The importance of the environment in Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and The Stranger by Albert Camus According to John Locke, people begin their lives with a table shave and are nourished by their environment. and contact with others, also known as Tabula Rasa (Landry). In Herman Hesse's Siddhartha and Albert Camus's The Stranger, Siddhartha and Meursault, respectively, affect this concept of Tabula Rasa, which makes each man what he ultimately becomes. Part of this theory is that a change in location can and will change who a person becomes. In conjunction with his own unhappiness and the opinions of others around him, Siddhartha moves from place to place in the novel in a cyclical movement..