The Stranger, By Albert Camus

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In The Stranger, Albert Camus’ protagonist, Meursault, serves as a symbol for existentialism, underscoring societies “absurd” tendency to enforce various delusions on reality in efforts to gain a semblance of meaning. Throughout the novel, Meursault was vilified by his peers for having been immoral. Any reader skimming The Stranger might agree with this sentiment as he did, infact, murder a man, fail to express grief in regards to the death of his mother, and admitted to having no affiliation to any religion or God. However, it is only when Camus’ elaborate metaphor is unfolded can the reader recognize that Meursault is hardly immoral, but rather amoral or even indifferent. Rather than, solidifying an identifiable personality, meursault presents