The Stranger puts forth some points about the value of human life. We have a main character, Mersault, who doesn't seem to put much of a premium on the fact that we are alive. (I'm into justified font right now, though please tell me if it impedes your appreciation of my ideas).
When his mother dies, while he is a bit melancholy about the whole affair, he seems to shrug it off. Much to his defense lawyer chagrin, he remarks that "at one time or another all normal people have wished their loved ones were dead" (65). Concerning his own death, while for he toys with the idea of caring for a long time, he comes to the apathetic conclusion that it doesn't really matter, because we will all die eventually:
"What did other people's deaths or a mother's love matter to me; what did God or the lives people chose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we're all elected by the same fate, me and billions of privileged people who call themselves my brothers?" (121)
But Camus isn't endorsing this nihilistic, "damn the world", nothing-matters attitude. On the contrary, he is attacking it, showing it to be soul-crushing and deadly. In a way, Mersault is dead long before he is actually sent to the guillotine, because he doesn't care to live anymore. His execution will simply be the realignment of his physical state with his spiritual state.
Additionally, the "senseless" murder of the Arab is another example in which the sacredness of life is cast aside. And certainly, this is a negative event, furthering the point that Camus actively sougt to expose the flaws of apathy. Mersault doesn't even have a reason to take somebody's life, but he does anyway, even more unsettling in its lack of logic. When we consider the racial implications of the incident and the focus of the ensuing trial, the commentary broadens to not only a condemnation of Mersault's indifference, but the indifference of the white world to the suffering of people of color -- their lack of interest in whether they live or die.
Camus is definitely critiquing indifference, highlighting how it ends up killing both Mersault and his victim. In the subplot with Raymond, he even goes so far as to say that indifference is ultimately impossible (Think about how Mersault inevitably is dragged onto a side, even though he doesn't really care about Raymond).
Finally, a shameless plug: If you're into this whole "life is sacred" creed, and your interested in the implications of knowing your time of death (i.e. the temporary revolution that Mersault's thinking undergoes when he knows that he will die soon), I recommend checking out the Saw franchise -- or at least the first one, before they begin to descend into the category of "torture porn." Valuing one's life is a central theme, and if Mersault certainly has the makings of a "victim" in the series ( the movies actually raise similar questions to that of Mersault's perceived victimization by the court system).
