This is roughly the script to the audio and click here for The Guest on YouTube.
Hi everyone,
This week, we’re focusing on morality and choice in literature, with a spotlight on The Guest by Albert Camus.
Now, let’s be real. When we talk about morality, a lot of people assume we’re getting into black-and-white territory. They think it’s right versus wrong, good guys versus bad guys. But literature rarely works that way. In fact, the best stories often do the opposite. They drop characters into situations where no choice feels entirely right, and every action carries consequences. That’s exactly what Camus gives us in The Guest.
So let’s set the stage.
The Guest takes place in Algeria during a time of colonial tension between the French and the Arab population. Our main character, Daru, is a schoolteacher living alone in a remote desert outpost. He’s a quiet man, disconnected from the politics around him. Then one day, a gendarme arrives and hands him a prisoner, a man who has killed his cousin, and tells Daru to deliver him to the authorities.
Right there, the moral dilemma kicks in.
Daru doesn’t want to be part of this. He didn’t arrest the man. He doesn’t know the full story. He doesn’t even want to be involved in the conflict between colonizers and the colonized. But suddenly, he’s been placed in a position of power and responsibility, whether he asked for it or not.
So what are his options?
Option one: do what he’s told. March the prisoner to the police station. Follow orders. Let the system handle it. But to Daru, that feels like a betrayal of his principles – his belief in individual freedom and neutrality.
Option two: help the man escape. This choice could be seen as taking sides in a political conflict. He wants no part of that conflict. It could also make Daru a target.
Option three: give the prisoner the freedom to choose—take the road to prison or the road to freedom.
That’s what Daru ultimately does. He feeds the man and gives him shelter. He treats him with dignity. Then, he leads him to a crossroads, literally, and lets him decide.
This choice is central to Camus’ philosophy. Camus was associated with existentialism. He was also linked to absurdism. Both focus on the idea that life doesn’t come with a built-in moral order. We have to create meaning ourselves. There’s no cosmic scorekeeper. No guaranteed justice. Just choices, actions, and consequences.
In that light, Daru’s decision seems noble. He refuses to dehumanize the prisoner. He respects his agency. But is it the right choice?
That’s where things get messy.
Because by stepping back, by refusing to choose for the prisoner, Daru ends up being held responsible anyway. When he returns to the schoolhouse, he finds a message scrawled on the blackboard: “You handed over our brother. You will pay for this.”
So what just happened?
Camus is demonstrating that neutrality is a choice. Even when we try to stay out of moral or political conflicts, the world doesn’t let us off the hook. There’s no clean escape from responsibility. Inaction is still a form of action. That’s a brutal truth—one that literature forces us to confront over and over.
Let’s zoom out for a second.
This isn’t just a Guest thing. This theme runs through literature like a current. Think about Antigone. The title character must choose to obey the law. She must also decide whether to bury her brother out of love and loyalty. Or The Crucible, where John Proctor chooses to tell the truth and face death rather than live with a lie. Or even in more modern stories like The Hunger Games, The Road, Never Let Me Go, where characters are constantly forced to make impossible choices. They often face these dilemmas without knowing what the right answer is.
That’s because morality in literature isn’t about finding the right answer. It’s about asking the hard questions.
In The Guest, Camus is asking:
- Can you stay neutral in a world full of conflict?
- What do you owe to other people’s freedom?
- Is it moral to give someone a choice that could lead to their own destruction?
- And when you’re faced with an impossible situation—what defines the moral action?
He doesn’t give us clear answers. He doesn’t tell us how to feel about Daru. He just leaves us with a question mark—and that’s what makes the story so powerful.
So as you reflect on The Guest this week, I want you to resist the urge to solve the story. Instead, explore it. Sit in the discomfort. Ask yourself: What would I have done? And why?
And most importantly – are you okay with the cost of your choice?
Because that, in the end, is what morality in literature comes down to: not just what you choose, but what you’re willing to live with after the choice is made.
See you in the discussion.
Education Universe 