Absurdity in The Stranger

Salamano, Meursault’s neighbor, has a dog that he beats and swears at. Rhein believes Meursault “faced with imminent death…is forced to accept the doctrine of absurdity. Yet these explanations serve only as attempts to defuse the idea that the world is irrational. Salamano assumes that Meursault really loved his mother despite sending her away, just as he loved his dog even though he beat it. Some view this as Salamano himself supplying the rational order that he desires to find in the world. ” There is no reason for the son to have died. Unfortunately, his mother and sister killed and robbed him before he could reveal himself.

The trial sequence in the second part of the novel represents an attempt on society's part to create rational order. Some view that society sees the idea that things sometimes happen for no reason and that events sometimes have no meaning as threatening.

Society attempts to fabricate or create rational explanations for all the absurd and irrational events in the novel: the Czechoslovakia story, Salamano, and the trial. The entire trial is therefore an example of absurdity—an instance of humankind's useless attempt to enforce rationality on an irrational universe. Some see this event as a representation of the absurdity of life with the contrasting love-hate relationship.