So what?

One of the many paradoxes presented by “The Stranger” is Meursault himself. Camus has called him “the only Christ that we deserve” yet here is a man who lives his life like an animal, and at one point is likened to a “dog” (113). His only concerns are with eating, sleeping, and having sex; indeed his “main problem was killing time.”(78) He appears to have no emotion when his mother dies – all he remembers is that he was “tired and sleepy” – and is so callus that at times in prison he completely forgets he is there because he killed a man. Yet, despite this “alien” nature and lack of emotion, he is the only person who truly understands people and accepts all equally. He considers Raymond the pimp just “as much [his] friend as Céleste, who was worth a lot more than him” (121). He recognizes that no one has a right to cry over his mother because she was happy at the end of her life, and there should be nothing sad about that. He understands that everybody is “privileged” because they are alive.

If Christ teaches us of the afterlife, Meursault tells us that ours is the only world that exists. Therefore even though one person may be better than another, ultimately it doesn’t matter since there is no overarching system of reward or punishment. Meursault contends that even though good and evil exist, they are meaningless because the world is indifferent to the distinction; everyone dies one day regardless of their circumstance. By recognizing this common thread shared by people, Meursault is able to understand and become friends with even a low-life like Raymond. He therefore becomes an unorthodox Christ, one without emotion or remorse, but a Christ nonetheless.