It’s interesting to explore philosophical theories through an often unlikeable main character, but as a challenge to the moralising ideas of Christianity, Camus uses Meursault, hated by all, to ask the reader to create their own meaning. Ideas of existentialist philosophy, life is absurd and without meaning so to live we must create our own, was so interestingly crafted, especially in Part Two. Meursault‘s reminiscence for the life he lost, the small and simple joys that made his life worth living, perfectly portrays this philosophy - that if there were an afterlife, he would want a life that reminded me of this one.

I was overwhelmed by memories of a life that I could no longer claim as mine, a life which had offered me the most subtle and persistent joys: the scent of summer, the neighbourhood that I loved, a certain type of sky at night, Marie’s laughter and her dresses. The sense that I was completely pointless here made me feel as if I were suffocating.