All the actions are treated as unreasonable making Meursault be a stranger among others. Analyzing the characters’ behavior one can stress the idea, that people live in constant search for the meaning of existence and actions, but very often we forget, that there is nothing to be searched for in reality. It is necessary to underline the idea that the author strived to make the readers think of their mortality and life meaning. ‘For the first time maybe, I really thought I was going to get married’ (Camus and Stuart, 50) Unreasonable thoughts and decisions made by the protagonist, such as marriage and crime, can not be characterized as rational. Irrationality is symbolized throughout the whole novel it characterizes Meursault’s connection with the internal and external world. The Stranger allows the readers to evaluate the concept of ‘absurdity’ on the example of the narrator’s style of life and behavior. Nevertheless, the difficulties connected with this author’s concept identification make people unintentionally create artificial rational structures, providing a sense for their lives. Camus demonstrates the idea that human existence is not evaluated through its rational meaning. The central concept of the novel is dedicated to the symbolization of ‘absurd’ as the key element accompanying a person’s life and impacting the formation of human behavior and actions in society. The Stranger appeared to be a successful philosophical masterpiece, bringing numerous criticism and responses on the part of scholars.

It is necessary to underline the fact that the novel is logically divided into two parts, one of which tells the story before the murder, and the other reflects Meursault’s life after his crime. The investigation carried out by the police, led to Meursault’s execution for his disability to express proper feelings for the character’s dead mother, but not for the murder he committed. His killing of an Arab man is perceived as a burst of irrational action. The Stranger is dedicated to the story of Meursault, a Frenchman and a story protagonist, who is characterized as an innately passive and emotionally detached person. Nevertheless, Albert Camus managed to show the narrator’s attempts to rebel against personal indifference to obtain the best human values and virtues. It is necessary to underline the fact that The Stranger depicts the author’s world perception, who treated it as indifferent and absurd. Many scholars refer the novel to existentialism direction, though the author never considered himself the representative of this branch. This work is regarded to be the embodiment of philosophical concepts developed in the previous century.

The Stranger is considered to be a novel written by Albert Camus in 1942.

The outsider novel by albert camus