Exile and the Kingdom

Short stories are fun to read especially when they leave you hanging.  This is the case in Albert Camus’ “The Guest” written in 1957, part of Camus’ collection of stories called Exile and the Kingdom.  The story is set in Algeria, a northern rural area, in early Fall after the first snowfall of the season.  Two men are climbing a rocky slope while the main character, Daru (a schoolmaster), watches from his schoolhouse as they walk toward him.  Daru notices the gendarme, Balducci, walking a captive with hands tied coming toward his schoolhouse.  Balducci explains that the Arab captive needs to be brought to the other side of the county to prison for killing his own cousin.  Balducci is unable to bring the captive any further and informs Daru he must bring him to the jailer.  Daru refuses and yet is given an ultimatum by Balducci.  After Balducci leaves, Daru feeds the Arab and engages him in dialogue.  They sleep next to each other that evening and the next day Daru gives him food and money and tells him to walk to the prison himself.  What will the Arab do?  Will he do as requested, or will he interpret Daru’s kind actions of money and food and go another route?  The reader will never know.  But when Daru returns home he finds an eerie message of revenge for not doing the delivery as requested.  What will happen to the kind schoolmaster?  Hard to say what will happen but the reader knows the masterful author once again leaves his reader to reflect on good/bad and human choice, what would you do?  It is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t – as is many ethical choices in life.  Camus is a quintessential writer who gives the reader the question and we have the obligation to reflect… what would we do?  A great short read.  You have 20 minutes, you gotta read this.