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The Guest
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Guest, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Choices, Morality, and Freedom
In “The Guest,” personal responsibility takes center stage through the wrenchingly difficult choices Camus’s protagonist is forced to make. Daru, a French schoolmaster in colonial Algeria, is tasked by the gendarme—or military policeman—Balducci with delivering a captured Arab prisoner to the French authorities. This seemingly simple order foists a philosophical crisis on him. He can follow orders and uphold his duty as a colonial subject, or defy the law and act according…
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Chaos vs. Meaning
Rather than being mere backdrop, the physical environment in “The Guest” is itself an unforgiving force shaping the characters’ lives. The harsh realities of the Algerian plateau align with the unsympathetic and uncaring destiny that awaits Daru no matter what he chooses to do. The story takes place on a remote plateau in Algeria, a country in Africa that was colonized by the French from roughly 1830 to 1962. The area where Daru lives is…
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Isolation
Daru leads a solitary life in every sense; he lives alone and is forced to fend for himself emotionally and morally. He works as a schoolmaster, having been assigned to a posting on a high and remote plateau. His only companions are the students he teaches, and occasionally military policemen like Balducci. This physical detachment from others reflects his emotional isolation. He seems to have no one else in the world with whom he…
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