Daru's Integrity In Albert Camus The Guest

Albert Camus’s novel, The Stranger is regarded to the philosophical ideas of Existentialism, yet seems to also incorporate Absurdist tenets throughout the book that show ideals of being a unique type of individual with different actions that society disagrees with.

My purpose on earth is to bring peace and happiness. As of 2015, this world is the opposite of peaceful. Many people are being killed just to get education, kids are in poverty, and a plethora of international terrorism’s Martin

In life when you're in difficult situations, you sometimes tend to get stuck with which decisions you want to make. The decisions can be good or bad but sometimes you also let what the environment around help make the decision. No matter what you choose it can lead to some consequences. In the story The Guest by Albert Camus, the setting is placed during the time of the Franco-Algerian War (1954–62) in which two characters faced the possession of an Arab prisoner. During the time of the war, you either had to choose to be on the French or Arabian side. With this in mind, Daru faced a conflict with the prisoner because of how he was technically on both sides; he was french born but taught Arabian students. Both dealt with the prisoner differently.

Daru informed the Arab about existed choices and did not try to show him that one of them would be more honorable than the other .However, the teacher wished the man to stay away from French officials. “Daru with heavy heart made out the Arab walking slowly on the road to prison” (Camus 11). Words “with heavy heart” highlighted the man wanted Arab to choose the road to nomads. The sentence could show that Daru was more on Algerian than the French side in the conflict in spite of his pursuance of neutrality. Teacher’s attitude was highlighted by the Arab’s behavior. Daru treated apprehended man as a guest, not a prisoner, but the man could deny his hospitality or even kill the teacher as a roadblock on the way to freedom. However, the Arab did not hurt Daru, accepted his food and beverages. This behavior can be treated as “a sign of political solidarity, the food symbolizing the exchange of life between them” (Bernardo). Arab’s decision to go to the police headquarters in Tinguit, and the fact he did not try to hurt Daru, showed the man was not really a bad person; and the murder he committed could be a result of emotions or misunderstanding. These suggestions make readers to support Daru’s decision to give the Arab an opportunity to choose his fate by himself, and not make a man a subject of “a travesty of a trial” (Bernardo). While the teacher did not want to have an impact on people’s fate, his

How, after years of guilt, self-disgust, and deception, is it possible for one person to become good again? Entrapped in a cage of cowardice for so long, can they ever develop and grow as a normal human being? Amir, the anti-hero in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, seeks to answer these questions in his own search for atonement through various existential events in his life.

Flat characters play a significant role in all novels. For instance, the brother of Raymond’s mistress is a key flat character. The Arab never grows throughout the novel; rather, he remains a stalker, stalking his prey, tempting a fight. Without the role of the Arab, Meursault, would never have gone to prison, and never be tried for murder.

Truth and honesty is the aspired driving force within one’s life but it can be as destructive as deceit and dishonesty. People always yell, “Tell the truth, be honest with me!” but when all things are said, their first reaction is to call out the lack of sympathy of the person. In the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault lives his life through truth and honesty but societal morals and values often bring him down in more ways than one.

The French philosopher Roland Barthes once said, “Literature is the question minus the answer” (Barthes 2). This statement hold true for most works of literature that explore a central question. According to Barthes, literature often raises a question, but leaves it up to the reader to determine the answer. The Stranger by Albert Camus is an excellent example of how a central question, “Is there value and meaning to human life?” is raised and left unanswered, resulting in different interpretations of the answer, depending on the viewpoint of the reader. Although the question is never explicitly answered, Camus offers perspectives on what French society regarded the answers to be, such as connections with others, elusion to freedom, and faith in religion and God.

They will abandon any sense of independence and neutrality that they possess, in order to appease their morals and protect those that may potentially be harmed. Daru demonstrates an abandonment of his ambition to achieve a hopeful sense of political neutrality when he encounters the Arab. To avoid the guilt that could potentially arise from opposing his own morals, he decides to abandon his mindsets and, instead, protect the Arab. This is first exhibited through his desire to treat the Arab with equality. When contrasting Balducci, who was “already enthroned on the nearest pupil’s desk. With the Arab squatting against the teacher’s platform” with Daru who “knelt beside the Arab”, there is a blatant obviousness that Daru treats the Arab with equality. Daru demonstrating his desire to protect the Arab’s well-being and emotional security through abandoning the sense of hierarchy that Balducci establishes, proves how an individual will adopt a perceived moral responsibility towards another when attempting to secure their well-being due to a moral guilt that arises if they do not do so. Moreover, Daru’s request for Balducci to “untie” the Arab elucidates a perceived moral responsibility to protect the Arab’s well-being and prevent him from being treated like an “animal”. Daru fears that in his conscience guilt will arise because he treated another individual

“The Guest” by Albert Camus does end with a debatable topic in many readers’ opinion, Daru’s choice. In the story, Daru, the protagonist, is told by Balducci, the gendarme, to take “[the Arab] to Tinguit [because] he is expected at police headquarters”; rather than carrying out his given task, Daru gives the prisoner a choice between taking the path to prison or finding shelter with the nomads. Personally, I find this admirable because many of us find it hard to break rules, especially laws, whereas Daru does lawfully wrong for what is morally right. Although, it is true, Daru doesn’t entirely make the decision to do what is right. As we read “The Guest” we realize Daru is reluctant to make any decision at all; he wants to remain neutral and

In the novel, The Stranger, author Albert Camus confronts some important issues of the time, and uses the singular viewpoint of the narrator Meursault to develop his philosophy and effectively weave together themes of absurdity, colonialism, and free will. Through the progressive disruption of Meursault’s life and his characterization, Camus presents the absurdity of the human condition along with the understanding that a person can actually be happy in the face of the absurd. Camus also intentionally sets the story in the colonized country of Algeria, and hints at the racial tensions that exist between French-Algerians and Arabs.

this by his refusal to turn the Arab in, and the conflict he goes through when

Many people often base their opinions on a person by judging his whole life in general and his attitude towards life without caring about who the person really is deep down inside. This unfair reasoning can occur in the courtroom when people are put on trial and the judge and the jury must delve into the life of the accused and determine if he is a hazard to society. Occasionally, the judge and jury are too concerned with the accused’s past that they become too biased and give an unfair conviction and sentencing. In his novel, The Stranger, Albert Camus uses the courtroom as a symbol to represent society that judges the main character, Meursalt, unfairly to illustrate how society forms opinions based on one’s past.

The novel The Stranger, by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward, follows the story of a man, Meursault, and how his emotionless way of living and his one grave mistake ends up killing him through a court of law. Throughout his journey, there is tension in him, and between him and other people and groups. This tension is represented throughout this novel with the motif is heat. And as tension can grow and is part of everyday life, it is part of Meursault’s as well. Furthermore, through tension and it growing, it can result in a conflict of multiple varieties. This motif comes up at scenes such as the trial in the courtroom, the conflict on the beach with the Arabs, and the magistrate and his heated argument. And due to Camus specific placement of the motif during these scenes, it also foreshadows conflict and trouble throughout the novel. Camus’ motif of heat shows a tension between opposing sides to foreshadow various types of conflict which demonstrate the theme that tension leads to conflict.

Widely recognized for philosophical writings as a French essayist and playwright, Albert Camus is a major contributor to exploring the absurd in modern Western literature. Characterized by highlighting the human condition, Camus’ writing style focuses on the everyday lives and inner psyche of individuals in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. Such a character-driven writing style is most notably displayed in his 1946 work, The Stranger, a tale of an emotionally-detached man known as Meursault, who lives in French-colonized Algiers during the intermission of the two World Wars. Consisting of two parts—The Stranger first explores his daily life as a free man, and in the second, delves more into the character’s own philosophy as Meursault contemplates during his remaining time in jail. At its core, the story explores the relationships and interactions of the odd Meursault through the character’s inner monologue and dialogue with those around him. The story itself is very ambiguous in its’ nature, and the idea of contemplating the meaning of life and purpose is prevalent throughout The Stranger. Evidently, Camus writes Meursault as a man who believes that life has no meaning, and therefore people are free to do as they please. To supplement the protagonist’s view, the author also presents Meursault alongside various personalities of key supporting characters, each with their own unique personality, and differing outlooks on life. Doing so thus enables Camus to get readers to contemplate about meaning through multiple perspectives. Stylistically, through many devices that emphasize diction, imagery, and story themes. Ultimately, The Stranger is a way for Camus to convey that there are multiple ways to perceive the meaning of life, using Meursault to directly project a different view than what readers are used to. Surely, with the intent of crafting a protagonist so strange, that Meursault becomes comparable to other characters; less so as a reflection of what the author personally believes the meaning of life is, but more of what such exploration of the idea could be.