The Guest 

Albert Camus 
 

Author’s biography 

Albert Camus has set most of his fiction in Algeria where he was
born in 1913, the son of an agricultural worker. His father died in the
battle of the Marne and Camus grew up in surroundings scared by
poverty. His intelligence gained him a scholarship to the lycee`, and when
he entered the University of Algiers, he began his career as a philosopher.
One of the foremost thinkers and writers in the broad philosophical group
known as Existentialists, Camus has had the profound effect upon modern
thought. Equipped with a talent for lucid classical prose, he has expressed
his view of life and of modern man in essays, in plays, in novels and in
short stories. His Myth of Sisyphus is not only an expression of his early
philosophy, but also a good gloss on what remains his best novel, The
Stranger. His post war novel ‘The Plague’first brought into the attention
of Americans, and his most recent works, ‘The Fall and Exile’and
‘TheKingdom’have aroused international interest in his work. When he
received the Nobel Prize in 1957, Camus was in his early forties, one of
the youngest writers ever to be honored. In the words of Camus, “the
great novelists are philosophical novelists”90; and create their discourse
using “images instead of arguments”91. The versatile genius of Camus
abruptly came to an end by tragic death in a car accident.
                                                                         An Anthology of Short Stories : The Guest 

Shortly after the outbreak of WWI, when Camus was less than a
year old, his father was recalled to military service and on October 11,
1914, died of shrapnel wounds suffered at the first battle of the Marne. As
a child, about the only thing Camus ever learned about his father was that
he had once become violently ill after witnessing a public execution. This
anecdote, which surfaces in fictional form in the author’s novel
L’Etranger and which is also recounted in his philosophical essay
“Reflections on the Guillotine,” strongly affected Camus and influenced
his own lifelong opposition to the death penalty.

After his father’s death, Camus, his mother, and older brother
moved to Algiers where they lived with his maternal uncle and
grandmother in her cramped second-floor apartment in the working-class
district of Belcourt. Camus’ mother Catherine, who was illiterate, partially
deaf, and afflicted with a speech pathology, worked in an ammunition
factory and cleaned homes to help support the family. In his
posthumously published autobiographical novel The First Man, Camus
recalls this period of his life with a mixture of pain and affection as he
describes conditions of harsh poverty (the three-room apartment had no
bathroom, no electricity, and no running water) relieved by hunting trips,
family outings, childhood games, and scenic flashes of sun, seashore,
mountain, and desert.

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It was during his high school years that Camus became an avid
reader (absorbing Gide, Proust, Verlaine, and Bergson, among others),
learned Latin and English, and developed a lifelong interest in literature,
art, theatre, and film. He also enjoyed sports, especially soccer, of which
he once wrote (recalling his early experience as a goal-keeper): “I learned
. . . that a ball never arrives from the direction you expected it. That
helped me in later life, especially in mainland France, where nobody
plays straight.”92 It was also during this period that Camus suffered his
first serious attack of tuberculosis, a disease that was to afflict him, on and
off, throughout his career.

By the time he finished his Baccalauréat degree (June, 1932),

Camus was already contributing articles to Sud, a literary monthly, and
looking forward to a career in journalism, the arts, or higher education.
The next four years (1933-37) were an especially busy period in his life,
during which he attended college, worked at odd jobs, married his first
wife (Simone Hié), divorced, briefly joined the Communist party, and
effectively began his professional theatrical and writing career. Among
his various employments during the time were stints of routine office
work (one job consisted of a Bartleby-like recording and sifting of
meteorological data; another involved paper-shuffling in an auto license
bureau), and one can well imagine that it was during this period that his
famous conceptions of Sisyphean struggle and of heroic defiance in the
face of the Absurd first began to take shape within his imagination.

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In 1933 Camus enrolled at the University of Algiers to pursue his

diplome d’etudes superieures, specializing in philosophy and gaining
certificates in sociology and psychology along the way. In 1936 he
became a co-founder along with a group of young fellow intellectuals of
the Théâtre du Travail, a professional acting company specializing in
drama with left-wing political themes. Camus served the company as both
an actor and director and also contributed scripts, including his first
published play Revolt in Asturia, a drama based on an ill-fated workers’
revolt during the Spanish Civil War. That same year Camus also earned
his degree and completed his dissertation, a study of the influence of
Plotinus and neo-Platonism on the thought and writings of St. Augustine.

Over the next three years Camus further established himself as an

emerging author, journalist, and theatre professional. After his
disillusionment with and eventual expulsion from the Communist Party,
he reorganized his dramatic company and renamed it the Théâtre de
l’Equipe (literally the Theater of the Team). The name change signaled a
new emphasis on classic drama and avant-garde aesthetics and a shift
away from labor politics and agitprop. In 1938 he joined the staff of a new
daily newspaper, the AlgerRépublicain, where his assignments as a
reporter and reviewer covered everything from contemporary European
literature to local political trials. It was during this period that he also
published his first two literary works – L’Envers et l’endroit (Betwixt and
Between), a collection of five short semi-autobiographical and
philosophical pieces (1937) and Noces (Nuptials), a series of lyrical

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celebrations interspersed with wistful political and philosophical

reflections on North Africa and the Mediterranean.

The 1940’s witnessed Camus’ gradual ascendance to the rank of

world-class literary intellectual. He started the decade as a locally
acclaimed author and playwright, but a figure virtually unknown outside
the city of Algiers. He ended it as an internationally recognized novelist,
dramatist, journalist, philosophical essayist, and champion of freedom.
This period of his life began inauspiciously – war in Europe, the
occupation of France, official censorship, and a widening crackdown on
left-wing journals. Camus was still without stable employment or steady
income when, after marrying his second wife, Francine Faure, in
December of 1940, he departed Lyons, where he had been working as a
journalist, and returned to Algeria. To help make ends meet, he taught
part-time (French history and geography) at a private school in Oran. All
the while he was putting finishing touches to his first novel L’Etranger
(The Stranger), which was finally published in 1942 to favorable critical
response, including a lengthy and penetrating review by Jean-Paul Sartre.
The novel propelled him into immediate literary renown.

In the fall of 1957, following publication of L’Exil et le Royaume

(Exile and the Kingdom), a collection of short fiction, Camus was shocked
by news that he had been awarded the Nobel prize for literature. He
absorbed the announcement with mixed feelings of gratitude, humility,

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and amazement. On the one hand, the award was obviously a tremendous
honour. On the other, not only did he feel that his friend and esteemed
fellow novelist Andre Malraux was more deserving, he was also aware
that the Nobel itself was widely regarded as the kind of accolade usually
given to artists at the end of a long career. Yet, as he indicated in his
acceptance speech at Stockholm, he considered his own career as still in
mid-flight, with much yet to accomplish and even greater writing
challenges ahead:

Upon hearing of Camus’ death, Sartre wrote a moving eulogy in the

France-Observateur, saluting his former friend and political adversary not
only for his distinguished contributions to French literature but especially
for the heroic moral courage and “stubborn humanism” which he brought
to bear against the massive and deformed events of the day.

. Camus envisions the universe as silent and indifferent. Despite

this indifference, human beings must survive. They continue to built

meaning and pursue certainty, even though such aims are impossible. This
combination of a godless, uncaring world and human starving leads to a
condition that Camus dubs ‘the absurd’. He writes, “The absurd is born of
this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence
of the world”93.

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Although it might sound pretty depressing to live in an inescapable

state of ‘the absurd’, Camus feels that this is the only way we can exist.
One must continue striving, choosing and pursuing freedom, even though
the universe does not care whether we live or die. In the face of ambiguity
and uncertainty, one must act with an absurd confident. One must choose
anyway, else falls into despair.

‘The Guest’ ­ Plot Summary 

‘The Guest’ (L’Hote) is a small story which can usually be found in

a compilation of Camus’ work or in a world literature anthology. The
French title ‘L’Hote’ translates into both ‘the guest’ and ‘the host’ which
ties back to the relationship between the main characters of the story.
Camus employs this short tale to reflect upon issues raise by the political
situation in French North Africa. In particular, he explores the problem of
refusing to take sides in the colonial conflict in Algeria, something that
mirrors Camus’ own non-aligned stance.

‘The Guest’ chronicles the moral conflict of Daru, a school teacher

assign to guard and transport an Arab prisoner. The protagonist of ‘The
Guest’ is Daru, an Algerian-born French school teacher posted to a remote
schoolhouse in a bleak Algerian mountain region in the late nineteen
forties, at the outset of the conflict between Algerian nationalist and
French colonialists - --- a conflict that would eventually end with the
independence of Algeria from France. Without any students, Daru has

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been isolated and lonely. One day, a gendarme named Balducci brings an
Arab prisoner to the schoolhouse. He explains that the man has been
accused of the murder of his cousin and asks Daru to keep the prisoner
overnight and deliver him to the police headquarters in Tinguit the next
day. Although Daru refuses the responsibility, Balducci leaves the
prisoner with him. Daru unshackles the prisoner, makes him tea, prepares
dinner, and sets up a comfortable bed for him. At first hostile to the man –
he perceives him to be not only a murder but an Algerian insurgent---- he
begins to soften and the two man form an easygoing intimacy. The next
morning, over breakfast, Daru is faced with an important moral dilemma:
should he do his duty by turning in the Arab prisoner or let him escape for
the sake of brotherhood and friendship? At the cross roads Daru allows
the prisoner to choose between captivity or freedom when he leaves him
alone on a forked road--- one direction leads to the police headquarters,
the other leads south to the nomads in the desert. As Daru watches, the
prisoner chooses the road to police headquarters with a heavy heart, he
returns to his schoolhouse and finds a threatening message on the
blackboard: “You handed over our brother. You will pay for this”94.

The Guest – Critical Appreciation 

Existentialism

Camus is often classified as an existentialist writer, and it is easy to

see why affinities with Kierkegaard and Sartre are patent. He shares with
these philosophers (and with the other major writers in the existentialist
tradition, from Augustine and Pascal to Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche) and

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habitual and intense interest in the active human psyche, in the life of
conscience or spirit as it is actually experienced and lived. Like these
writers, he aims at nothing less than a thorough, candid exegesis of the
human condition, and like them he exhibits not just a philosophical
attraction but also a personal commitment to such values as individualism,
free choice, inner strength, authenticity, personal responsibility, and self-
determination.

However, one troublesome fact remains: throughout his career

Camus repeatedly denied that he was an existentialist. Was this an
accurate and honest self-assessment? On the one hand, some critics have
questioned this “denial”95 (using the term almost in its modern clinical
sense), attributing it to the celebrated Sartre-Camus political “feud” or to a
certain stubbornness or even contrariness on Camus’ part. In their view,
Camus qualifies as, at minimum, a closet existentialist, and in certain
respects (e.g., in his unconditional and passionate concern for the
individual) as an even truer specimen of the type than Sartre himself.

On the other hand, besides his personal rejection of the label, there
appear to be solid reasons for challenging the claim that Camus is an
existentialist. For one thing, it is noteworthy that he never showed much
interest in (indeed he largely avoided) metaphysical and ontological
questions (the philosophical raison d’etre and bread and butter of
Heidegger and Sartre). Of course there is no rule that says an existentialist

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must be a metaphysician. However, Camus’ seeming aversion to technical

philosophical discussion does suggest one way in which he distanced
himself from contemporary existentialist thought.

Another point of divergence is that Camus seems to have regarded

existentialism as a complete and systematic world-view, that is, a fully
articulated doctrine. In his view, to be a true existentialist one had to
commit to the entire doctrine (and not merely to bits and pieces of it), and
this was apparently something he was unwilling to do.

Yet a further point of separation, and possibly a decisive one, is that

Camus actively challenged and set himself apart from the existentialist
motto that being precedes essence. Ultimately, against Sartre in particular
and existentialists in general, he clings to his instinctive belief in a
common human nature. In his view human existence necessarily includes
an essential core element of dignity and value, and in this respect he
seems surprisingly closer to the humanist tradition from Aristotle to Kant
than to the modern tradition of scepticism and relativism from Nietzsche
to Derrida (the latter his fellow-countryman and, at least in his
commitment to human rights and opposition to the death penalty, his
spiritual successor and descendant).

Critics identify loneliness and alienation as central themes in “The

Guest”. Daru’s isolation --- both geographical and emotional --- results in

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his contact with the Arab prisoner becoming a turning point in his
understanding of self. Exile is another major theme; thrust into an
untenable situation despite his reservations, Daru is forced to make an
impossible moral choice, and he finds himself in exile in his own home.
Daru’s choice is often viewed as conflict between his feelings of
brotherhood and respect for authority. Commentators also view Daru as
representative of a repressive colonial regime that is destined to be
replaced by indigenous authority through violence. They also maintain
that “The Guest” explores the existential and metaphysical issue of
whether justice and freedom ---- as well as solitude and solidarity---- will
ever be compatible. Critics perceive the story to be an examination of
man’s moral responsibility for the fate of his fellow man and man’s
inhumanity to man in the name of duty and honour. The changing inter
dynamic between Daru and the Arab prisoner is traced, as critics note that
what begins as a captive-captor relationship turns into a guest-host
relationship.

“The Guest” is viewed by critics as metaphysical parable about the

human condition and one of Camus’ most enigmatic fictional works.
Many commentators have focused on the uneasy conclusion of the story,
which leaves the reader to reflect on Daru’s moral conflict with the Arab
prisoner and what it will cost him in the end. Others have analyzed the
baffling decision of the Arab to turn himself in instead of escaping to the
south. Most critics contend that the lack of insights into the Arab’s motive
and the ambiguous ending only deepens the mystery of the story. Several
commentators have discussed autobiographical elements of “The Guest”:

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Camus was a French Algerian, had empathy for the Arab Algerians, and
became deeply involved in the intellectual debate over the French-
Algerian conflict. A few critics have examined the story in the light of the
ritual of hospitality, which is so imperative in Arab culture. In fact, it has
been noted that the title of the story in French, “L’Hote” means both guest
and host, signalling ambiguous configuration of power in the guest-host
relationship and in the colonial situation.

Major Themes

The major theme of “The Guest” is that decision and choices have
consequences and the ultimate consequence of death is not a result only
by chance, but by the fact that everyone will eventually die and that life
does not matter after you die. This piece is characteristics of
Existentialism, the prevalent school of thought among the era’s literati. It
also presents Camus’ concept of Absurdism, as well as many examples of
human choices. The dilemmas face by Daru are often seen as representing
the dilemma faced by Camus regarding the Algerian crisis and there are
many similarities between the character of Daru and his creator Camus.
Both are French Algerians exiled by the choices they have made. The
main themes of “The Guest” are of choice and accountability. Camus
emphasizes, characteristically of existentialist philosophy, that there is
always a choice, that the only choice unavailable is not to choose. Daru
chooses how he will handle Balducci and whether he will turn in the
prisoner; the prisoner chooses whether to go to jail or to freedom. More
important, however, is the theme of accountability. The essence of
Camus’ philosophy is that everyone is “condemned” to an eventual,

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inevitable death and accepting this allows for a certain freedom; the
prisoner, having achieved self awareness when Daru gave him the choice
to flee or go to jail, realizes the futility of fleeing from the inevitable
punishment and goes willingly to jail, thus revolting against the inevitable
by making the decision of his own accord and holding himself
accountable for the murder.

“He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but who has
hope for it is a fool”95. As this quote by Albert Camus suggests, he was
not a very optimistic writer. His gloomy loop on life itself can be seen all
too clearly in ‘The Guest’. The story itself deals with Camus idea of the
futility of human existence: the only rational thing anyone can expect is
death.

Camus’ underlying philosophy is revealed from the very beginning

of the story. The story begins on an auspicious note with the introduction
of Daru, a teacher who chooses to work in an isolated school in the
Algerian desert to embrace an ascetic life. Daru is content with the
simplistic, rural lifestyle. Daru is an idealistic teacher who believes in just
causes and free will. Undoubtedly, Camus wrote this story out of affection
for his teacher, Jean Grenier. Without Grenier, Camus would never have
developed his political and philosophical ideas.

In contrasts, a French police officer stationed in Algeria, Balducci

first appears trailing an Arab prisoner behind him. When Balducci orders

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Daru to lead the prisoner to the Tinguit jail, a clear distinction between
their attitudes is revealed. Balducci is one to follow his orders, neither
questioning nor disapproving of any decision by the authorities. Daru, on
other hand, is torn by his own conscience; he will be sentencing a man to
death if he follows orders.

The Arab prisoner appears to be reserved; it seems that either he

does not understand the questions posed by Daru, or he feels insulted by
the comments. When Daru asks the prisoner whether he was afraid, he
replies by turning his eyes awake. When Daru asks whether he is sorry for
the crime he has committed, the Arab stairs at him as if he does not
comprehend rewards. However, he fully understands the situation that he
is in, thus showing that it is Daru who cannot comprehend why the Arab
has murdered his cousin.

The history of this racial conflict dates back to when the French
first colonized Algeria. Algeria has undergone many years of ethnic
strive; the French, though they are the minority, dominate the large Arab
population. This clash is further exacerbated by the lack of cultural
understanding between the two groups. Daru cannot fathom a plausible
reason for murdering a cousin over a debt of grain. Upon hearing of the
crime, he feels “a sudden wroth against the man, against all man with
their rotten spite, their tireless hates, their blood lusts”96. What he has not
taken into account is that it may be perfectly acceptable to the Arab to kill
a relative rather than loose his honour. Islamic law leaves private (family)
matters alone, but the French view their system as innately superior.
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Growing up in post-colonized Algeria, Camus was heavily

influenced by the conflict between the Europeans and the Arabs. He was
torn within himself: he sympathized with the Muslim population, yet he
was unable to forego his ties to the French. Though he supported pacifism
as an end to racially– driven conflict, he could not imagine an Algeria
without France. His love for Algeria as a greater part of France can be
seen in “The Guest” in moments such as when Daru is teaching French
geography even in a country that seems to distant to have a connection
with Europeans. This is one of the major reasons conflicts occurred in
colonized Algeria: the lack of cross-cultural understanding.

The Arab’s cultural identity is evident not only in his crime, but in
his actions later that night. Daru believes that the prisoner has run away
from the school, and silently hopes that this will free his conscience: “He
was amazed at the unmixed joy that he derived from the mere thought that
the Arab might have fled and that he would be alone with no decision to
make” 97.

The Arab, however, has only gone out to use the outhouse, and
returns immediately. Arabic society has taught the prisoner that running
away would not only be a cowardly act but also a disgraceful one.

Honour is thus one of the most important themes in the story. As a

soldier, Balducci follows the code prescribed to him by the authorities: he
is indifferent about whether a prisoner lives or dies. Daru, on the other

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hand, cannot betray his own upbringing, and feels that it is unthinkable to
sentence a man to his death. In the end, although each character ultimately
tries to make the best choice in the harsh situation he finds himself in, the
results are not what they expect. Balducci becomes a slave to the colonial
state, performing deeds that are not morally upright. Even when given a
choice to run away or face a trial that will likely result in his death, the
Arab decides to face the police. The ultimate irony, however, happens to
Daru, who is only trying to free himself from his guilt. He believes that he
has made right choice in giving the prisoner control over his own fate. It
was righteous thing to do, even though the Arab was intent on accepting
his punishment. As he enters the classroom, he notices the words hastily
written on the chalkboard: “You handed over our brother. You will pay for
this”98.

To understand Camus’ philosophy, it is essential to first

comprehend his political beliefs. Though he fervently denied this claim,
many critics have nonetheless labelled him as existentialist. This
philosophy, first coined by Jean-Paul Sartre in his early works, is a
difficult concept to comprehend. Sartre argues that “there is no reality
except in action… humans are nothing more than the ensemble of their
acts”99. In essence, existentialism states that though humans have free will
and are ultimately responsible for their actions, their innate nature will
always lead to futility.

According to Sartre’s perceptive appraisal, Camus was less a

novelist than a writer of philosophical tales and parables in the tradition of
Voltaire. This assessment accords with Camus’ own judgment that his
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fictional works were not true novels (Fr. romans), a form he associated
with the densely populated and richly detailed social panoramas of writers
like Balzac, Tolstoy, and Proust, but rather contes (“tales”) and recits
(“narratives”) combining philosophical and psychological insights.

In this respect, it is also worth noting that at no time in his career

did Camus ever describe himself as a deep thinker or lay claim to the title
of philosopher. Instead, he nearly always referred to himself simply, yet
proudly, as unecrivain – a writer. This is an important fact to keep in mind
when assessing his place in intellectual history and in twentieth-century
philosophy. For by no means does he qualify as a system-builder or
theorist or even as a disciplined thinker. He was instead (and here again
Sartre’s assessment is astute) a sort of all-purpose critic and modern-day
philosophe: a debunker of mythologies, a critic of fraud and superstition,
an enemy of terror, a voice of reason and compassion, and an outspoken
defender of freedom – all in all a figure very much in the Enlightenment
tradition of Voltaire and Diderot. For this reason, in assessing Camus’
career and work, it may be best simply to take him at his own word and
characterize him first and foremost as a writer – advisedly attaching the
epithet philosophical for sharper accuracy and definition.

Self-Determination

Until the arrival of Balducci and the Arab, Daru bowed to the will
of the French government. First, he accepted a teaching job on a lonely
plateau in the Atlas Mountains even though he wanted a post in a foothills
village with an ideal climate. Then, as a schoolmaster, he served as an
agent of the French government, teaching native children about France

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even though their families generally opposed foreign rule. The blackboard
drawing of the rivers of France illustrates this point. But after authorities
in El Ameur order him to escort an Arab prisoner to the police station in
Tinguit, Daru refuses to cooperate. His decision to defy officialdom arises
from an awakened awareness in himself of an independent spirit, alluded
to when Balducci tells him, "Tuas toujours été un peu fêlé"100 ("You have
always been a little crazy"). To be a man—to be fully human—Daru must
begin to control his own destiny according to the dictates of his
conscience. The arbitrary mandates of Balducci and his superiors no
longer hold sway. Daru's life has meaning only if he rebels against
authority and does what he believes is morally acceptable to him. He
begins his new life of self-determination by treating the Arab humanely
and allowing him also to choose his own destiny.

Isolation and Loneliness

Life imposes isolation and loneliness on Daru via the following:

1.His position in society as a citizen of France and resident of

Algeria. Siding with either country in a time of upheaval would
single him out for retaliation. Thus, he exists in a limbo of
....alienation.

2. His decision to ignore the French order to turn in the Arab

prisoner at the police station in Tinguit. His action invites the wrath
of the French. At the same time, his agreement to take ....custody of
the prisoner risks retaliation from the villagers who support the
prisoner. The penultimate sentence of the story sums up Daru's

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predicament: Daru regardait le ciel, le ....plateau et, au-delà, les

terres invisibles qui s'étendaient jusqu'à la mer. (Daru observed the
sky, the plateau and, beyond, the invisible landscape stretching to
the sea.)

3. His desolate surroundings. He teaches at a school on a plateau

high in the Atlas Mountains. He has no next-door neighbours.
There are no taverns, theatres, or markets nearby.

Injustice of Colonialism

Between 1500 and 1900, European powers subdued and occupied

other nations to exploit them economically, politically, and strategically.
Portugal, Britain, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and France
were among the countries that gained control of parts or all of other
nations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Native populations eventually
rose up against their occupiers—sometimes peacefully, as in the Gandhi-
led uprising in India against the British—but usually violently, as in the
Algerian rebellion against the French. "The Guest" is in part an indictment
of the French occupation of Algeria. Even Balducci, a willing cat's-paw of
the government, acknowledges that he has mistreated the natives: "Mettre
une corde à un homme, malgré les années, on ne s'y habitue pas et même,
oui, on a honte" ("Putting a rope around a man's neck, in spite of years of
doing it, well, I can't get used to it. Yes, I am even ashamed."101)

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"The Guest" as a Statement of Camus' Philosophy 

As an atheist, Camus believed that the world was absurd and

meaningless, as he argued in his 1942 essay, "Le mythe de sisyphe" ("The
Myth of Sisyphus"). However, he later altered his opinion, asserting that a
human being can give meaning to his life through self-determination,
especially when exercised in humane causes. What a person must do is to
make his own free and independent decisions outside the bounds of the
herd mentality; he must become a rebel. According to Camus, a rebel is a
person who opposes injustice and oppression while treating the
downtrodden with compassion. In "The Guest," Daru acts out Camus'
views, deciding to defy authorities at El Ameur and to treat the Arab with
dignity and respect. After rejecting the colonial government's dictums, he
allows the Arab to decide his own fate. Camus' world is thus a world of
free choices, of decisions that define a person. It is also a world of
alienation, for the decisions that define a person isolate him from the
masses that abide by the status consciousness. The idea that free and
independent choices can make a person's life meaningful in a meaningless
world is an expression of existentialism, a philosophical movement.

Climax

The climax occurs when Daru decides to release his prisoner. This
decision becomes his personal declaration of independence from the
authority of the state. It also provides the Arab an opportunity to choose
his own fate.

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The Second Prisoner

After the Arab prisoner arrives, Daru realizes that he too is a

prisoner—of the French authorities who gave him his job, of the barren
environment where the French placed him, and of his own willingness to
accept his lot without protest. This realization causes Daru to take the first
step toward freeing himself: He refuses to carry out the order to escort the
Arab to Tinguit and turn him in there to the French police.

The Third Prisoner

The old gendarme Balducci is a prisoner of lockstep obedience to

French authority. When he receives an order, he believes it is his duty to
execute it without questioning it. He expects Daru to do the same.

Symbols

The following appear to be significant symbols in the story:

Blackboard drawing of the rivers of France, symbolizing French

colonialism. The drawing suggests that learning about the rivers of France
is more important to the children of Algeria than learning about the
geography of their own country.

Untying the prisoner's hands, symbolizing a step Daru takes toward

freeing himself from bondage to the ideas of others. When he unbinds the
prisoner, Daru begins the process of his philosophical revolt against
French authorities.

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Desolate mountain plateau, symbolizing Daru's isolation as an Algerian-

born Frenchman caught between belligerent factions. The vast barren
landscape (l'immense étendue du haut plateau désert) may also represent
the emotional emptiness resulting from the author's rejection of belief in
God.

The Problem With "Moral" Atheism: An Opinion

Camus, an atheist, was said to be a humble man who fought for

what he and his supporters deemed noble causes, postulating a secular
morality that required him to oppose oppression and injustice. However,
his ideology had no adequate explanation for how a moral system can
exist without an ultimate arbiter (supreme being). Denial of the existence
of such an arbiter enables a person—or a group of persons, including a
government—to claim the power of deciding what is right or wrong.
Thus, if an atheistic dictator authorizes ethnic cleansing, slavery, or
oppressive colonialism, he can enforce his policies as morally right—
simply because he says they are right. Or if an atheistic citizen decides to
embezzle money, slander his neighbour, or sexually abuse a child, he can
justify his actions to himself on grounds that no absolute moral code
exists that prohibits these actions. His only concern is to prevent
discovery of his actions by others who subscribe to an absolute moral
code. Some societies that ignore or deny the existence of an immutable,
overriding moral code have invested citizens with the power to determine
morality via the ballot box or via elected representatives. Thus, decisions
on moral and ethical issues such as human cloning, abortion, and the use

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of torture by the military depend on the whims of the electorate.

In the world of Camus, a person can attempt to give meaning and

nobility to his life through decisive, even rebellious, action to counteract
immoral activity. But without an ultimate arbiter, there is no morality or
immorality. One ends up confronting the witches' paradox in
Shakespeare's Macbeth: "fair is foul, and foul is fair." 102

Twentieth Century View 

Uncle Buster in his ‘Individual Anarchy in Albert Camus’ short

story ‘The Guest’’ writes: It is my firm belief that the individual is the key
to understanding human existence; further, anarchy is the key to living
human existence. I call it Individual Anarchism. After all, in the view of
society, is there anything more chaotic than for one single person simply
to be himself? And is there any more individual philosophy within the
theories of politics than to say that there is no need for government?

I have thought about anarchism for some time, but I could not
see how it could really work. It always seemed that mankind and the
world would have to have an epiphany or Utopic conversion before
people could be free of government and societal restrictions. Then I read
a small story by Albert Camus called "The Guest". It did not really seem
to say anything novel to the world which it addressed; however, it did say
something novel to me. It opened my eyes and allowed me to understand
that Anarchy is personal; it is not a collective possibility. It rests upon the
idea of a person acting within a sphere where his existence is not intrusive

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upon the existence of another human being unless invited to be so.

Should a person find that he has unlimitedly trespassed upon the serenity
of another, Individual Anarchy points that man toward accepting the
responsibility for his own actions while not condemning the failure of
others to own up to the things they may have done wrong.

For example, the very fact that Daru has separated himself from
society by taking the teaching post in the desert demonstrates the idea of
Individualism. He must free himself from the constraints of a smothering
civilization by moving to a region which is completely open, bounded
only by the horizon and the sky. Camus wishes to show that only when a
man realizes that he can be distinct and separate from the whole of
humanity is he capable of becoming whole within himself.

The forcing of the prisoner into Daru's care shows the unwanted
and unrequested obligations which governments thrust upon individuals.
When Balducci tells him that he must take the Arab to the prison in
Tinguit, the teacher can hardly believe the officer is telling him the truth.

After he realizes that the people in power expect him to follow

their orders, Daru is almost Cain-like in his objection, "'The orders? I'm
not... I mean, that's not my job'". Certainly, such a reply does remind the
reader of Cain's reply to God after the murder of Abel: "I am not my
brother's keeper." However, this is not the intent of Camus. Daru is not
the killer; the Arab is the one who has committed murder. It would be

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more appropriate to consider Daru as Seth, the new brother who has too
allow Cain to live out his guilt and punishment.

Furthermore, Camus clearly shows the importance of an

individual being invited into another person's life rather than imposing
himself or his beliefs on someone else. This is seen in the request of the
Arab to Daru to accompany him to Tinguit. Daru does not wish to take
the prisoner because he feels it to be dishonourable; however, he
reconsiders when the Arab asks him to come, Camus writes,

The Arab didn't move. He called to Daru:

"Tell me!"

The schoolmaster looked at him.

"Is the gendarme coming back tomorrow?"

"I don't know."

"Are you coming with us?"

"I don't know, why?"

...The Arab opened his eyes under the blinding light and

looked at him...

"Come with us," he said.

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Obviously, the author intends that people should be careful not to

manipulate others or seek to manipulate them. A person should wait until
asked, by word or sign, before getting involved in the fate of another.

Above all, Camus demonstrates how the Individual can

demonstrate to others the general truths of Individual Anarchy. By
recognizing that he does not have the moral power to judge another, Daru
trusts that the Arab will not kill him. This fulfills his job as teacher, for it
gives to the prisoner the opportunity to learn how to treat other human
beings.

Moreover, when Daru takes the Arab into the desert and gives
him the choice of running away from his trespass or accepting the
responsibility of his actions, the reader is asked to ponder what might
happen when society quits shoving its judgements on a person's shoulders
and allows him to pick up and carry his own cross.

I realize that in "The Guest" Albert Camus does not specifically

say anything about the Individual Anarchy I would like to clarify in my
own mind. Yet the author opens within me channels and connections of
thought I had been unable to pull together before. This is true even
though much of what I see now has always been present in my spiritual
and philosophic research. However, the last piece of the Puzzle, the one
which had fallen under the table, if not the hardest to fit into place, is

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always the most rewarding to find. Maybe that is because Truth is its own
reward.

At any rate, having finished the puzzle and having looked at it for a
while, I must now unscrammable it and put it back together again. So
strange that the Labors of Sissyphus is so much fun. Still, each time I
look at the pieces, crying out to be put together, they seem so different.
Indeed, they have fallen in a whole new pattern which I am seeing for the
very first time. What matter that they lead to the same end?

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