SOURCE: Black, Moishe. “Camus's ‘L'Hôte’ as a Ritual Hospitality.” Nottingham French Studies (spring 1989): 39-52.

In the following essay, Black reads Daru's behavior in “The Guest” as part of the ritual of Arabic and nomadic hospitality.

Daru's behaviour, first towards the policeman and his Arab prisoner, then towards the Arab alone, has always made me feel that I am watching a ceremony of hospitality acted out, and I wish to explore the possibility of reading Camus's story in that way.¹

Four elements in the tale might authorize such an interpretation. Firstly and most obviously, its title. Quilliot (p. 2048) refers to no fewer than four other titles—‘Sous la neige’, ‘Caïn’, ‘La Loi’ and especially ‘les Hauts Plateaux et le Condamné’—considered by the author before he chose ‘L'Hôte’, and since each one would have made the reader view the story from a different angle, Camus's careful...