Dan Mayer

Albert Camus

The Guest

To be Involved or Not

The most noticeable struggle in the story seems to be whether Daru should take a side on the issue. Camus is struggling with the difficulty of taking a stance on issues. The story first starts with a soldier trying to convince him that he must take the prisoner to the jail. The story then continues with the prisoner trying to convince Daru to go with him. In the end Daru steps to the side and never makes a decision and instead leaves it to someone else, in this case the prisoner.

Many issues in life require a decision to be made that might not be entirely right. Camus is showing a situation where setting the prisoner free would be unfair because a murder would go unpunished, but bringing them to jail would give them horrible treatment and death. Decisions in life are very much like this choice, two extremes in which neither choice is entirely acceptable. Camus designed the problem to not have any fully acceptable solution so it would it would relate closer to the controversial issues of any time.

Consider the issues that are currently controversial in our lives. Abortion is a good example that has the two extremes. That it is murder or it is freedom of choice. Most people probably have opinions that would allow abortion but only with limits enforced. Similarly if Daru knew the prisoner would be treated fairly and not killed he may have been willing to bring the prisoner to jail. Camus show the difficulty and the failures of either option given to Daru. This also shows the feelings of powerlessness that goes along with not being able to find a solution that is known to be correct.

In the story the prisoner starts walking towards that jail. I don't think this is meant to illustrate that others will make the right choices themselves or that things will work out. I believe that the prisoner walks to the jail because he doesn't want anything bad to happen to Daru. He is protecting the man that was willing to risk his own safety for him. The issue of the the prisoners decision is entirely different. From the point of the difficulty in the choices we have to make.

Camus doesn't ever have Daru make a decision in the story and leave it to someone else. Daru doesn't even make the point that a decision has to be made. Instead he shows the difficulty in decisions that limit and force you into certain choices. Perhaps Camus doesn't believe every person should have to be put in the position to make decisions of that magnitude. Daru never wanted the responsibility that his government put on him. In the end I think Camus illustrates quite effectively that the average person isn't capable of making all the difficult decisions themselves.