Some, often without knowing it, suffered from being deprived of the company of friends and from their inability to get in touch with them through the usual channels of friendship, letters, trains, and boats. Others, fewer these, Tarrou may have been one of them, had desired reunion with something they couldn't have defined, but which seemed to them the only desirable thing on earth. For want of a better name, they sometimes called it peace.Albert Camus
About This Quote
In "A Separation", written by Iranian author, author of the "Persian Trilogy" and Nobel-prize winner, Marjane Satrapi, a character named Tarrou suffers from a separation that is not physical but psychological. As a young boy growing up in Iran under the rule of the Shah, he is separated from his family and friends by religion and class. He is detached from his family and friends because they were different from him. He is detached from his friends because he could not make time to meet them because of his work schedule.
He is separated from his friends because they were not in the same place as him. After reading this quote, I can empathize with him in his struggle with feeling disconnected. When I was in college, I used to accept an invitation to go out for dinner or shopping with some classmates only to find out when I got there that my date wasn't able to make it because she had plans with her boyfriend.
This made me feel like I was wasting my time by driving all the way over there only for her to tell me that she had already eaten earlier with her boyfriend. What's worse? She would then start complaining about how great her date guy was even though she knew I was there so she could be with him instead... this made me feel like I was just one of many girls she chose to be with instead of me, one of many girls who were not good enough for her...
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