The Outsider is Camus"s best known novel. It is generally considered to be the best known existentialist book, because it focuses on the absurdity of life and death, as well as of society. My hypothesis is that Camus couldn"t help being an existentialist. There are several parallels between the main character of the book and Camus himself which seem to point in that direction. Existentialism cannot easily be defined. It is not a major philosophy. Its most important points are: existence itself, subjectivity, individual freedom and choice, where actually life itself becomes a choice. Such ideas were not new,...
that he did not give up. All his life he was involved in trying to help people around him, even becoming a communist idealist for a while. True existentialism assumes that we are best when we struggle against our nature. It is not dark or depressing, it is about life, and existentialists believe in fighting for life. "Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society." - Anita Brookner b. 1938, British novelist, art historian. Interview in Writers at Work, Eighth Series, ed. George Plimpton 1988.