Essay On Camus The Guest: Prejudice And Stereoty

The Guest – Prejudice/Stereotyping In the short story, The Guest, by Albert Camus, there is evidence of prejudice that occurred in the area of El Ameur. The Arab that had been taken into custody was being taken to prison due to a murder that he supposedly committed against his cousin by a neighboring community that was soon to be at war with the Arab community. They didn’t offer a trial for the Arab to determine why he committed the crime or what circumstances it was under, they simply arrested him and planned to imprison him for it. Balducci was the French police officer that was first arrested the Arab and brought him part of the way to Tinguit to the prison. He was doing what he knew to do in this circumstance and kept the Arab in custody while transporting him. He was given orders to give the Arab prisoner to another to further transport him to the prison. He followed these orders from his commanding officer because that is what he had always known to do. His police force was prejudiced against the Arab people because it was wartime and they had no reason
It is also possible that because of the kindness shown to him by Daru, he did not want Daru to be condemned by his French community for not delivering him to prison as ordered. Although the French community believed Daru followed orders and delivered the Arab man to prison, he was still targeted by the Arabian people as being the one to condemn the arrested man to prison, which shows prejudice on the part of the Arabians toward the French. The Arabians left a message for Daru on his chalkboard in the schoolhouse saying that he would pay for taking the man to prison. The Arabians were prejudiced against Daru because he was a Frenchman and in their mind there was no possibility he could be kind or do any good deeds for someone from their community due to where he was