Albert Camus uses the story, The Guest, to answer how the landscape and setting around civilization can demonstrate human’s absurdity. This absurdity is the ability of man to find a purpose in a world that neither knows nor cares that man exists. The moral dilemma imposed on Daru in the story highlights the essence of the absurd condition of the world and how it forces onto Daru a situation beyond his control, regardless of his moral attitude. In Daru’s land, drought is followed by snow and, although people suffer, the world continues on. Man also fights the utter isolation of life. Even through constant social connections, none serve to change the fact that each person is isolated. Daru faces this in his snowy isolated classroom, but still
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This idea is present in another of Camus’ pieces, “The Myth of Sisyphus”, where Sisyphus is able to defy gods and the world by finding joy in his suffering. In “The Guest”, Daru finds peace in the world in his schoolhouse atop the snowy and isolate plateau. He finds this peace in contrast to the extreme poverty the region had faced earlier, allowing him to be “nonetheless satisfied with the little he had” (1585). Camus uses the drought-stricken land to represent the universe as something that acts with no discrimination or thought. Even after the village has gone through extreme poverty and loss with “the plateaus burned to a cinder month after month”, the universe kept its course and remains uncaring (1585). Daru finds his home here despite the challenges of the land, even saying “everywhere else, he felt exiled” (1586). Talking about the surrounding region places further emphasis on the meaningless of life, where “no one in this desert, neither he nor his guest, mattered” (1589). Despite this, Daru toils over the Arab’s fate, hoping the Arab would run away so things would be simpler, and questioning whether he should free the Arab or not. The story details an individual’s absurdness, but the landscape details the whole of humanity. “Towns sprang up, flourished, then disappeared; men came by, loved one another or fought bitterly, then died”, revealing that everyone’s lives end the same, no matter what path they take during it (1589). Daru embodies the “absurdness” of man. He searches for a life and meaning in an indifferent, meaningless and lonely world. Even though Daru embraces these ideals, he also succumbs to his own mind in the end. After seeing the threat on the chalkboard, he realizes his life is purposeless and short, for “in this vast landscape he had loved so much, he was alone”
This idea is present in another of Camus’ pieces, “The Myth of Sisyphus”, where Sisyphus is able to defy gods and the world by finding joy in his suffering. In “The Guest”, Daru finds peace in the world in his schoolhouse atop the snowy and isolate plateau. He finds this peace in contrast to the extreme poverty the region had faced earlier, allowing him to be “nonetheless satisfied with the little he had” (1585). Camus uses the drought-stricken land to represent the universe as something that acts with no discrimination or thought. Even after the village has gone through extreme poverty and loss with “the plateaus burned to a cinder month after month”, the universe kept its course and remains uncaring (1585). Daru finds his home here despite the challenges of the land, even saying “everywhere else, he felt exiled” (1586). Talking about the surrounding region places further emphasis on the meaningless of life, where “no one in this desert, neither he nor his guest, mattered” (1589). Despite this, Daru toils over the Arab’s fate, hoping the Arab would run away so things would be simpler, and questioning whether he should free the Arab or not. The story details an individual’s absurdness, but the landscape details the whole of humanity. “Towns sprang up, flourished, then disappeared; men came by, loved one another or fought bitterly, then died”, revealing that everyone’s lives end the same, no matter what path they take during it (1589). Daru embodies the “absurdness” of man. He searches for a life and meaning in an indifferent, meaningless and lonely world. Even though Daru embraces these ideals, he also succumbs to his own mind in the end. After seeing the threat on the chalkboard, he realizes his life is purposeless and short, for “in this vast landscape he had loved so much, he was alone”