Mankind has free will: Odd

Many times during The Stranger one feels that Meursault is odd.  Simply odd.  He has lived his life in a way that no one else that is assumed to be normal ever has.  If it is true that this novel holds a certain value because of its questioning nature, one must link the questions that it poses to different characteristics of mankind.  

During recent history, mankind has dedicated itself to making life interesting, be it war, technology, or home furnishing, the human race is no longer talked about as precisely that, a race.  All our basic necessities are covered, food, water, shelter and so on— I am not neglecting the several situations where this isn’t true, but the human race that The Stranger refers to is not one that is worried about starvation.  So Meursault is free, he can existentialize himself all he wants, but that won’t change the restrictions that society has to impose to maintain order.  Mankind is free to investigate science, literature, mourning-process-psychology, sports or education; but the freedom of an individual end where those of another begin.  I am obviously not the first to say this, but given the elevated and abstract nature of the novel at hand, it is worth mentioning.  This right is not questionable, and Camus has not respected it.  He questioned the legitimacy and importance of murder.  That is not right.  This, reader, is why you felt that Meursault is odd.  Simply odd.  That fact that he doesn’t mourn after his precious Maman’s death is not what makes him odd.  It is that he approaches death with an attitude that no adjective can describe.  It is wrong and it is odd.