The Guest

Albert Camus: The Guest 1. Existentialism: Sartre and Camus are the two most important French Existentialists. 2. Do not believe that there is any “essential nature” 3. Believe that our “nature” is constructed by the choices that we make 4. Absurdism: The belief that our desire for meaning is greater than the capacity of the universe to produce meaning. 5. There is no inherent meaning in the world 6. We warp the non-sense of the universe into a meaningful material reality. 7. Human beings inhabit a moral universe in which there are no absolute guidelines 8. Nonetheless, we have an ethical sense that we try to live up to—most of us want to be “good people,” though it is difficult to pin down exactly what this
he acts in bad faith or makes an inauthentic choice because he (he ignores his inner moral code d. he looks to others to supply the orders, declining to assess the merits of these orders himself: This passivity is an example of quietism or letting others decide your fate (refusing to choose your own path, based on your particular principles) e. he follows laws set up by others without questioning them: He believes that external forces govern his life, and that he can exercise little or no control over it himself f. he encourages Daru to make an inauthentic choice by suggesting that he should turn the Arab in; in effect, he does not respect the right of Daru to choose his own actions g. in fact, Balducci reduces the Arab and his people to subhumans (he leads the Arab behind a horse (207), and he describes the murdered relative of the Arab as a butchered sheep (209)) 21. Daru is a European who just doesn’t want to get involved. 22. He sees Algeria as the only place he belongs (2575) 23. He is fully aware that his presence is despised by the locals 24. Daru is also faced with an existential dilemma because he has been directed to deliver the Arab to the French authorities, and he does not want to
What's nice about "The Guest" is that Albert Camus incorporated into the main character how he would deal with dilemma, only because he makes the main character have his same beliefs. Albert Camus is known for his belief in existentionalism and in Daru's final move, it's that belief that comes in play. Existeionalism in "The Guest" is when Daru chooses to not be part of anything, where the only choice unavailable is not to choose. We realize no matter what Daru ends up doing, someone is always affected which ties back to existentialism again, because why should you do anything, after all you're going to die so what's the point? We come to the conclusion here that we can't rely on cause and effect and just assume that everything will come out right, but that we can only rely on what seems right at the moment. How the main character, Daru, deals with his dilemmas and how the prisoner deals with his dilemmas in the end is the same, they lay it out and accept things as they come because they know in the end the uninenevitable death that will get them, they'd rather remain alone and not overcomplicate