The Stranger and Absurdness

The Stranger is an exploration of Camus's philosophy of the absurd, not a morality tale containing a "lesson" for the reader's moral well-being. Camus's philosophy of the absurd characterizes the world and human existence as having no rational purpose or meaning. Despite the absence of a rational purpose or meaning, human beings demand that there be one. He suggests that human beings are thrust into life that can only end in death. Meursault's personality embodies …

…After his mother's death, he perceives no great change in life and thus assigns no meaning to her loss. Meursault would have to take interpretive control over his life to assign meaning to her death. Many people may take just such control over interpreting meaning in their own lives, but Camus suggests that this is caused by a need for rational structure. Meursault is Camus's example of someone who doesn't need this rational world view.