Albert Camus was one of the pioneers of  the genre of Existentialism in the 1940s. His work The Stranger (1942) is apparently known as the foundation of the ‘absurd’ idea. It is quite a baffling novella with its philosophical ideas and delving into psychological and pathological themes with negative and possibly destructive solutions.

The novella portrays its character Meursault condemned at court for a  murder that he did not commit, and the prosecution calling out his unresponsive composure at his mother’s death. His passivity and silence is taken for a lack of remorse and he is labelled as a merciless criminal that should be put to death. Meursault realized what he was doing in the sense that he was aware or conscious of all his reactions as he was performing them, but he did not realize the consequence of these actions until after or simultaneously with the firing of the first fatal bullet. This is the nuance that makes all the difference between calling his act a murder or not.

Some critics call this act an ‘event’ – it leads Meursault to an awareness about the “Absurd” , that this act itself is “absurd” and that certain acts of the human behaviour fall under the dimensions of the Absurd. This is an ironic revelation, although there has been no treatment of this by Camus.

The beginning of such awareness in Meursault comes from the firing of the revolver in the novella. At the end, Meursault clings on to and accepts his fate of having been accused of the act. This reflects perhaps, that the confrontation of man with an act is like the confrontation of man with the world.

The door upon which Meursault had knocked opened up to another world in which he will continue to be the stranger – the world of social or legal or perhaps human  justice. This world is different and it will bring judgment against Meursault. Simultaneously the concept of justice will also be judged. As Camus famously stated that the tension resulted by man’s desire and his ability to do so is the Absurd.

Therefore, Albert Camus’ The Stranger is the perfect example of his philosophy of existential angst and crisis. In it there is a lonely, defenseless and vulnerable being against a brutal, violent and meaninglessly merciless world. Absurdity is a factor of life and humans must ultimately live and cope with this defining factor without escape. And this is exactly what the protagonist does by accepting his fate. There is no choice and no faith around him to help.