"I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world...

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The last chapter of "The Stranger" is the hardest for me to read, as well as my favorite, because it has the most significance. I kept putting it down because the feelings I felt for a fictional character, with whom I couldn't have less in common with, was painful. We are all just human beings, regardless of our ability to empathize with each other. There are those like me who feel so much that it tears them to pieces to see others in pain, yet feel elation for the happiness in others. Then there are those like poor Meursault, who are unfairly judged for their indifference. Meursault's existential crisis is similar to how I have felt many times. When I first read this book, I thought that Meursault just thought differently than many people, which is not a bad thing. Now, almost 20 years later, I am starting to wonder if he might not have has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a very mild form of autism. No way of knowing really, because Asperger's wasn't defined back when this book was written, and Albert Camus has been dead for quote some time. It does make me wonder how Camus faced his own death though, having written so much about it. "Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn't much matter whether you die at thirty or at seventy, since in either case other men and women will naturally go on living -- and for thousands of years...Whether it was now or twenty years from now, I would still be the one dying...Since we are all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter. I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world." -Albert Camus, The Stranger