The Stranger IV: Bk. 2 Ch. 4-5

In the end of The Stranger, Camus directly inserts several of the ideas of absurdism in order to explain not only Mersault's thought process, but the very precepts of the philosophy of absurdism. Camus even goes so far as to have Mersault directly state that he had had an "absurd life," the direct relationship in diction with his philosophy of which cannot be ignored (121). Moreover, he elaborates on the concept of absurdism for any reader who is not familiar with Camus' philosophy. He states that "everybody knew life isn't worth living. [...] Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter. Therefore (and the difficult thing was not to lose sight of all the reasoning that went into this "therefore"), I had to accept the rejection of my appeal" (114). A few specific pieces of this quote explain his absurdist philosophy: he first writes one of its main ideas, that "life isn't worth living." He then explains why that is so - because we will all die eventually. He then defends his idea with a parenthetical elaboration. His statement is essentially that one must accept what logic states, despite what conclusion it might result in - in this way, absurdist philosophy is like science, because it lies upon a basis of logical argument in order to concoct conclusions that some might consider "absurd." In this way, Camus explains what absurdist philosophy states and how it comes to its conclusion, then argues that his logical argument must result in a true conclusion.