The Stranger/Outsider is a subtly beautiful story of a man condemned to death for his indifference to the world and the worlds’ indifference to him.
Camus is attempting to show the reader just how impartial the physical world is towards us, and that in the long run, throughout our absurd lives nothing we say, nor do will make much of a difference, whether we devote ourselves to the big man in the sky or not, we all, one way or another are met with the same fate. And Camus seems to have done an excellent job of showcasing his thoughts on the absurdity of life, by presenting us with the character Meursault, who is portrayed as a person that has few convictions and lives a comfortable life in French-Algeria with little in the way of drama, apart from a few events that he happens to be a part that leads to him facing the prospect of execution by guillotine.
The book itself is nothing spectacular in its writing and it doesn’t try to get us scrambling for a dictionary nor does it leave us longing for more since everything is described with a (like I already said) subtle beauty that envelopes the story’s setting, with particular attention being drawn to the blistering sun of the African country.
“The sky seemed to rip apart from end to end to pour fire down upon me”
Overall a very short, but thought-provoking book, that I’m sure won’t be leaving my memory anytime soon. So, it’s time for me now to live my absurd life to its fullest or to have a cup of coffee, either way, what difference does it really make?
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