c



  



á

 begins with Daru, the schoolmaster, watching two men approach on the plateau
below him. One man rides a horse and the other follows on foot. He stands in front of the
schoolhouse, his home, and calculates that it will take thirty minutes for them to reach the
point where he stands on the hillside. He can see the horse's breath, can't hear any sound, and
he surmises that one of the men knows the way. A thin layer of snow has covered the trail.

Daru crosses the empty classroom and notes the blackboard, which has a drawing of the four
rivers of France on it. After an eight-month draught October brought a sudden snowfall, so
Daru's pupils, all of whom live on the plateau, are unable to attend classes. As a result, Daru
keeps the classroom cold, only heating the small adjacent room that serves as his living
quarters.

After warming up in his room, Daru returns to the window. He can no longer see the
approaching men, and he assumes they have begun to ascend the plateau. The remarks to
himself that the weather is much better now than it had been the three previous days, during
the blizzard. For those days, Daru had only left the schoolhouse to feed the chickens or go to
the shed. Luckily, the supply truck from Tadjid, which is the nearest village to the north, had
come two days before the blizzard.

We learn from the narrator that Daru could have survived a siege, as there are bags of wheat
strewn about the room. These were brought by the administrative authorities; Daru gives the
rations of flour to the children each day. Now that the pupils are not attending classes, Daru
thinks, theyir families will miss the food. He expects some of the pupils' older brothers or
fathers to show up for a ration of grain. Before the blizzard, the draught had been hard on
everyone living on the plateau; now the worst is over, and wheat arrives from France. During
the draught, the natives of the region had wandered the plateau like ghosts, and thousands of
sheep had died. Unfortunately, men died once and a while too.

During the draught, Daru had felt like a lord in his crude living arrangements. Although he
lives a quite spartan life, he was surrounded by utter poverty. Now, the snow is a reminder of
the cruelty of this region, even in the absence of men. Yet Daru was born here, and he feels
exiled anywhere else.

Daru goes out to the terrace at the front of the school house; the two men are halfway up the
slope. He recognizes the man on the horse as Balducci, an old gendarme he has known for a
long time. Balducci leads an Arab by a rope. His hands are tied and his head lowered.
Balducci greets Daru, but the schoolmaster is lost in his 'contemplation' of the Arab. The two
advance slowly so that the Arab will not be hurt.

Balducci yells a remark about how long the journey took from El Ameur. Daru again does not
respond, but merely continues to watch them climb, specifically the Arab, still has not raised
his head. He finally greets them on the terrace, and invites them into the schoolhouse. Daru
leads the horse to the shed, and then returns to the two men, are now inside. They all occupy
Daru's living quarter and Daru decides to heat the classroom, where they will be more
comfortable.

After untying the rope that connects him to the Arab, Balducci sits on the sofa. The Arab
crouches near the stove. He looks toward the window, and Daru notices his thick lips. Daru
thinks that the Arab has a restless and rebellious look when they make eye contact. Balducci
mentions that he's looking forward to his retirement. He speaks to the Arab in Arabic, who
follows him into the classroom with his hands still tied.

Daru brings mint tea and unties the Arab. The Arab drinks the tea feverishly, and Daru asks
Balducci where the two travelers are headed. Balducci says that he must return to El Ameur,
and that Daru has been ordered to deliver the Arab to Tinguit, where he is expected at police
headquarters. This surprises Daru. Balducci sympathizes, but says that Daru's task is an order
and that during war people must be prepared to face many types of jobs. Daru says that he
will wait for a declaration of war, and Balducci nods, but points out that the orders still exist.
He is concerned about a revolution. He tells Daru that he likes him, and explains that he is
needed back at El Ameur because they only have a dozen men to patrol the territory. He has
been ordered to bring the prisoner to Daru, and then return without delay.

Balducci tells Daru that the Arab killed his own cousin over a family squabble. Daru asks if
the Arab is against them, but Balducci does not think so. Daru serves more tea. Balducci
prepares to leave, but when he approaches the Arab to bind him, Daru waves him away.
Balducci warns Daru that he should be armed in the case of an uprising, but Daru proclaims
that he has no fear.

Balducci leaves Daru a gun, but as he's leaving Daru tells him that he will not hand over the
Arab. The gendarme calls him a fool. He agrees that it is unfortunate, but insists that it is their
duty. Balducci decides not to tell anyone about Daru's disobedience, but asks him to sign a
paper. The gendarme feels insulted by Daru's disobedience. He looks at the Arab, and then
says goodbye to Daru, calling him 'son.' The schoolmaster watches him leave, and then
retreats to his room, leaving the Arab alone.


 
Camus's political, moral, and philosophical beliefs were still developing when he wrote á


, but the story nevertheless embodies Camus's view of the human condition. Camus
agreed with Kierkegaard that despair is not an act, but a human state. He saw this state of
despair resulting from isolation from the rest of the world. á

 charts Daru's journey
into a state of moral despair against the backdrop of his solitude.

Daru state of isolation is obvious from the start as he watches two strangers approach. He
views them dispassionately from his distance atop the plateau, unable even to recognize his
friend. Daru has been alone for days; yet he is not necessarily lonely. He is even grateful for
his situation compared with the poverty and hunger of the natives of the plateau. His state of
isolation is thus a state of self-sufficiency. Daru seems capable of carrying on indefinitely, as
long as his basic needs of shelter, food and warmth are met. Indeed, the story examines each
of these needs -- the bags of grain in the classroom, the warmth of Daru's small lodgings or
his need for a sweater while watching the two men.
While Daru waits for the two men to reach the schoolhouse, his thoughts reveal the
characteristics of the region. The inhospitable terrain that dominates the plateau represents
Camus's notion of the absurd, where the universe is completely silent and indifferent towards
humanity. The land is not giving or forgiving; it is simply cruel: "This is the way the region
was, cruel to live in, even without men..." Camus regularly suggests this natural harshness, as
when the two men are forced to navigate the hill without the guide of a path. Nature's ice and
snow makes an already difficult trek all the more treacherous. Nature also behaves very
irrationally. After an eight-month draught, nature finally supplies water in the absurd form of
snow. By itself, these weather conditions are simply a fact of nature, but combined with
human need, the extremity represents Camus's idea of the absurd. He says, "The absurd is
born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the
world." He creates a representation of the absurd by joining extreme physical conditions with
basic human survival needs. "The absurd is not in man or in the world, but in their presence
together... it is the only bond uniting them." One of many examples of humans struggling to
survive in the harsh natural conditions is Daru's recollection of the starving people wandering
the plateau during the draught. The plateau will not help them.

When Daru returns to the classroom the narrator describes the four rivers of France that are
drawn on the blackboard. This is the introduction of the political and cultural currents that are
one of the main foundations of the story. Written at the onset of the Algerian uprising against
the French, the tension between the Arab culture and the ruling French creates much distress
in the story. Those the European Algerians and the Arabs share the same harsh climate, the
political and cultural tension between them prevents any feelings of camaraderie.

Daru's schoolhouse, where he also lives, has windows that look towards the south. This view
to the south is where he first spots the two men, but once he has found warmer clothes he can
no longer see them from the window. At the end of the story he looks to the south hoping to
see the Arab traveling in that direction and these windows foreshadow the hope to see such a
sight in the south. For now, the south represents the Arab territories. Europe lies to the north,
over the sea, and the contains indiginous settlements. The Arab is carried out of his cultural
mileau -- away from his family and his local customs -- and forced to submit to a European
justice system.

When the visitors arrive, Daru immediately scrutinizes the Arab for clues as to his crime. He
notices everything from the Arab's clothes to his demeanor, yet he can never truly "know" the
Arab with certainty. The Arab's motivations, his past actions, his guilt or innocence are all
indeterminate. Daru will never have enough knowledge about the Arab to pass judgment on
him. Needless to say, the reader is also allowed only partial knowledge of the Arab. We thus
experiece Daru's ensuing moral quandary along with him.

The theme of freedom is an integral part of Camus's 'absurdist' philosophy. Within the state of
the absurd, Camus sees an individual's freedom to choose as something that gives value to life.
Through freedom of action an individual can find meaning in an otherwise meaningless and
indifferent world. The interaction between Balducci and Daru stresses the importance of
freedom. Their interaction makes up a majority of the dialogue in the story, and revolves
primarily around the orders that Balducci delivers. Daru maintains his freedom to make his
own decision, and Balducci honors Daru's choice. However, their understanding follows from
their political affiliation; the Arab's freedom is a much thornier issue. Daru seems predisposed
to grant the Arab freedom from the beginning, as illustrated when he unbinds the Arab's hands
and gives him tea.
Another function of their dialogue is to flesh-out the political backdrop of the story. Balducci
speaks of a revolution, which clearly references the Algerian uprising. The Algerian War
displaced millions of people against their will, and so discussion of this rebellion certainly
implicates Camus's ideas on freedom. They are also connected to the Daru's sense of
belonging within this remote region.

Throughout, Camus uses free indirect style to enhance ambiguity and uncertainty in the
narrative. The narrator's descriptions mingle with Daru's thoughts, at times appearing
inseparable. This ambiguity keeps the reader from certain knowledge. Thus the problem of
partial knowledge that pervades the story influences even Camu's writing style.

c

 




Daru lies on his couch and listens to the silence. He recalls how hard the silence and solitude
of the plateau had been for him when he first arrived. He thinks about how neither he nor his
guest matter in this desert, yet they do not belong anywhere else.

Daru goes into the classroom and brings the Arab back into the bedroom. He sets the table for
two and makes them a meal. Daru sets up a bed for the Arab after they eat. In the dark he asks
his prisoner why he killed his cousin, to which the Arab responds vaguely. The Arab wants to
know what they will do to him, and Daru asks him if he is afraid. He also asks him if he is
sorry for the murder, but the Arab does not seem to understand. The Arab wants to know what
will happen to him, and whether the gendarme will return. As they prepare for bed, Daru does
not have any answers for the prisoner.

Daru has trouble sleeping; he's uncomfortable with the presence of the Arab in the room,
feeling that their closeness imposed a form of brotherhood on him that he refuses to accept. In
the middle of the night the Arab sneaks out of bed and leaves the room. Daru, still awake, is
relieved because he thinks the prisoner is escaping. The Arab returns, however, and Daru
finally falls asleep.

In the morning he wakes the Arab and they eat breakfast. He cleans the room and puts the bed
away. Then he goes out into the terrace and observes the plateau. As he stands there he thinks
of how he insulted Balducci. He still hears the gendarme's farewell. These memories of the
previous night make him feel vulnerable. The prisoner coughs, restoring Daru to the present.
Daru is furious at the Arab, and is revolted by his crime, yet he feels that turning him in to the
authorities would be a dishonorable act.

Daru and the Arab put their clothing on, and Daru prepares a small packet of food. They leave
the schoolhouse and begin moving east. They walk for an hour before resting at a sharp peak
of limestone. They continue walking and Daru notes how nature comes alive.

After another hour of walking, they stop and Daru surveys the landscape. He hands the Arab a
pack of food and two thousand francs. He tells him that he can survive for two days. The
prisoner takes the gifts, but holds them at chest height as if he has no idea what they signify.
Daru turns him east and points out the direction to Tinguit. Then he turns him to the south and
shows him a path across the plateau. He explains that in a day's walk he will find pasture
lands and the first nomads who will shelter him. The Arab has a look of panic on his face, and
tries to speak. Daru interrupts him, however, and leaves before anything more can be said. He
continues to look back at the motionless Arab. He feels something in his throat at the site of
the solitary figure, but pushes away his emotions. When he looks again the Arab has
disappeared.

Daru hesitates, but finally decides to retrace his steps and return to the spot where he left the
Arab. When he reaches the little hill he sees the prisoner trudging east towards Tinguit.

A short while later he stands at the window of the schoolhouse window. On the bl ackboard
there is written, "You have handed over our brother. You will pay for this." Daru feels
desperately alone.


 
In the moments immediately following Balducci's departure, Daru listens to the silence
surrounding him. Here, as throughout the narrative, the landscape represents Camus's idea of
an indifferent universe: devoid of logic and silent to the needs of humankind. Daru listens to
the silence as if it is an entity. He recalls his struggle to adjust to it, and also to the pervading
solitude. His opinion of the region is an echo of Camus's philosophy of life: "No one in this
desert, neither he nor his guest, mattered." Yet Daru has a logical reason for remaining here: it
offers him a sense of belonging that no other place can give. Camus believes that it is the
freedom to choose and an individual's experience that give meaning to life. Daru finds
meaning in his life through his decision to live in this cruel landscape, and in this way he has
come to terms with the pervasive silence.

The Arab however, represents the beginning of a shift in the way Daru feels about the plateau
region. By the end of the narrative he no longer feels attached to it. The Arab is an extremely
complicated and ambiguous character. He offers neither Daru nor the reader any answers.
Daru has mixed emotions: he feels revolted by the prisoner's alleged crime, yet he does not
want to lead him to imprisonment. His inability to make a clear judgment on the Arab results
from a lack of knowledge, which eventually alienates him from the plateau region and leaves
him in a moral no-man's land.

Daru hopes that his moral dilemma will simply go away -- that is, he hopes that the prisoner
will escape. He gives the Arab many chances, leaving him alone in the classroom and hoping
that the Arab has fled during the night. Daru's fear of making a decision represents his
inability to acknowledge the absurd; although there is no good choice, Camus feels that the
act of making a choice and standing by that choice is the most important thing a human being
can do. His unwillingness to be the prisoner's prosecutor is based on logic: he has no concrete
proof of the man's guilt, and it goes against his code of honor. However, justice, like nature, is
an unfeeling, absurd abstraction. Though Daru proves able to face down the absurdity of the
landscape, he cannot handle political and judicial ambiguity, and thus finds himself
completely isolated.

Daru continually strives to imbue his essentially meaningless choice with some clear logic.
He tries to learn about the Arab through conversation; however, their cultural differences (and
the fact that they are strangers) precludes understanding. Meanwhile, sharing his room with
the Arab imposes upon Daru a feeling of fraternity for the Arab. He is clearly unable to
control the circumstances surrounding his choice; nevertheless, he must choose. Daru
consistently fails to do so.

One of the cheif ambiguities in this section is the evidence that creeps up now and then that
Daru and the Arab are not alone. Daru hears a rustling around the house during the night and
again when he and the Arab set out in the morning. Camus suggests that the Arab's friends are
circling the schoolhouse to see what Daru plans on doing with the prisoner. However, there in
no way to prove this hypothesis with certainty; the sounds Daru hears may be those of
animals, or simply the result of his paranoia. The feeling that a hidden society is waiting to
pass judgement on Daru haunts the story. Those judges, whoever they may be, do not know
the whole story of Daru's moral struggle, just as Daru does not know the Arab's story, yet
(unlike Daru) they will pass judgement anyway.

On the morning of their journey, Daru cannot find a way of his complex situation. He fails to
choose, instead trying to pass his choice along to the prisoner. He shows the Arab the
direction east, and also the direction south, and then leaves him to decide where to go. He
leaves the Arab, but returns when his anxiety to know how the Arab has chosen gets the most
of him. Perhaps he believes that in allowing the Arab to choose he will find out the truth of
his guilt. Yet the Arab's choice does not provide any answers for him or the reader. Indeed, it's
ambiguous whether the Arab even understood Daru's explanation of the difference between
going east and going south.

The end of á

 embodies the overwhelming solitude that pervades the narrative. The
landscape symbolizes Daru's isolation. However, where he once felt "at home" on the plateau
-- because he chose to live there, thus embracing its absurdity -- the episode with the Arab has
left him in a state of radical uncertainty. He views the Arab moving through the harsh
landscape with new eyes, feeling it's desperate solitude. He no longer feels "at home" on the
plateau, because the natural landscape has become associated with the moral dilemma of the
Arab, and with the Arab's choice to walk toward imprisonment. In failing to make a decision,
he has allowed the Arab to impose a new meaning on the landscape.

Daru's return home emphasizes this newfound despair. His window looks south, which is the
direction the Arab would have taken for freedom. Thus the window reminds him both of the
Arab's failure to choose freedom, and his own failure to choose the Arab's fate.

Daru's alientation from the plateau region becomes all the more concrete, and all the more
dangerous, with the writing on the blackboard. Camus leaves it unclear who wrote the note.
Perhaps Daru himself wrote it as an expression of his morally complex state of despair.
However, the note may have been written by Daru's friends. If so, they replay the moral
problem that faced Daru. Though the people who wrote it have no access to Daru's moral
struggle, they are in a position to pass judgement upon him for it. We assume that they will
not be as wishy-washy as Daru was.

 





Daru faces a moral dilemma when he is ordered to turn in the Arab. Like all the themes in the
narrative, morality is treated with ambiguity. Daru's course of action leads him into moral
trouble: he does not know whether the Arab deserves to be punished or let go, and he allows
this uncertainty to overwhelm him. He fails to choose at all, instead allowing the Arab to
choose either freedom or trial. Daru's ensuing moral despair should be understood in the light
of Camus's philosophy. Camus believed that once a decision was reached, it should be stuck
to, and that the freedom to choose one's action gives meaning to human life. Daru certainly
believes that turning in the Arab was wrong, yet he fails to simply release the prisoner. He
fails to make a decision, and as a result he is left in complete moral solitude.




There are two kinds of solitude in á

. Throughout the story Daru faces physical
isolation on his the remote plateau. This physical solitude is not a negative state, however;
Daru has accepted his living conditions and indeed feels at home within them. Though the
landscape itself is unfeeling and unforgiving, Daru makes himself comfortable within it.

At the end however, Daru occupies a state of moral solitude. His failure to act with regard to
the Arab's fate has left him disconnected from himself. He looks at the harsh landscape, once
his home, and sees only his failure to choose. This moral solitude is most clearly symbolized
by the mysterious writing on the blackboard. If he wrote it himself, it represents his despair
and his alienation from himself -- he has betrayed his own principles in allowing the Arab to
choose punishment. If someone else wrote it, it represents a clear threat. Daru, who failed to
use judgement, will now be judged by others who do not understand him. Thus his situation is
one of extreme isolation from human understanding.

x


Freedom lies at the core of á

, and is inherently connnected with the human right to
choose a course of action. Freedom gives life meaning, and Camus believed that through
independent action one finds value in life. The narrative represents this philosophy. Daru's
choice to live in the plateau region is a choice motivated out of what Camus would call an
understanding of the "absurd." Any human needs to belong to a place, and the cruel plateau
region embodies a type of home for him despite its desolate climate. Just so, Camus feels, we
all need to make a home for ourselves within an essentially uncaring universe. The way we
make this home is through individual choice.

However, the freedom to choose is also paradoxically an obligation. When we decide not to
choose we fall victim to the essential cruelty and ambiguity of the universe. Indeed, we cannot
decide not to choose -- we must choose in order to retain freedom. Daru attempts to pass
along his obligation to choose to the Arab. However, when the Arab decides to turn himself in,
Daru suffers for it. Daru should have made a decision, one way or the other, and stuck with it.
Instead, he finds himself in a state of desperate moral ambiguity.

Ô   


Everyone in á

 has limited knowledge of the happenings of the story. Balducci doesn't
know why the Arab killed his cousin, or why Daru must take the Arab to the police; he simply
has his orders and follows them. Daru doesn't know whether the Arab should be released or
punished, though he constantly tries to glean information about why the Arab committed
murder -- if he even did. Meanwhile, the Arab displays confusion when Daru asks him
difficult questions and when Daru explains his choice to either escape to the south or turn
himself into the police.

The reader, too, occupies a limited vantage point. We never learn whether the Arab deserves
punishment or freedom. We never learn who wrote the message on the blackboard at the end
of the story. Camus denies us crucial knowledge, thus putting us in a similar position to Daru
-- or to any individual who must make choices despite his or her limited perspective.

And indeed, we all must do so every day, though rarely in the dramatic fashion Camus sets up
in á

. Because human knowledge is always subjectively situated -- that is, it always
happens from a particular individual's point-of-view -- it's always going to be limited. If we
let this fact haunt us, the way that Daru does, we open ourselves up to moral despair.
However, if we make choices anyway and  our choices, we may avoid such despair. Daru
becomes preoccupied with the limitations of his knowledge and thus fails to choose --
opening the door to despair.




Camus envisions the universe as silent and indifferent (his portrayal of the cruel plateau
region fits this vision very neatly). Despite this indifference, human beings must survive.
They continue to build meaning and pursue certainty, even though such aims are impossible.
This combination of a godless, uncaring world and human striving leads to a condition that
Camus dubs "the absurd." He writes, "The absurd is born of this confrontation between the
human need and the unreasonable silence of the world."

Although it might sound pretty depressing to live in an inescapable state of "the absurd,"
Camus feels that this is the only way we can exist. One must continue striving, choosing and
pursuing freedom, even though the universe does not care whether we live or die. Daru's
ability to find comfort and within the harsh plateau climate bodes well for his ability to
sustain life in absurd conditions; however, his failure to respond to the moral dilemma
represented by the Arab ultimately crushes him. In the face of ambiguity and uncertainty, one
must act with an absurd confidence. One must choose anyway. Daru fails to do so, and thus
falls into despair.