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(L'hôte) By Albert Camus (1913-1960) A Study Guide | ||
. Plot Summary By Michael J. Cummings...© 2008 Based on the Original French Version and on a Translation by Wallace Fowlie in French Stories - Contes Français (Bantam Books, 1960) Quotations From the Story Translated by M.J. Cummings .......Two men climb a rocky slope toward a school on a high plateau in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria. One is on foot, the other on horseback. In the deep October snow, their progress is slow. After observing them from outside the school, Daru, the teacher assigned to the school, returns to the building for a sweater. It is about two in the afternoon. The classroom is empty and unheated, for the twenty or so students from villages in the region remained home after the snowstorm—a three-day blizzard that followed eight months of drought. On the blackboard is a drawing of the major rivers of France for a geography lesson that awaits the return of the students after the weather changes for the better. .......After the Second World War, the government assigned Daru—an Algerian-born Frenchman—to the school in the desolate high country even though he had requested a position in a school in a foothills town with an ideal climate. He lodges in a room adjoining the classroom, where he goes to warm himself. During the storm, he left the room only to get coal and tend his chickens. Wheat sacks crowd his quarters. Daru has been distributing the grain to his students to sustain them and their families during the hard times caused by the drought. Because the families will probably be running low now, Daru expects a father or brother of one of the children to arrive soon to take a supply back to the villages.  .......The
schoolteacher goes back outside to check the progress of the two men. On
the horse is a Corsican-born gendarme (constable, or police officer), Balducci,
who is nearing retirement. He is an old acquaintance of Daru. Behind Balducci
at the end of a rope is an Arab with his hands tied. When the climbers
near the school, Balducci shouts to Daru that it took only an hour to travel
the two miles from El Ameur. Daru takes his horse to a shed while the policeman
and his prisoner go into the school and warm themselves in Daru’s room.
The Arab cannot speak French, but Balducci and Daru both speak Arabic.
After Daru heats the classroom, Balducci and the Arab settle in there while
their host makes them hot mint tea. With Balducci’s approval, Daru unbinds
the Arab’s hands to make it easy for him to drink the tea........Balducci then announces that Daru is to take the prisoner to police headquarters at Tinguit, about twelve-and-a-half miles away. Taken aback, Daru asks the gendarme whether he is serious. After all, Daru is only a schoolteacher. But Balducci says talk of a revolt requires him to return to El Ameur to help his fellow officers deal with the emergency. The prisoner could not be kept at El Ameur, he says, because his village was astir with plans to free him. The government says it is Daru’s duty to cooperate. When Daru inquires about the Arab’s alleged crime, Balducci says he slit his cousin’s throat with a billhook (tool for pruning and cutting) in an argument over which of them owned a supply of grain. Balducci further informs Daru that the Arab is probably not a rebel. After Daru serves both men more tea, Balducci walks over to bind the Arab again, but Daru tells him not to bother. .......As he prepares to leave, Balducci suggests that Daru keep his shotgun handy in case of an uprising. Daru assures him that he can defend himself. For good measure, Balducci gives the younger man his revolver, saying he does not need it for his trip back to El Ameur. Daru then speaks up against Balducci’s plan, saying that he will fight the rebels if necessary but will not take the Arab to Tinguit. .......“C'est un ordre, fils" ("It’s an order, son"), Balducci says. .......But Daru stands firm. Angry, Balducci has Daru sign a document stating that the prisoner was placed in Daru’s custody. Balducci then leaves. .......Daru invites the Arab into his room and prepares a meal of pancakes and omelettes. After nightfall, Daru provides a cot for the Arab and outfits it with blankets. He asks his guest why he killed his adversary. Instead of answering the question, the Arab replies that the man ran off. Then he chased him. .......The narrator, using French, quotes the Arab as saying, "Maintenant, qu'est-ce qu'on va me faire?" (Now what are they going to do to me?") .......In the morning, they drink coffee and eat cakes. Daru then goes outside and peers across the landscape as he thinks about his prisoner. He believes that the Arab’s crime is abominable. However, the narrator says, “to hand him over was contrary to honor. Merely thinking of it made him smart with humiliation. And he cursed at one and the same time his own people who had sent him this Arab and the Arab too who had dared to kill and not managed to get away." .......Two hours into their journey down the plateau, Daru surveys the landscape: a plain to the east and rocky land to the south. He turns to the Arab, gives him a thousand francs and a package of food, and tells him he may go east to Tinguit to turn himself in to the police or south to take refuge with nomads. Daru then begins retracing his steps back to the school. After several minutes, he turns around and notices that the Arab remains standing where he left him. Daru continues on for several more minutes, then turns around again for another look. The Arab is gone. Sometime later, when the sun is high and the snow is melting, Daru turns around a third time and sees the Arab in the distance—heading east to Tinguit, presumably to turn himself in. .......Back at the school, Daru stands at a classroom window looking out. On the blackboard is scrawled this message: "Tu as livré notre frére. Tu paieras." ("You have turned in our brother. You will pay.") .
 .......The French title of the story, "L'hôte," can be translated as "The Guest" or "The Host." Thus, the title can refer not only to the prisoner (the guest of the English title) but also to the schoolmaster, who "hosts" the prisoner. .......In ancient times, the inhabitants of what is now Algeria were called Berbers. They established a kingdom, Numidia, in the third and second centuries, B.C., under the aegis of Rome. In the seventh century, A.D., Muslim Arabs invaded the country and conquered the Berbers, who accepted Arab rule and Islam. By the early 1500s, Spaniards had gained control of key port cities and required the natives to pay tribute (money or valuables). After the natives asked Turkey for help, the Turks drove out the Spaniards and allowed the country to rule itself under Turkish supervision. In the 1830s, France gained control of the country and colonized it. On October 31, 1954, the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale (National Liberation Front) launched a revolution against the French occupiers. The revolution ended in 1962 with a ceasefire followed by a referendum in which Algerians voted to become an independent nation. Half a million people lost their lives in the war. .......The story is set in October of a year in the early 1950s on a desolate plateau in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria after a blizzard. At that time, native Algerians—both Arabs and Berbers—were agitating for independence. Daru: Frenchman born
in Algeria. He teaches at a school on a plateau high in Algeria's Atlas
Mountains. As a citizen of France, he is expected to cooperate with the
colonial authorities in Algeria. But as an Algerian-born resident of the
North African country, he feels honor-bound not to turn in the Arab villager
accused of murder. This predicament isolates him as much as the barren
landscape where he lives. Daru reflects the sentiments of the author, who
loved both France and Algeria and abhorred the conflict that arose between
them.
.......“The Guest" is a short story centering on a decision that becomes a turning point in the life of an Algerian-born Frenchman. Camus uses omniscient third-person point of view to reveal the thoughts of the main character, Daru, and limited third-person point of view to conceal the thoughts of the other two characters. .......“The Guest" was one of six short stories published in a 1957 collection, L’exil et le royaume (Exile and the Kingdom). Self-Determination .......Until the arrival of Balducci and the Arab, Daru bowed to the will of the French government. First, he accepted a teaching job on a lonely plateau in the Atlas Mountains even though he wanted a post in a foothills village with an ideal climate. Then, as a schoolmaster, he served as an agent of the French government, teaching native children about France even though their families generally opposed foreign rule. The blackboard drawing of the rivers of France illustrates this point. But after authorities in El Ameur order him to escort an Arab prisoner to the police station in Tinguit, Daru refuses to cooperate. His decision to defy officialdom arises from an awakened awareness in himself of an independent spirit, alluded to when Balducci tells him, "Tu as toujours été un peu fêlé" ("You have always been a little crazy"). To be a man—to be fully human—Daru must begin to control his own destiny according to the dictates of his conscience. The arbitrary mandates of Balducci and his superiors no longer hold sway. Daru's life has meaning only if he rebels against authority and does what he believes is morally acceptable to him. He begins his new life of self-determination by treating the Arab humanely and allowing him also to choose his own destiny. Isolation and Loneliness .......Life imposes isolation and loneliness on Daru via the following: 1. His position in society as a citizen of France and resident of Algeria. Siding with either country in a time of upheaval would single him out for retaliation. Thus, he exists in a limbo of ....alienation.Injustice of Colonialism .......Between 1500 and 1900, European powers subdued and occupied other nations to exploit them economically, politically, and strategically. Portugal, Britain, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and France were among the countries that gained control of parts or all of other nations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Native populations eventually rose up against their occupiers—sometimes peacefully, as in the Gandhi-led uprising in India against the British—but usually violently, as in the Algerian rebellion against the French. "The Guest" is in part an indictment of the French occupation of Algeria. Even Balducci, a willing cat's-paw of the government, acknowledges that he has mistreated the natives: "Mettre une corde à un homme, malgré les années, on ne s'y habitue pas et même, oui, on a honte" ("Putting a rope around a man's neck, in spite of years of doing it, well, I can't get used to it. Yes, I am even ashamed.") "The Guest" as a Statement of Camus' Philosophy .......As
an atheist, Camus believed that the world was absurd and meaningless, as
he argued in his 1942 essay, "Le mythe de sisyphe" ("The Myth of Sisyphus").
However, he later altered his opinion, asserting that a human being can
give meaning to his life through self-determination, especially when exercised
in humane causes. What a person must do is to make his own free and independent
decisions outside the bounds of the herd mentality; he must become a rebel.
According to Camus, a rebel is a person who opposes injustice and oppression
while treating the downtrodden with compassion. In "The Guest," Daru acts
out Camus' views, deciding to defy authorities at El Ameur and to treat
the Arab with dignity and respect. After rejecting the colonial government's
dictums, he allows the Arab to decide his own fate. Camus' world is thus
a world of free choices, of decisions that define a person. It is also
a world of alienation, for the decisions that define a person isolate him
from the masses that abide by the status quo.
.......The climax occurs when Daru decides to release his prisoner. This decision becomes his personal declaration of independence from the authority of the state. It also provides the Arab an opportunity to choose his own fate. .......After the Arab prisoner arrives, Daru realizes that he too is a prisoner—of the French authorities who gave him his job, of the barren environment where the French placed him, and of his own willingness to accept his lot without protest. This realization causes Daru to take the first step toward freeing himself: He refuses to carry out the order to escort the Arab to Tinguit and turn him in there to the French police. The old gendarme Balducci is a prisoner of lockstep obedience to French authority. When he receives an order, he believes it is his duty to execute it without questioning it. He expects Daru to do the same. The following appear to be significant symbols in the story: Blackboard
drawing of the rivers of France, symbolizing French colonialism. The
drawing suggests that learning about the rivers of France is more important
to the children of Algeria than learning about the geography of the their
own country.
The Problem With "Moral" Atheism: an Opinion .......Camus,
an atheist, was said to be a humble man who fought for what he and his
supporters deemed noble causes, postulating a secular morality that required
him to oppose oppression and injustice. However, his ideology had no adequate
explanation for how a moral system can exist without an ultimate arbiter
(supreme being). Denial of the existence of such an arbiter enables a person—or
a group of persons, including a government—to claim the power of deciding
what is right or wrong. Thus, if an atheistic dictator authorizes ethnic
cleansing, slavery, or oppressive colonialism, he can enforce his policies
as morally right—simply because he says they are right. Or if an atheistic
citizen decides to embezzle money, slander his neighbor, or sexually abuse
a child, he can justify his actions to himself on grounds that no absolute
moral code exists that prohibits these actions. His only concern is to
prevent discovery of his actions by others who subscribe to an absolute
moral code. Some societies that ignore or deny the existence of an immutable,
overriding moral code have invested citizens with the power to determine
morality via the ballot box or via elected representatives. Thus, decisions
on moral and ethical issues such as human cloning, abortion, and the use
of torture by the military depend on the whims of the electorate and their
politically motivated representatives.
Study Questions and Essay Topics 1....To
what extent did Albert Camus base "The Guest" on his own experiences?
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