"The Guest" (L'Hôte) is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus. It was first published in 1957 as part of a collection entitled Exile and the Kingdom (L'exil et le royaume). 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 raised 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 which he had set out in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. This article is in need of attention. ... For other uses, see Camus. ... Exile and the Kingdom is a collection of novellas by French existentialist-writer Albert Camus. ... The Nobel Prize (Swedish: ), as designated in Alfred Nobels will in 1895, is awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. ...

Plot summary

Daru is a French schoolteacher who teaches Arab children. Though he is French, he has established a trust with the Arabs in that he both teaches their children and gives food to their families in times of drought. However, Daru leads a solitary existence; he lives by himself in the schoolhouse. In the beginning of the story, he sees outside two men; one on horseback, the other, on foot.

The horseman is Balducci, a gendarme and old friend of Daru. An Arab trails behind him, his hands tied together and to Balducci's horse. As the horse approaches the schoolhouse, Balducci greets Daru, and Daru invites him into the house. He offers Balducci some tea.

Balducci orders Daru to take the prisoner and deliver him to the prison the next day, and offers him a revolver in defence. Daru initially refuses. It isn't his job to take care of prisoners, and he doesn't want to be tangled into such an affair. During tea Balducci informs Daru of the Arab's crime; murdering his cousin. Balducci orders him again, and then leaves, and Daru has no choice but to keep the prisoner in the schoolhouse.

Daru cooks some galette for the Arab, and they eat and drink together. That night, Daru cannot sleep; he hears footsteps outside and hopes the Arab is leaving, but dismisses it as his dream. The next morning, he makes coffee, and the two eat breakfast together. Daru then packs some sugar, money, and dates and starts to lead the Arab to the prison. Just after starting the journey, Daru again hears a slight sound coming from near the schoolhouse. He investigates, finds nothing, and moves on.

Partway there, Daru stops, he gives the prisoner the food and money, and allows him to choose for himself whether to continue on the path to prison or to escape. Daru starts to walk away. He turns around, and sees the prisoner standing there. Daru keeps walking away. When he turns around again, the prisoner is gone. Daru is curious as to which way the prisoner went and when he goes back, he sees the prisoner on the path to prison. When Daru returns to the schoolhouse, he sees a note scrawled on the blackboard: "You turned our brother in. You will pay." Alienated from the Arabs as well, Daru feels alone.

Major themes

The major theme of The Guest is that decisions and choices have a consequence 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 characteristic 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 faced by Daru are often seen as representing the dilemmas 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's philosophy is that everyone is "condemned" to an eventual, 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. Existentialism is the philosophical movement positing that individual human beings create the meaning and essence of their lives as persons. ... Absurdism is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe will ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to humanity. ...

Yet another theme can be extracted from this short story, however: complete neutrality is unattainable. This is evidenced by Daru's attempt to not make a decision; in the end, the Arab made the decision for him, and he lost his neutrality.

Story elements

Symbolism. The specific location of Daru's home is symbolic of the ethnic conflict in Algeria. He requested to be placed at the foothills, between the desert and the dark plateau. However, he was placed upon the plateau where he would be a schoolmaster. In this symbol, the desert represents the Arabs and the plateau represents the French. He was placed upon the plateau, or in other words, he was forced to join up with the French (though he wanted to remain neutral, as was his character).

Irony. Balducci was the "bad guy" character in this story. Though he was callous and rude to the Arab prisoner, in the end he will just return to his post and live a normal life. On the other hand, Daru was the only person to treat the Arab kindly, and yet he will most likely die for "handing him over."

Foreshadowing. Frequently throughout the short story, the reader is hinted to that trouble might come to Daru. The author says that the village was beginning to stir, and that was the reason for the transportation of the prisoner. Also, Daru hears sounds of footsteps around the schoolhouse, but he found nothing to materialize from them.