The narrator, a French Catholic from the Protestant Massif Central region, left his home to work as a Christian missionary to the Tribes in the closed city of Taghaza, Mali.
It is implied here that the narrator attempts to engage with the woman (although nothing explicit is described) but is caught by the priest who returns with several tribesmen.
Upon learning this, he decides to escape the day before the missionary is due to arrive, steal a rifle and kill him.
The narrator compares himself to the martyred Christ; asking why the Fetish has forsaken him and declaring his love for the nails which crucify him.
When the narrator realizes that the Fetish is not coming to save him and the powers of "good" are winning, he wonders if he's made a mistake and chosen the wrong side.
The narrative switches to a third person point of view for the closing line: "A fistful of salt fills the mouth of the babbling slave."
The story is written in the first person perspective and just like the narrator, the language is muddled, disjointed and disorganized; leaving the reader to piece together the facts from the hysterical and neurotic monologue.
In his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus", Camus states that religious faith is a form of suicide; a distraction from the real in which the individual embraces the Absurd and abandons reason and logic.
At several points, the narrator also says that he wants to be offended, he wants to be oppressed, so that he can fight back and take control of his actions and his life by overcoming the adversities set against him.