Existentialism, the profound main idea in the book The Stranger, asks a hard question: If life has no inherent meaning, how should we live? Instead of writing a philosophical paper about how to fully live your life, he writes a story about a character, Meursault, who lives by this philosophy.

What makes Meursault different from everyone else in the story is that he is brutally honest. He never lies about his feelings, and he doesn’t give meaning to something that doesn’t have any. During the trial, everyone judged him for not conforming emotionally. And Meursault, just by being himself, shows how often we live to meet social standards.

Now, clearly, Meursault’s actions were at the very least a little problematic, and over-dramatized the philosophy of absurdism. So the point to take away here isn’t to be careless about everything, but maybe to take a step back and remember why you’re doing everything in the first place.