The Guest is
a short story of Albert Camus that has remained in my consciousness for years. The
protagonist, Daru, is a French schoolteacher who lives in his “schoolhouse” on a
remote hillside “almost like a monk.” The setting is during the Algerian War of
Independence against France. One day Daru finds himself ordered by a French
gendarme to keep an Arab murderer with him for the night before taking him to
the police authorities the next morning.
Daru is not a shallow nationalist who
will do anything that his country demands merely because he was born in that
country. He believes in his own individual rights and moral duties more than in
national obligations. What do patriotism and nationalism mean if they demand actions
from you that go against your personal convictions? You become antinational.
You can be labelled anything like ‘a terrorist’ or ‘an urban Naxal.’ You can be
arrested and killed by your nation though you have done nothing wrong by your
personal morality and convictions. Your office can be raided, properties
confiscated, house bulldozed…
Daru’s sympathies are with neither
his colonial government nor the murderous Arab prisoner. But he is not
interested in doing the task assigned to him: leading a fellow human being to
the brutal police. He leaves the prisoner unchained at night so that he can
escape if he wants. But the prisoner doesn’t escape.
Daru takes the man to the police
headquarters the next morning. But, on the way, he stops, hands over a packet
of food to the prisoner and says, “Take it. There are dates, bread, and sugar.
You can hold out for two days. Here are a thousand francs too.”
Daru tells him also how to reach “the
administration and the police” if he chooses to. But that’s the choice of the
prisoner. If he wants, he can surrender himself. If he chooses otherwise, he
can escape.
Daru is acting in accordance with his
own moral convictions. Daru, like his creator Camus, doesn’t approve of the
French government’s oppression of the native Algerians. Camus also believed
that one’s national obligations should not override one’s personal moral
responsibility. By giving the Arab prisoner a choice over his fate, Daru is
rejecting the imposition of duties on him by his nation. He is making a
personal choice.
But he has to pay heavily for it. As
a result of this choice, he becomes an enemy of his government. Ironically, he
becomes an enemy of the Arab revolutionaries too. When he returns to his
classroom later, he sees the inscription on the blackboard: “You handed over
our brother. You will pay for this.”
How much liberty does an individual
really have? Can you live without taking sides in any country? Is it necessary
for you to be right or left or liberal? Is it necessary to accept a label and
live with that? If you are not with us, you are against us?
Camus was not against the idea of national obligations, of course. He wouldn’t accept any national obligation that goes against a person’s individual conscience. One’s duty to humanity outweighs duty to the state. I find Camus appealing all the more to me as years go by.
PS. A post I wrote 12 years ago on
the same short story: Camus’
Predicament
[Both images generated by Copilot Designer]
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteA subject that is as pertinent to ponder these days as last century, or the centuries before... more and more we see evidence that to differ from the views of 'the state' is to immediately be at risk... YAM xx
The latest is the blocking of a magazine website because of a cartoon on Modi! Even humor dies...
DeleteHatred and narcissism does not tolerate humour or justice.
ReplyDeletePrecisely.
DeleteThank you very much! Camus is also one of my favorites. I love particularly the "carnets" https://shorturl.at/CNrhS
ReplyDeleteGlad to meet another Camus fan.
DeleteKinda timely. I'm sure you know this. I never could get Camus, but then again, I was exposed to him as a teenager. I'll probably read him differently now.
ReplyDeleteCamus has a unique charm.
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