It has a very simple plot. It is a story about an ordinary man living a simple and quiet life in Algiers. But the whole point of the novel goes deeper than the events in it.
What Camus is really showing is that ***nothing truly matters and nothing has any built-in meaning. The universe does not care, and most of the things we treat as important are only important because society tells us they should be.
Meursault, the main character, characterizes his Philosophy. He does not cry at his mother’s funeral. He does not pretend to feel anything he does not feel. And instead of understanding him, people judge him for not acting the way they think he should. When he goes on trial for killing a man, it becomes clear that he is not being punished only for the murder. He is being punished for not fitting in, for not performing the emotions society expects from him.
Even the murder itself feels empty to him. No grand meaning or a dramatic motive. It just happens under the blinding sun.
In the end, Meursault finally accepts the truth of the world he is living in. He accepts ***the benign indifference of the universe. And instead of feeling afraid or remorseful, he feels FREE???
INDIFFERENCE is scarier than the word itself. It leaves no space for redemption, apology, and explanation.
