Mr. Camus: Not so Insignificant

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“He had the walk of a young shy priest, sliding along walls and slipping mouse-like into doorways, and he exuded a faint odor of smoke and basement rooms; in short, he had all the attributes of insignificance.”

Albert Camus, “The Plague”

I am currently reading the above novel by Mr. Camus.  This paragraph struck me.  It’s the idea of someone being insignificant.  Camus was an atheist, and his world view would seem to lead to all of us being insignificant, in the end.  If atheism is true, his novel would be unbearable to read.  Its theme is humanities constant defeat by death.

Camus was a French novelist whose bleak atheism had and continues to have influence in the world.  He could not resolve the suffering of children with the existence of a good god.  I read that he considered converting to Catholicism, but there is no evidence to back this up.  Mr. Camus was killed when his vehicle slammed into a tree; it was not considered a suicide.