The Theme Of Morality In Albert Camus The Outsider

Albert Camus’ The Outsider is a strangely complicated noir fiction novel with a relatively simple plot that attempts to depict Camus’ philosophy of the absurd through the seemingly emotionally stunted main character, Meursault. The Outsider begins with the death of Meursault’s mother and deals with relationship dynamic of his encounters with his neighbors, his boss, his friends, and his lover. His unique outlook on life eventually culminates in the murder of a stranger and consequently his death sentence. Camus ultimately tries to portray the depraved morality of the world and the fabricated rationale society attempts to imposes on the irrational universe. Camus implies that morality and motive have a direct relationship with one another and that there are arbitrary evils

The absurd arises from the conflict between our desire (need) for coherent rational meaning and moral order in a world of full of chaos, meaninglessness, and irrationality. The absurd is shown when Meursault kills the Arab on the beach for no apparent reason. “The sky seemed to split apart from end to end to pour its fire down upon me … with that sharp, deafening sound, that it all began. I realized that I had destroyed the natural balance of the day, the exceptional silence of the beach where I had once been happy (Camus 54)”. Meursault’s emphasis on sensation rather than his own actions illustrates this absurdity and his own moral depravity. Meursault has no motive for killing the Arab and does so anyway. His lack of morality encourages this irrational behavior whereas if he had moral consciousness, he would be impeded from committing a murder. Society nonetheless attempts to fabricate or impose rational explanations for Meursault’s irrational actions because the idea that things happen for no reason and sometimes have no meaning is disruptive and threatening to