Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Guest.

Following the reading scheduled I read our next story by Alex Camus The Guest.

The story starts off with Daru whom is a schoolmaster “ watching the two men climb toward him.” (Camus, 2574.) The two men were Balducci who was the old gendarme whom he had known for a while, and an Arab man (who is never given a name) whom he captured for killing his cousin.

Daru was given a ask to bring the man in to Tinguit, which is the police headquarters. Daru isn’t too fond of this idea evidence which shows this is him stating “ What’s the story...Are you pulling my leg…The orders? I’m not…” (Camus 2576.)

He soon then gives into the task. Daru is very kind to the man by giving him a bed to sleep in, and giving him food to eat. At the end of the story Daru decided to leave the fate of the man in his own hands. The man then decides to turn himself in.

Throughout the story it seemed as if the man was trying to tell him something. When Daru asked him if he was afraid of being turned in, he responded with “ Are you sorry?” (Camus, 2579.) Daru wasn’t to sure of what he meant be it, and was actually annoyed.

It wasn’t until the end that Daru knew the meaning of that question. “ You handed over our brother. You will pay for this.” (Camus, 2582.)

I had to read the story twice to discover the meaning behind it. At first I felt that Daru gave the man the freedom to make his own decision.

Although the story can be interrupted in many ways in my opinion it mostly deals with loyalty. Beladucci felt Daru needed to be loyal to him and his people, just at the Arab man felt he should be with him.

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