The Incomprehensibility of Life: An Analysis of Albert Camus' the Stranger

Abstract

This paper critically analyses the quest for identity and the existential crisis of Meursault, the central protagonist of the novel The Stranger, an existentialist novel, published in 1942. The novel is based on Mersualt, who is disconnected from the societal norms and is lost in the incomprehensible complexities of life. Through the central character of the novel, Mersault, the paper aims to explore the crisis of the "absurd man", who "does not hesitate to draw the inevitable conclusions from a fundamental absurdity" (Sartre an Explication 4). Concepts like choice, responsibility, and bad faith are used to portray how Meursault is confronted with absurd circumstances in his mundane daily life that lead to the destabilization of his thought and identity hence bringing forward the world's meaninglessness and how he attempts to rationalize an incomprehensible, unorderly existence.