Paper Summary:

The paper focuses on the relationship between Daru and the Arab prisoner and how it expresses Camus' ideology of existentialism. The paper describes how Daru takes on the role of an existentialistic character who not only participates in the process of thinking, but who also acts, feels and lives an individualistic life. The paper highlights how both Daru and the Arab face parallel existentialist dilemmas where they face the consequences of being true to themselves and the morals they have chosen.

From the Paper:

"In the short story "The Guest," Albert Camus crafts three main characters full of more complexity than what the reader might first suspect. The complexity of character is especially true of the Arab prisoner who was under the custody of Balducci, a policeman born on the island of Corsica, but who now was nearing retirement after working many years in Algeria. Yet Daru is equally as complex as the Arab prisoner. He is the schoolteacher who hosts Balducci and the Arab prisoner after their trek up the Atlas Mountains. Though Balducci is an interesting formidable foil character for Camus's compassionate Daru, it is the awkward yet respectable relationship that forms between the complex characters of Daru and the Arab prisoner that offers much pathos and the interesting complications of moral conduct that the narrative captures."

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