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Existentialism In Albert Camus's The Guest

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Albert Camus’ short story “The Guest,” that takes place during the World War II in France demonstrates the right and freedom of existentialism. The Polish writer, Camus tries to show that every human being has a choice; whether it is good, or bad, but can we choose to do it for ourselves or let someone else do it for us is all up to us to decide. The Guest, short story narrates the story of a schoolmaster, Daru, an Algerian-born Frenchman who lives alone in a remote area; the environment in which the story takes place produces a feeling of isolation. One day, Daru notices that two men coming toward him, and there were Balducci and a prisoner. Balducci, the police officer and a good friend of Daru leads an Arab prisoner who has been accused of murdering his cousin. The officer orders Daru to take the custody of the prisoner and turns him to police headquarters, but Daru refuses because he considers this act a dishonorable act, and beside that he is also not in charge of doing so. Balducci gets pissed on refusal of Daru and tells him he has to because he got orders to do it. Finally Daru accepts and takes the prisoner with himself because he has no other choice. The prisoner spends a night with …show more content…

There are three main characters in the story, Daru, Balducci, and the Arab. Each of these characters is forced to make a choice that would affect another person. Daru had to take the responsibly of taking the prisoner to police headquarter which he directly refused at first but had to do because Balducci insists him to obey the rules. Arab who had the choice to choose the freedom path, but he choose the imprisonment because he was slave to others decisions, the French government decision. Daru realizes that he is also a prisoners when he had to obey what Balducci told him to do and escort Arab to police

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