Personalize: The Plague

Introduction

The situation, in which I am struck, resembles the same situation that being mentioned in the book, “The Plague”. Before starting on my perception regarding what to do in these circumstances, I will be briefing about the story discussed in “The plague”. The novel begins with dead rats found throughout the town, even in a hotel, but the locals think nothing of this and simply gather up the corpses and discard them. When the first townspeople begin to fall ill the novel's protagonist, Dr Bernard Rieux and his colleague, Castel, conclude it must be plague, but their fears initially dismissed given such exceptional cases. Not heeding the doctors' warnings proves costly, and soon dozens in the town become ill with symptoms including fever and abscesses on the body that require lancing. Beginning with a small number of deaths, the plague directly leads to Dr Rieux designating space at a hospital for plague victims, but when that cannot cope with the demand the town has to turn to quarantining the infected to try and stop the epidemic from spreading. Camus' book split into five parts and covers a period of many months from the arrival of the plague to its eventual passing, and a reflection on the consequences of the outbreak (Margaret, pp. 165).

Overview of the book

Though Camus denied being an existentialist, “The Plague” is regarded as a product of this strand of philosophical thought, which put emphasis on the individual being entirely responsible for bringing meaning to their life in the face of distractions such as boredom and despair. The individual is a focal point of the novel despite the plague taking much of the precedence. Over the months, a group of characters each respond to the plague in their own way. Dr Rieux is a hero of sorts, but his motivation in helping the unfortunate victims of the plague is him simply doing what any medical professional would do. Cottard, after a failed suicide attempt, takes advantage of the epidemic to sell contraband goods. Joseph Grand joins with Rieux in helping the sick in the town which offers a distraction from his problems as a failed writer. Father Paneloux seizes the opportunity to declare the plague as God's judgment on the town, and his preaching sees an ever growing congregation flock to his church looking for guidance. The other main protagonists are outsiders both trapped in Oran when the plague forces the town gates to be shut and the inhabitants forbidden from leaving. Raymond Rambert is a journalist doing research in the town who longs to escape and be with his wife. Finally, there is the mysterious Jean Tarrou who is eager to join with Rieux and Grand from the outset in helping victims of the plague, his actions all steered toward being something of a saint. Watching each of the characters unfold during the novel is always fascinating and not all of them live to see the end(Camus, pp. 308).

Camus' depiction of a plague infested town is ...