Camus, adulthood

This may be a bit of a stretch, but Camus, intentionally or not, seems to have developed the idea that adulthood is just another societal illusion that distracts from life. For example, Meursault has several characteristics that could be considered childish. He acts on his material desires almost solely, in way many people would consider shallow or immature. He tells a girl that he will marry her in order to secure his sexual relations with her, and he writes an intentionally harmful letter in exchange for some blood sausage. He has so little control over his emotions that he shoots a man in the way a child might punch a pillow. And according to Kohlberg's stages of moral development, Meursault has the moral maturity of a young child, only doing things in order to benefit himself (although he also has some characteristics of a more morally 'developed' person, so the point may be moot). Yet this same man also readily receives punishment for his actions and accepts his death more easily than most people would.

In contrast, those who would normally be seen as adults demonstrate 'childish' characteristics as well. Marie, the girl who follows the adult expectation for women at the time and tries to get married ends up in a rushed and one-sided relationship with a man she barely knows. The magistrate who does the expected adult thing of figuring his beliefs ends up having a tantrum over Meursault's refusal to accept Christianity. The chaplain who takes the 'mature' path and prays for other people's souls and tries to save them from what he believes to be a mistake ends up in tears after hearing Meursault's rant about life. The people who try to escape their childhood by accepting adulthood end up worse off than the one man who stays a child.