In greek mythology there is exists a man named Sisyphus, who was sentenced for eternity by the Gods to rolling a boulder to the top just to have it fall back to the bottom. On the other hand, there is Meursault, a man condemned by the people for his indifference towards his mother's death. Camus, a French novelist bases both “The Myth of Sisyphus” and “The Stranger” on the philosophy called Existentialism, which states that there is no God that exists that gives humans a reason and mankind solely search for meaning throughout their lives.
One of the major characteristics of existentialism is absurdity, which says that in a world where there is no deity to determine the purpose of life or what is morally just or unjust, there is essentially no meaning to life. Mankind, however, naturally tries to find truth and meaning,
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Their unwillingness to accept a world without reason, lead to the alienation of those who contradict it. As seen with Sisyphus and Meursault, both are absurd and alienated due to their struggles against the world. For example, Sisyphus knows that it is pointless to continue pushing the boulder up the hill, yet he continues to do so. He continues to struggle against the absurd since he finds happiness in completing an unattainable goal each time, according to Camus. Looking at Meursault, we see a similar situation occur as he rejects faith, hope, and the chance that someone will save him from fate. After he accepts that he cannot continue to struggle against the absurd, Meursault finally feels liberated by accepting the indifference of the universe as seen with the quote, “As if the blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself — so like a brother, really — I felt I had been happy and that I was happy again.”