The Franco-Arab conflict of Balducci and Daru in Camus’s ‘The Guest’

Abstract

Albert Camus’s ‘The Guest’ ([1957] 2012) is a short narrative that displays several conflicts at the colonial, existential, psychological, and individual levels at once. The narrative introduces these conflicts through its simple plot that fully relies on the relationship between Daru (the schoolmaster), Balducci (the gendarme) and the Arab (the prisoner). Understanding the relationships between these three constitutes the foundation to decoding the thematic value or message of the narrative. Therefore, this article scrutinizes the deeper level of the relationship between these characters and argues that the main conflict in the narrative is between humans of authentic self and those of unauthentic one. The article concludes that ‘The Guest’ is not a simple narrative about postcolonialism or schoolteachers’ ethics, but a heavily sophisticated piece that celebrates humans’ authenticity and freedom as the main foundations or principles of peaceful life.