In the novel The Stranger by Camus (1988), the central character of Meursault commits a murder, killing an Arab man he does not know. The issue of motive arises immediately but is never answered in the normal way, for there may be not motive in the traditional sense. There is a reason, however, that the reader must determine in order to make any sense of the novel and the philosophy it represents.

             In analyzing the issue of motivation for Meursault, Sprintzen (1988) determines that Meursault exists outside of the usual concepts of rationality and meaning:.

             A motive, no matter how malevolent, bespeaks an intelligible individual. A motivated act is an intelligible act; its world, a familiar world. To insist upon there being a motive--to insist so unself-consciously that the possibility that there might not be one does not even arise--while, at the same time, characterizing that motive as the willful rejection of humane sensibilities, here truly is the "best of all possible worlds." Presented with a criminal who is metaphysically comprehensible but morally reprehensible, society may, at one and the same time, reaffirm its cosmic drama and purge itself momentarily of any repressed and taboo inclinations that threaten to shatter it (Sprintzen, 1988, p. 32).

             This does not explain why he commits the crime in the first place, though.

             Meursault is the protagonist of The Stranger, He is an intelligent and thoughtful man who has examined life and who sees through the artifice by which others live to the underlying truth. Society sees him as rebellious, particularly after he kills the Arab. Yet, Meursault is rebellious from the beginning. The novel opens with his mother's death, and he does not react to this situation as we might expect someone to react. Indeed, he seems indifferent to the fact of her death, to the point of being uncertain about whether it was today or yesterday. Death is no great puzzle for Meursault.