His rejection to submit to the oppressions of the world is the main idea that extends his works. He even denied himself as a philosopher and did not want to be grouped existentialists. In all his effort, Camus proves that he was a standard man who spoke for ordinary people with realistic and compelling expressions. His research and curiosity of mans condition in the world shows how sensitive and thoughtful Camus was.
Camus wrote a lot of novels that mostly involved or discussed the absurd in the world and mans reaction to it, novels such as The Plague and The Stranger. In most of his novels, all of his characters are extension of his own views. He expands his views of the absurd through his characters as they encounter the absurd, he shows the absurdity of the world by using literary techniques, such as symbolism, irony and foreshadowing. His techniques adds to the absurd ideas that can be found in this world and the absurd behaviors of people and they show the humans eagerness for meaning in life.
Camus published his novel The Stranger, to provide an example of the absurd. He refers to this novel as an exercise in objectivity, the impersonal working out of the logical results of the philosophy of the absurd (Albert Camus: A Study of His Work, Philip Thody). When writing on the absurd in The Stranger, Camus deals with concept of chance, death, the truth and beauty of nature and the incongruity of reality. His initial desire was to create a novel that praised nature, but realized that he could not exclude human suffering because it is just as real as natures beauty. His aim was to reduce the sum total of human suffering (Albert Camus: A Study of His Work, Philip Thody). His intention of writing The Stranger is to have the reader lost and disconnected from reality and recognize that reality means that life happens and death is approaching. He believes that this is the only reality to life and that man must liberate from all hope, goals and ambitions because those things make meaning become blur and makes significance vanish.