Article by Habiba Lam, TPT Staff Writer

Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around the social interactions I had with peers. The relationships I had helped shape my daily life and grow me into the person I would ultimately become. It wasn’t until the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when that social interaction was suddenly lost and the only escape I had wasn’t as easily attainable. During quarantine, I was on a mission to find a new way to fill that empty hole and discover new things in life, and one of them was reading. Reading helped kindle my curiosity and also fill a void in my daily life. Albert Camus’s books were the ones that deeply stood out to me. Camus's books provided a great deal of insight and knowledge that is still relevant today, particularly for high schoolers.

There are lessons included in each of Albert Camus' books that current-generation high school students would find valuable. For instance, Camus spoke extensively about the value of the physical world in one of his well-known novels, "The Stranger." The Stranger highlights a man named Meursault who lives in French occupied Algeria. Mersault faces life in isolation, struggling to feel real emotion. His actions were primarily motivated by his fascination with the physical aspects of the world, specifically nature, the weather, and himself. Many teenagers resonate with the idea of being emotionless. An example of his actions was shown when Mersault attended his mothers funeral and could not feel any emotions towards his mother. Readers can learn through Mersault that their lack of emotion is not something that requires constant criticism or effort to solve. Camus argues that when someone can recognize the significance of the world, they can also recognize their own significance. Novels that bring emphasis on the physical aspects of life rather than the social and emotional aspects can help students better understand their life in the bigger picture.

Albert Camus had a distinct style of writing his texts in order to convey a broader meaning to society. He believed that human suffering was neither moral nor rational, and that humans have a nature that determines what is good and bad for them. This is a lesson that high school students and youth can use to develop a new outlook on life. Camus believed that instead of humans searching for the meaning of life through blind faith or Google searches, they could find their own meanings in the world around them. The most important way to do so is to accept who we are as humans and to not live with fear and neglect, but with awareness, competency, and a higher regard for life. High school students can have a working knowledge of philosophies like this that could save their lives in contexts of school, life, and even work. We as high school students shouldn’t base our lives on the next due date or by the aesthetic youtuber they want to so badly be. We need to create our own meanings and fulfill them within our hearts. We just need the right books that can provide them with the appropriate lessons. So, we as students should implement more books that provide insightful meanings in our daily lives, and I happen to know the perfect author to begin with.

The views articulated in this piece are the writer’s own and may not reflect the official stances of the High School Democrats of America or The Progressive Teen.

Albert Camus is the Literary Guidepost Students Need