Pen-Ultimate

An incredibly popular theme in Existentialist literature is the idea of the absurd. Albert Camus, one of the founders of the “Absurdist” school of literature, viewed the absurd as the result of our desire for clarity and meaning within a world of chaos. This essentially means that the world is an irrational and unreasonable place, and the absurd is our way of trying to make sense of everything, yet ultimately failing. This theme can be seen throughout Camus’s story The Guest.

The very setting of The Guest is absurd! The main character, Daru, lives in the middle of a bleak desert which is in the midst of a terrible blizzard in the opening scene of the story. Yes, you heard that right – a blizzard in the desert. If that isn’t absurd, I don’t know what is! Daru himself is absurd as well. He is a teacher, yet he has no students! For those of you who are teachers, can any of you tell me how one can be a teacher without anyone to teach? Of course not, it’s absurd! On that note, the absurdist theme, while a bit dark at times, is incredibly interesting and should a be an engaging subject for students. There are plenty of modern examples of the absurd that high school teachers should keep in mind. Making it more modern and keeping the subject matter light will make it easier for the students to understand and relate to. It will also be more enjoyable for the teachers to teach. An example that I would recommend using is the Kardashians. They don’t really do much other than live their lives, which are fairly absurd in and of themselves, yet millions of people watch their TV shows every day. Another great example is the Bachelorette. Finding love through reality television. I think Camus would agree that that’s fairly absurd! I would also highly recommend future writers to read this story because it is fairly short and it really showcases the absurd, which is a great theme to incorporate in any creative writing piece.