Student Question
What is the social and historical context of "The Guest"?
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"The Guest" by Albert Camus is set in French colonial North Africa during the mid-20th century, a time marked by tensions surrounding French colonial rule. Camus, born in Algeria, had complex views on colonialism, supporting French presence but criticizing its excesses. The story reflects the strained relations between Arabs and French colonists, known as pieds-noirs, amid the backdrop of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). This historical tension is embodied in the character of Daru.
The social and historical context of “The Guest” is French colonial North Africa in the mid-twentieth century.
Up until the 1960s, the French had extensive colonies throughout the world, including North Africa, where many French colonists—including Camus and his family—lived.
Camus's opinions on the French colonial enterprise remain controversial to this day. Although he was repulsed by the excesses of French colonial rule in Algeria, the place where he was born, he remained convinced until his dying day that Algeria should remain part of France.
Camus's ambivalent stance towards colonialism meant that he was loathed by Algerian independence campaigners, French anti-colonialists, and right-wing groups in France and French North Africa who strongly opposed his criticisms of colonial rule.
Something of Camus's political isolation can be seen in the character of Daru in “The Guest.” Like Camus, he is ostensibly committed to maintaining French rule in North Africa while...
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at the same time finding certain aspects of it morally repugnant. This explains why he gives the Arab prisoner the opportunity to escape.
However, Daru still remains a part of the white colonial elite and, despite his sympathy towards his prisoner, is still a target of hatred and suspicion, much as Camus was to indigenous Algerians.
What is the social and historical context of "The Guest"?
Albert Camus's short story "The Guest" is set in French North Africa, where Camus himself grew up. The French had conquered a large part of North Africa in the nineteenth century and, by the time Camus published "The Guest" in 1957, had dominated the region for well over a century.
At this point in history, however, there were various revolutions and attempts to gain independence throughout the region. Probably the most significant was a conflict in which Camus was directly involved, the Algerian War of Independence, which lasted from 1954 until 1962.
Camus, who was born in Algeria and had lived there for much of his life, returned to his homeland from France in 1956 in an attempt to assist in negotiating peace between Algeria and France. "The Guest," at least in terms of historical setting and general atmosphere, appears to have been based on his experiences during this stay. The social context, in terms of the strained and ambiguous relations between Arabs and those French people who, like Camus, were born in the colony (colloquially known as pieds-noirs) would have been familiar to him from childhood.