The environment in which the narrative takes topographic point produces a feeling of isolation and purdah. The school house which Daru Teachs at is on top of a tableland by itself in the cold mountains. It is rather a distance from anything else and Daru likes this ; the narrative says ” he who lives about like a monastic in his remote schoolhouse, however satisfied with the small he had and the unsmooth life, had felt like a lordaˆ¦ ” . The isolation of the school house helps to exemplify how every individual is truly isolated from everybody else, but in this they have the ability to be satisfied with their being, harmonizing to Camus ‘ doctrine.

Daru the supporter of the narrative is an enigma. There are no deficits of accounts to what he stands for:

aˆ¦To some critics he is an experiential hero who ‘demonstrates a manner of life and of being-with-others that stands in blunt contrast to the blood rage that has begun to catch the country’aˆ¦To others he is an agent of Gallic subjugation who dramatizes ‘the indispensable ideological underpinnings of colonialism- racism and ethnocentrism’aˆ¦And still to others he is something in between, and everyman who will decease ‘not for holding betrayed anyone, but as Pascal says, for been born on the other side of the river ‘ ( Muhlestein 223 )

All these different positions show how absurd Daru is. He is in changeless struggle throughout the narrative. These struggles illustrate the battle for one ‘s free will. Daru resists collaborating with Balducci when he asks him to present the captive, because it is non his occupation, but Balducci says that it is a clip of war so he must take on more duty to back up the sate he is in. This helps to demo how adult male can fight to be free but there will ever be a force overmastering him. In the narrative it is the province of France at war, in life it is the human being at war with his desperation.

Daru besides advocates for adult male ‘s freedom with his interaction with the Arab he is supposed to reassign to patrol central offices so he could be prosecuted for slaying. When the Arab and Balducci foremost arrive and are about to hold some tea, Daru is concerned with the Arab being edge and asks if could be untied. When Daru asks what the adult male has done Balducci says he killed his cousin in “ a household bicker ” . He farther states that “ they ” were concealing him so it took a month to happen him. The “ they ” that were concealing him was most likely his family. This can demo that the slaying he did was justified but he was arrested non harmonizing to the Arab justness that he lives by but was accused by French colonial jurisprudence. Camus writes “ Balducci made the gesture of pulling a blade across his pharynx and the Arab, his attending attracted, watched him with a kind of anxiousness. Daru felt a sudden wrath against the adult male, against all work forces with their icky malice, their tireless hatreds, their blood lecherousness. ” A speedy reading of this and one would presume that Daru was disgusted with that Arab, but a closer reading shows that he was speaking about Balducci. It seems Daru understood the motivation for the Arabs actions and realized that he is non truly guilty at all merely misunderstood. Since he could non talk French he could non warrant himself. This is a great fable of how adult male is soundless before the universe that he exists apart of, seeking to be free and merely but is condemned by his being.

Daru does non desire to reprobate the adult male, so he does non adhere the Arab and gives him plentifulness of chances to get away, trusting that he does. The Arab garbages to go forth. Daru treats him decently and lets him kip in his ain bed. It seems that Daru is the lone 1 that still sees that Arab as human. During the dark the Arab gets up and Daru hopes that he is running off but so comes back to bed, and subsequently Daru hears footfalls in the school house but so he concludes that he is woolgathering. Daru does non desire to take the responsibly of holding this adult male killed. Daru believes that by allowing the Arab do his ain pick he has “ settled his scruples ” ( Minor and Brackenridge 79 )

Many readers have a more derogatory reading of the Arab. There are many different thoughts on him including him being “ a primitive, brutalized, slightly dull or even simple character ” ( Griem 95 ) . If the actions of the Arab are interpreted in consideration of his background so he seems to be rather the honest adult male, and his action merely seem absurd when looked from the position of Daru. First Lashkar-e-Taiba ‘s expression at the ground why he killed his cousin. When Daru asks him why, he says “ he ran off. I ran after him. ” To the western person this seems like premeditated slaying, but:

aˆ¦what can we do of this answer if we try to take it earnestly? Could it be that the cousin ‘s act of running off, alternatively of taking full duty in the household bicker over a debt of grain, constitutes the complete loss of his award, and a terrible hurt to the household award every bit good, in his ain autochthonal civilization? And could it be that the captive, in running after him ( perchance because he was the first to detect, or the one with the best starting place as chaser ) , and so killing him, was simply moving in conformity with his ain tribal usage? ( 2 ) ( Griem 95 )

When it is seen from this position, the Arab did the right thing seting his cousin to decease. We can now understand the ground he does non run off is because he refuses to be like his cousin and desert when false accusals are made toward him. The moral understand for the Arab is different than the universe he is now in, and this isolates him because he does non understand what he did was incorrectly. When Daru asks him is he sorry for what he did he answers with a stare. “ aˆ¦should he experience regretful about the violent death if it was the honest thing to make? To him, under the fortunes, sorrow is a absolutely incongruous, nonmeaningful sort of response. ” ( Griem 95 ) . The stare that the Arab gives Daru is non a response of stupidity or ignorance ; he is merely seeking to calculate out the intent of, what to him was, and unsuitable inquiry. Ultimately this head set leads to his decease, because he does non understand that in the Gallic head, he is evil. He goes to the constabulary central offices expect to hold a just test and be found non guilty. If the Arab ran off and became sheltered with the travellers so he would see himself and the coward and condemnable. Griem agrees with this stating “ Daru ‘s hospitable, honest intervention of the captive seems to hold struck a chord in him so that his autochthonal codification of award asserts itself in an automatic response, despite Daru ‘s deficiency of apprehension of other parts of his cultural individuality. ” This moral tenseness causes hurt for Camus characters.

The Short narrative, The Guest, is a great manner to understand Camus effort to pass on the isolation that human experience at bosom, his thought of absurdness and a sense of moral hurt. These are shown through the environment of the narrative, the characters Daru and the Arab, and the relationship between them.