Camus \"The Guest\" Schoolteacher Struggles

Camus "The Guest" schoolteacher struggles with the colonial paradigm in Albert Camus' "The Guest." Daru admits that Northern Africa was "cruel to live in," and the stark landscape of Algeria adds to the sense of alienation and isolation in the short story. He also perceives the oppressive power of the colonial French regime when Balducci arrives with the Arab and delivers Daru his "orders." Thus, Daru is instantly caught between blind obedience to the colonial government and his own conscience. As Daru develops a friendship with the Arab, he deepens his dilemma. Daru conveniently allows the Arab to choose for himself which path to take: adherence to societal rule, signified by the rigidly hierarchical police headquarters, or total freedom, signified aptly by the nomads who are trapped neither by rules nor by geography. Throughout "The Guest" Daru is shown to be caught between those two poles, as a Franch man isolated both from his own society and that of the indigenous Arabs.

The guest therefore symbolizes the breakdown of the colonial enterprise and the budding of self-determination in Northern Africa. Daru allowed the Arab to choose for himself which of the two courses to follow, indicating that the protagonist favored the rights of the individual over the rights of authority. At the same time, Daru did not openly encourage the Arab to escape. Adherence to societal rules must be dependent on the justness of those rules and in light of the crime the Arab had been accused of, Daru likely felt some obligation to law and order.