What do you think Camus is saying about the fact of death and the absurd? ?

Question

well, ever since we've been studying camus's nove 'the outsider' and the absurdity of life, i was just wanting to know what other's views of life is. is it really pointless or does it have a meaning?

Answer 1

If you mean a personal view, I would say that life has the meaning one gives to it but that it has no outside, transcendent, clear point that you can indicate: there is no verifiable evidence for it. In _L'etranger,_ Meursault is visited in prison by a priest who tries to force religious views on him, but he rejects those. On the other hand, the world he finds himself in is utterly absurd: you can kill a fellow you don't know because the sun is beating down on you, and they can punish you for that action because you failed to cry at your mother's funeral.

Socially determined realities aren't all as absurd as Camus makes them out to be, but they are still constructed realities, not "natural" or evident ones. That's not quite the same thing as saying that life is "really" pointless.