I am so happy this book was picked as part of the summer readalong, and that so much discussion has been brought forth! This is a pretty divisive book, and I fully understand that some people might hate it, but as a French person who studied/read a lot on Camus and loves his work a lot, I figured I could maybe share some nuggets of clarification on his philosophy, to perhaps explain what his intention with The Stranger was, and give further readings to people who might be interested in learning more!

All throughout his life, Camus centered his literary work around his philosophy, which is the philosophy of the Absurd. It is divided in three cycles that each explore one step in the reflexion with several works: the Cycle of the Absurd, the Cycle of Revolt and the Cycle of Love. Each cycle is centered around one mythical figure (Sisyphus, Prometheus, and Nemesis) and aims to answer the questions of the search for meaning in existence and life.

Cycle I: The Absurd

This was the starting point of Camus' philosophy, and this is where The Stranger falls (as well as The Myth of Sisyphus, which you may have heard about too). It is the simplest expression of the absurdity of life; it starts with a realization that life is meaningless, and so is the world, and all our actions; we came from nothing, we will return to nothing, we will amount to nothing. Like Sisyphus and his boulder, we carry our burdens up a hill just for them to roll down every night, and every morning we will push them up again for no reason other than this is what we've always done. This realization comes from lassitude, and disgust, and a sort of existential crisis that's prevalent in every book. It also interrogates the questions of suicide (if life is meaningless and I will die anyway, what's stopping me from exerting the tiniest bit of free will and choosing to die?), and murder (does murder have meaning if life doesn't?). The Absurd, here, is the contradiction between man's stubborn quest for meaning and understanding, and the profound irrationality of a world devoid of answers.

If you think this is a bleak outlook on life, it is! And reading The Stranger will probably leave you a little depressed. Fear not, however! Camus proposes three escapes:

• physical suicide, which he rules out as a cowardly way of running away from the problem
• spiritual suicide, that is to say resorting to religion to artificially fill the void
• revolt, which is the subject of his second cycle.

Cycle II: The Revolt

This is the immediate response to the absurdity of life, and the only viable one according to Camus. Revolting, in his terms, means to accept wholeheartedly the meaninglessness of the world and the universe, and to make your own meaning through your actions. It does not mean necessarily a literal revolt, though his experience as a World War 2 Resistant probably influenced him greatly (and The Plague, this cycle's most important book, is a thinly-veiled allegory for Nazi occupation); to revolt is to accept that life is pointless and hopeless, to love that fact with all your might, and to accept also that you are the sole creator of your meaning. To live in an absurd world is to passionately seek out new experiences in order to face the world as often as possible; one must live with time and die with it. This philosophy may be linked to optimistic nihilism, though they are not exactly the same. Just like Prometheus accepted his mere mortal condition, insignificant against the gods and destined to die and be forgotten, yet revolted by stealing fire from them and freeing his people. He is, according to Camus, the "very first revolted man".

Cycle III: The Love

The Cycle of Love aimed to offer a conclusion to the philosophy of the absurd. The point was not only to accept the pointlessness of life, but to embrace it, with a special emphasis on the love of the mother and of one's childhood, the camaraderie that comes with friendship, and a measured temper to avoid excess of revolt and hatred, in a similar vein to epicureanism. Unfortunately, this cycle remained unfinished as Camus died brutally in 1960... in the most absurd circumstances of all: a car crash.

Of course, this is a very superficial exploration of Camus' life work and philosophy, and I can only encourage you to read more of his works if you're interested in knowing more!! Hope this sheds a little light on the (admittedly obscure at times) meaning of The Stranger!