Camus The Guest

1383 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Social justice as a social worker

My first impression of Albert Camus’ “The Guest” was that the guests were the two men coming up the hill. As Daru watches them come up the hill, one on horseback and one walking, is that he was describing them broadly because he didn’t know who they were. He could only assume things he got from observations, such as that one man knew the region because he knew where the path was supposed to be under all of the snow. However, as the men grow closer, he recognizes one of them as a gendarme (an armed police officer) named Balducci; other other is an unfamiliar Arab. But who the title truly refers to is the unnamed Arab. Once Balducci explains the situation and his orders, he leaves, expecting Daru to follow this with no hesitation. I think this story is titled “The Guest” instead of “The Prisoner” or something similar is because of …show more content…

We can see the contrast between Balducci and Daru’s actions towards the man. Whenever the Arab is in Balducci’s custody, the Arab squatted by the stove as though he knew he wasn’t supposed to sit anywhere else (The Guest, pg. 238). Daru treated the Arab like a human being, bringing him a glass even while he was still tied up and squatting on the teachers platform. Daru offered him tea, which might seem like a small gesture, but in a story where Arabs and the French were at war, such an act of kindness is uncommon. After Balducci leaves, Daru treats the Arab like a friend who had been invited into his home. By refusing to tie him up after Balducci leaves, Daru is showing that he has humanity for the Arab. He provides for him much like you would for a friend spending the night for fun: he cooks breakfast, provides a bed, and makes dinner. While dining, he even lets the Arab eat his fill first and when questioned why he was eating with the Arab, he simply states that he was hungry (The Guest, pg.

Show More
Related

  • Elizabeth Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village

    2529 Words  | 6 Pages

    The writings of various ethnographers and anthropologists are intended to inform and educate the reader by imparting awareness and understanding of unexplored cultures. The value of such a work is directly related to the author’s familiarity with the culture. For instance, an individual intimately acquainted with a situation have different insights, but also different biases than an outsider. Elizabeth Fernea’s work "Guests of the Sheik" is a combination of the two perspectives. It documents her immersion into the society and culture of El Nahra, a village in Iraq, during the first two years of her marriage to Bob, an anthropologist. Her honest and frank narrative provides a fascinating glimpse at the lives of the men and women living in the village and the relationship Elizabeth, affectionately referred to by the people of the village as Beeja, has with them.

    Read More

  • Adversity In Night By Elie Wiesel

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...es to run, but doesn’t get far before he is caught. With a guard pointing a sub-machine gun at his back, Guido is marched away. Once they are out of sight behind some buildings, there is a burst of gunfire. Only the Nazi guard walks back out from behind the buildings. The next scene shows the last of the Nazi’s fleeing the camp. Once they are gone, the remaining prisoners are free to make their way out of the camp. It’s heartbreaking to think, had it not been for his misguided rescue attempt, Guido may have also been able to join his fellow prisoners on the journey out of captivity.

    Read More

  • Troubled Bruno in The Hostage

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    A hostage inside himself, and troubled soul that has had very many bad influences in his life. Bruno, a boy, makes many mistakes and has had very many tragic instances like his father dieing, and nothing will, and can go right for him. As the reader will find out is he is very quiet and has a large stature that was feared by many, and has a lot of things that trouble him. Bruno goes though a tough time and bad situations that help influence his actions, feelings, and words, though his life, and holds him hostage within himself.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Hangings

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    The second prisoner was a young boy who was being hanged for the fact that he stole weapons during a power failure. The significance of this particular hanging was the young boy’s lack of rebellion, his quiet fear and the unbearable duration of his torment. The boy had lost all hope and was one of the only victims who wept at the knowledge of their demise. What made this case different from the rest was not only his youth, but also his silence, and emotion and the fact that it took a half an hour for him to die, as a result of the lightness of his young body. Even though he was constantly tortured and provoked by the guards before he was hanged, he still said nothing, unlike the two people who joined him, who both shouted in defiance. His quiet courage really stood out as an unspoken and unannounced rebellion not only for the Jews, but it showed the doubts that some of the guards began to have. “This time, the Lagerkapo refused to act as executioner.” Although this quote is one sentence it still shows the effect the boy had on everyone in the camp. Even though the prisoners had been living with the constant presence of death, the execution of this young boy made them feel emotion they believed they had lost forever. This death was an unsaid act of rebellion in the sense that it showed the audience that there was indeed still some sensitivity left no matter how much both the prisoners and the guards were dehumanized: the prisoners as merely a number, and the guards as ruthless

    Read More

  • Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... of the French quarters and the poverty of the Casbah in the previous sequence, between the European youths and Ali La Pointe, visually justifies Ali’s rebelliousness.

    Read More

  • Book Report on Elie Wiesel's Night

    4327 Words  | 9 Pages

    Others weep for the ones lost. They then got prison clothes that were ridiculously fitted. They made exchanges and went to a new barracks in the “gypsies’ camp.” They waited in the mud for a long time. They were permitted to another barracks, with a gypsy in charge of them.

    Read More

  • Meursault Compare And Contrast Essay

    919 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plot: Within in the story, conflict is created by the characters dreams. Meursault dream in the begging of the story is that he has none. Which ultimately causes the conflict in the story. Since Meursault is emotionless and doesn’t know the difference between good and bad this creates conflict. In the story, Meursault quotes “Then I fired four times at the motionless body.” Since Meursault has no dreams, because he is emotionless, he doesn’t know the right between good and bad and we see this here. Meursault kills the Arab on the beach, which causes conflict because he is later sent to prison because of this. Camus purpose of giving Meursault no dreams, is to move the plot forward because if Meursault had dreams he would focus on them and

    Read More

  • The Stranger Dialectical Journal Chapter 6

    315 Words  | 1 Pages

    Chapter 6 of part I of The Stranger concluded with Meursault’s conscious decision to shoot an Arab because of the physical discomfort the Arab’s knife caused him. The significance of the ending of part I is that it was the first demonstration of Meursault’s awareness of the possible consequences of the act that he committed. This awareness continues into the second part of the novel as he is arrested and trialed. The reason for Meursault’s trial is the murder of the Arab. His insensitivity towards Maman’s death and lack of a social conscientious are factors that contributed to support further investigations, but are not reasons to trial him because they have not ‘harmed’ society on a way that he could be arrested for. For example, if Meursault

    Read More

  • Existentialism And Symbolism In The Stranger By Albert Camus

    1438 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Next came Raymond, who was the last witness. He waved to me and all of the sudden blurted out that I was innocent” (95). This scene is ironic because prior this trial, Raymond doesn’t express any sense of loyalty. But in this scene, Raymond shows loyalty towards Meursault. He says that the Arabs hated him and Meursault was there by chance. This scene is important because it shows how everything that occurred was indirectly caused by Raymond and Meursault’s friendship under the pretense of “chance.”

    Read More

  • The Stranger and The Guest

    1889 Words  | 4 Pages

    French author and playwright Albert Camus once said, “He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool.” In the The Stranger and The Guest this philosophy is expanded on by demonstrating how those who do not conform to society are isolated, and portrayed as a threat to society because of their unique beliefs.

    Read More

  • A Journey into Self-Discovery in Araby by James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield’s, The Garden Party

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout “Araby”, the main character experiences a dynamic character shift as he recognizes that his idealized vision of his love, as well as the bazaar Araby, is not as grandiose as he once thought. The main character is infatuated with the sister of his friend Mangan; as “every morning [he] lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door…when she came on the doorstep [his] heart leaped” (Joyce 108). Although the main character had never spoken to her before, “her name was like a summons to all [his] foolish blood” (Joyce 108). In a sense, the image of Mangan’s sister was the light to his fantasy. She seemed to serve as a person who would lift him up out of the darkness of the life that he lived. This infatuation knew no bounds as “her image accompanied [him] even in places the most hostile to romance…her name sprang to [his] lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which [he] did not understand” (Joyce 109). The first encounter the narrator ex...

    Read More

  • Existentialism In Albert Camus's The Stranger

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    I, Albert Camus, am a famous French author who wrote The Stranger in 1942. I was born in Algeria, and my experiences there have deeply influenced my thoughts, my work, and my philosophies. The Stranger strongly represents my philosophy of the absurd and existentialism. When I was twenty-five, I moved to France and joined the resistance movement during World War II. After the liberation from Nazi Germany, I became a political journalist and a columnist for Combat, a French newspaper.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Araby And The Dead By James Joyce

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    The narrator in “Araby” is a young man who lives in an uninteresting area and dreary house in Dublin. The only seemingly exciting thing about the boy’s existence is the sister of his friend Mangum that he is hopelessly in love with; “…her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.” (Joyce 2279) In an attempt to impress her and bring some color into his own gray life, he impulsively lies to her that he is planning on attending a bazaar called Arab. He also promises the gi...

    Read More

  • The Dramatic Importance of Antonio and Sebastian

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    careful treatment from all the staff. However, Alonso does not seem to take. offence from these two which shows his weakness of character or perhaps even plain stupidity. They were invited to his daughter’s. wedding in Tunis so they must be on fairly good terms with the king.

    Read More

  • Absurdity: An Essay On The Stranger

    663 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within the Stranger, Albert Camus brought up many questions and a few answers. He created an outsider to society and showed us how he lived, Meursault.

    Read More

More about Camus The Guest

Open Document