Analysis of Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus - Essay Example

Analysis of Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus In the collection of short stories from the book Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus, he has once again been able to express his ideals of absurdity and existentialism, as he prefers his beliefs to be termed. His perspectives are rendered masterfully through the variety of the six stories in the collection. People are depicted through the painful odds within the world around them: such as a wife surrendering to a desert night by betraying her beloved husband; an artist struggles through the conflict of honoring the society’s expectations around him as well as his own aspirations; a missionary brutality is converted to a tribal fetish worship and later left with nothing but a loud echo in his identity.

No matter the stories’ settings and contexts in the book, it is vivid that all the stories tend to define the absurdity in a man’s heart and inner being that humans perpetually search for the inner place that can offer nothing but a second rebirth. In The Guest, Camus holds the theme of suffering and morality with absurdity. Daru gets into a Moral Dilemma as to whether the Arab should be punished or let go. He is ordered to turn in the Arab, but his morality questions his course of action.

Therefore, he allows the uncertainty to overwhelm him and he declines to make a choice at all. Instead, he allows the Arab to choose for himself, as to whether he deserved freedom or Judgment. Camus in his book tries to project his philosophy that once a decision is met, it should be stuck to, but Daru fails to reach a decision. He believes that it was wrong to turn in the Arab; and he still fails to release him. He is left in a moral solitude when he fails to reach a decision (Camus 81). Every man seeks an inner peace in life.

There is a need for one to be in command or rule over self and when this is not achieved, sadness ensues as in the case of Daru. People are in constant need to rule others, and be able to control self as well. Every human is born with an innate need to imperialism and sense of control to both men and nature. Normally, people fail to accomplish the need and this has always resulted to sadness. This is part of the theory developed by Camus in his book Exile and the Kingdom. What the author insinuates throughout the book is that the kingdom lies within, but is barely recognized or noticed.

Suffering and exile is expressed with ambiguity as well in The Guest. Daru suffers isolation and seclusion in the remote Algeria. Ironically, this is the land he has lived in for ages; yet the people do not consider him as part of them. Camus has shown great suffering with ambiguity in the context that Daru is unable to make choices defined by the powers invested in him by the French government that rules Algeria. The people of Algeria suffer the reign but Daru is incapable to make the decision that will bring suffering to the Arab prisoner.

Analytically, this makes him a prisoner within himself. Failure to himself induces the sadness – he is in exile from self and within self: absurd. Suffering, exile and rebellion are symbolically depicted in the short stories with a state of awareness and unawareness, meaning and meaninglessness. For instant, in the Silent Men within Exile and the Kingdom, Yvars fails to notice and react or respond to the evidences of the ambiguous and absurd aspects that affect his life in the personal contexts of work, home, rational and irrationality (Camus 57).

He has now chosen to enjoy looking at the sea when riding his bicycle to work every morning. He dwells in the memories of the past to suppress the state of suffering he is going through from the inside without acute realization of approaching old age. Technically, he is in exile from self. There is a great deal of self and denial projected in the entire book. Daru cannot even exercise his own powers and instead feels sad about the fact; he is sad in a country where he is treated by the ruling government as part of the elite.

The Guest is the most vivid example to the theory Camus seeks to express throughout the collection of short stories and there are two types of solitude portrayed in the story. Throughout the Story, Daru is portrayed as a lonely man who spends most of his time in his isolated or secluded remote plateau. However, this physical solitude is not a negative situation since Daru accepts his living condition and feels comfortable within them. He makes himself feel at home with the condition even though the landscape itself is expressed as unforgiving and unfeeling.

Daru’s inability to act with regard to the state of the Arab leaves him in a moral seclusion. He is left disconnected with himself and sees only his failure to make a choice within a place that he once called home, as he looked at the harsh exterior – landscape (Camus 83). This is further expressed with the writing on the blackboard; if he had written it himself, the mysterious writing would represent his despair and isolation from himself. He clearly had betrayed his own principles when he allowed the Arad to choose punishment for himself.

The same mysterious writing would mean threat if someone else would have written it. He refuses to use judgment, but the people who never knew him well would now judge him. For extreme human understanding, this situation expresses great human isolation. To note the elements of the theory insinuated or portrayed in Exile and the Kingdom, the community that one exist in defines the course to happiness and suffering, the meaning and the meaninglessness; and this community is reflected in the individual him/herself.

When the community chooses to punish and individual, the punishment is basically meant to make the individual suffer from the decision he or she has made. The principal of non-contradiction is the essence of living – one has to face the consequences of his or her decisions. However, everyone is in pursuit of a course to happiness that is unnoticed or inconceivable to him or her. They do not understand the peace that lies within them and this causes a state of absurdity and confusion. Like in the other story in the book, The Renegade, the narrator expresses a state of confusion and obscurity.

It is had to conceive what he is going through until later in the story. He is in exile in a land where he meets sadness and is imprisoned and tortured by the people of the land he ran to; and he is left to suffer in his own decision that were initially meant to bring peace and happiness. He denies his mentor’s advice and suffering follows later in exile with ambiguity. Works Cited Camus, Albert. Exile and the kingdom. [1st American ed. New York: Knopf, 1958. Print.