Absurd Worldviews In Camus's The Outsider
“Everything is true and yet nothing is true”: an analysis of the rational and absurd worldviews in Camus’ The Outsider
The Outsider is a novel that broadly explores the philosophy of the Absurd, which is the conflict between one’s attempt to search for a meaning of life, and one’s inability to find any. It is different from Nihilism in the aspect that, although one acknowledges that there is no meaning of life, they should not cease in the attempt of finding one. In the novel, this philosophy is explored through the worldview of the main character, Meursault, and is contrasted with other characters’ views, which look at the world from a more rational perspective.
The novel begins with the simple, impassive statement, “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know” (pg. 8), portraying the indifference of Meursault towards the death of his mother. This indifference is shocking because, as considered by the general society, the death of one’s mother should evoke grief, yet Meursault does not show
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The court, as does society, tries to find a rational explanation to events in what the absurd philosophy believes in is an irrational world; this is shown in the novel as the fact that the court concentrates on how Meursault lacked an emotional reaction to his mother’s death, rather that the motives for killing the Arab. Camus once again puts forward how it is impossible to find rationality, when the universe is irrational itself, and that the only solution is to accept the absurdist philosophy. As a response to how the court is unjustly looking at the situation, Meursault’s lawyer states, “Here we have the epitome of this trail. Everything is true and yet nothing is true!”, meaning that it is true that Meursault did not feel grief when his mother died, but that truth has nothing to do with the
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