Introduction The main purpose of this essay is to explore the character of Mersault in the Outsider and determine why this character is a controversial figure. The Outsider which is also known as the Stranger is a novel written by Albert Camus in 1942 during the Existentialist movement that took place in France during the same year. The Outsider explores various schools of thought that are based on philosophy such as naturalism, determinism, and absurdism. The main character of the novel, Mersault, is a citizen of France who has been domiciled in Algeria after killing an Arab man. Mersault’s character comes off as detached and emotionless in the novel where these two aspects portray existentialism in the novel. Camus creates the character of Mersault to be one that the readers can be able to relate with because Mersault has been placed in realistic situations that affect humans in their daily lives. Camus’ writing in the Outsider is simple and direct with the choice of language being used to convey Mersault’s thoughts and actions being represented in a simplistic manner. The storyline in the novel has been divided into two where the first part of the story explores the development of Mersault’s character and attitude towards himself and the rest of his surroundings. It also involves a description by the narrator of the objects and people that surround him without him necessarily analyzing them. The job of analyzing Mersault’s environment is passed on to the reader where they have to make sense of Mersault’s actions especially when he has to confront his past. Camus creates a fictional story in the Stranger that mostly depicts the absurdity of life which is expressed by depicting the events that were taking place (World War II) during the writing of his book. The storyline did not only offer a response to the horrors and atrocities caused by war but it offered its readers a vision of the timeless struggles that human beings went through in their daily lives. The absurdist idea explored within the storyline demonstrated that human beings around the world lived in a world that had no meaning despite the desire that human beings had to exist. In Camus’ view, human beings had to come to the realization that life had no meaning after which they could be able to move to a new state of happiness. The plot of the Story In the first part of the story, Mersault is notified of his mother’s death to which he does not cry or demonstrate any form of emotion during his narration. He refuses to view her body during her wake and prefers to smoke a cigarette instead. In his narrative, he does not in any way express his feelings but he instead opts to talk about the other mourners in the funeral. A day after the funeral, Mersault meets with a former colleague of the company he works for, Marie Cardona, and they soon forge a sexual relationship. This demonstrates his uncaring side and lack of any emotional connection to his mother’s funeral. During the same time, Mersault decides to help Raymond Sintes, his friend and neighbor, in devising a revenge attack on his girlfriend who he suspects is cheating on him. Mersault is not concerned that the revenge being planned by Raymond is mostly violent as his friend intends to beat up his girlfriend before leaving her. Mersault does not express any concern about Raymond’s revenge plan on his girlfriend as she is more t