in
the current time. Raphael believes he is doing the right thing and is what you can call a
psychopath. This image and quote can help us see that the mind of a man is capable of anything.
The Belgians in Heart of Darkness are thinking about the future, and thinking about what the

3. past was. They want to move away from the past, and they kill „for the greater good‟ in order for
the future to be what they want. Most people today complete certain actions due to what they
have experienced in the past, and what they want in the future.
Andy. American Dad. 2011. Accessed on November 16, 2011. http://atvanalysis.wordpress.com/
category/american-dad/
Pucci, Andrea. Mathew Gubler and Raphael. 2006. Accessed on November 16, 2011. http://www.
Movieplayer.it/foto/matthew-gray-gubler.
Kalinchuk, Andrew. Rhianna. 2010. Accessed on November 16, 2011. http://thisorthat.com/blog/the
fall-of-celebrity-will-chris-brown-ever-learn