Introduction
The Guest is a short story narrated by Albert Camus that mainly manifests the dilemma people often face in life. People constantly find themselves in difficult situations where they have to choose between contradicting options that place a test on individual integrity. In this story, Daru is faced with a moment where he has to choose between allowing the Arab an opportunity to escape. Despite being allowed Arab to choose, the prisoner settles on going to prison.
This paper analyzes Daru’s rationale in considering that Arabs should be facilitated to escape and why the prisoner chooses to go to jail. The short story seeks to explore the philosophy of existentialism as it relates to individual freedom, free will, choice, responsibility, and the search for the meaning and purpose of life.
Opportunity to Escape
The story is centered on three main characters: Daru, Balducci, and the Arab. Daru is the lead character who works as a schoolteacher and originates from the remote region of the Atlas Mountains in the French colony of Algeria (Camus). Balducci is much older than Daru and serves as a policeman, expected to maintain peace and order. Arab is a prisoner who is indicted for killing his cousin while they were engaged in a fight over grain.
The story focuses on the engagement between Daru and Arab, who met at Daru’s house in the Balducci company. From their initial contact, Daru was unsettled by the fact that Arab’s hands were tied together and requested the policeman to untie them. Balducci ignores his request and orders Daru to take Arab to prison.
Daru was perplexed by the order, considering that it was not his responsibility to handle prisoners. He intended to reside in the remote region to escape being involved in politics. However, the story is set during the colonial period, characterized by war, and Balducci explicitly required him to do as directed, as he had to attend to other duties.
Daru finds himself in a challenging situation upon learning of the circumstances leading to the arrest of the Arab. Balducci indicated that he had not been allowed adequate time to escort the Arab prisoner to the French authorities in Tinguit (Camus). He assigned Daru the responsibility of ensuring that the prisoner was delivered to the authorities as required. Daru feels apprehensive and considers the order not part of his responsibilities. He desired to avoid direct involvement in the case by meddling in the mess created. Accordingly, handing over the Arab from the policeman to Daru involved some difficult moments.
Daru wanted the prisoner to escape, so he left him alone in the classroom at night. Daru essentially acted out of solidarity and the desire to ensure the prisoner was free, given the extent of poverty in the society at the time. According to Henly and Angela, Daru’s actions can be considered an exercise of his conscience supported by empathy (56). He sympathized with Arabs, whom he considered should be allowed to enjoy their freedom and not be treated as criminals. He believed that Arabs deserved an opportunity to run away, given the societal challenges and political upheaval in the country.
The level of sympathy portrayed by Daru can be significantly connected to the liberal philosophy of French Algerians in general, who considered that the natives deserved to be liberated. Daru had developed a great attachment to the country where he served for a long time and regarded it as his true home. That is why the gendarme’s idea unsettled him, as he wished not to play a part in the imprisonment of the Arab since he genuinely could not authenticate whether he was guilty.
However, he found himself in a distinctive position as a classical liberal colonial member. He had to make a tough choice christened by the proverbial statement of being caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side, Daru appreciated that the native locals in Algeria faced challenging moments filled with anger and resentment toward the foreign and powerful French settlers occupying their territory. Despite being a French-born person, he considered imperialist practices unfair and unjustifiable.
Additionally, Daru considered that by facilitating the Arabs’s escape, he did not have to consider them innocent or deserving of a second chance. His perspective was that he was open to passing the blame to another person (Kahan 97). This informed his move to leave Arab alone in the classroom so that he could define his fate by escaping his motive.
The problem with his choice was that he failed to satisfy the expectations set by society. He did not believe in the capacity of people to set aside right from wrong or support the established practice of ensuring that wrongdoers are reprimanded. This pushed his failure to exercise responsibility and support the defined process. Somehow, he intended to escape societal blame by feigning his involvement in shaping Arab’s fate. The correctness of his move was that he acted by leaving the prisoner alone, which amounted to a decision.
His determination to ensure the prisoner did not run away was informed by the belief that he had no role to play in the criminal system. Daru neither served as a policeman nor a judge but was just a school teacher. Puchner suggests that Daru could have felt the need to be detached from society, given the challenges people encountered (87). He was privileged to live in a house with two rooms serving as his place of residence and classroom. Despite his seemingly poor living conditions, he still lived in much better conditions than most people at the time.
Why Not Escape?
Daru was relentless in his effort to allow the Arabs to choose to escape. After the police officer left, Daru left the prisoner alone in the classroom so that he could run away. He chose not to, as Daru found him in the same spot where he had left him. Afterward, they had a great chat, and Daru acted more friendly by even making a bed for Arab.
He hoped to escape at night, but that did not go as he intended. Even while escorting him to prison, Daru gave him food and a thousand francs, but Arab did not act as Daru had wanted. The Arab’s decision not to run away was based on realizing it would be futile. He knew that escaping the larger social and political problems plaguing the country was difficult.
Though Daru had felt sympathy for the prisoner and acted on that feeling, he found a message on the blackboard in his schoolroom upon returning, labeling him a traitor. Puchner uses metaphoric writing to suggest that, irrespective of reality, whatever choice a person makes, there is the possibility of facing the aftermath (45). At this moment, he felt alienated and felt the betrayal of trying to act in a way he considered good in an absurd world.
The feeling emanated from the expectation of the French government that he must be able to obey and follow orders given to him. He is being handed an obligation and had better fulfill that duty, even if it is a cold thought, such that if he declined, he would be considered a betrayer of the French authority. The contestation between the indigenous Algerians and the French reflected the same. The conflict depicted public life, where most decisions did not have a clear ending.
Conclusion
In summary, Daru allowed the prisoner adequate time to choose between sidestepping the law and joining some nomads or going to prison. The Arab prisoner had choices to make for himself. He even tried to recruit Daru to his cause, but Daru’s goal in life was to avoid such entanglements. The school teacher tried as hard as possible to give the prisoner ample time and the opportunity to flee, but he did not.
The step further depicts the free and illogical choices people are likely to make. The short story symbolizes the nonexistence of rationality in decision-making and that people can randomly assert their will. Still, it benefits society by creating values that people may not have. The same is exemplified by Daru’s decision not to escort Arab to prison.
Works Cited
Camus Albert. “The Guest.” The Atlantic, Web.
Henly, Carolyn P., and Angela Stancar Johnson. Literary Analysis for English Literature for the IB Diploma: Skills for Success. Hodder Education, 2019.
Kahan, Nancie. Characters & Connections: Engaging With Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing Literary Analysis. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Puchner, Martin. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.