The Plague is a novel written by Albert Camus, an ultimately bleak story about a terrible illness that swept through an unprepared town. The theme of this sermon is plainly stated: the plague is evidence enough that you either believe in Christianity wholeheartedly or you reject it outright. The people believed the Blacl Death signaled the Biblical apocolypse. The Plague. The authorities finally arrange for the daily collection and cremation of the rats. He tries to escape by illegal means with the help of Cottard's criminal associates. Albert Camus’s novel The Plague (1947) is often cited as a classic of existentialism, though Camus himself refuted that classification. He chooses to stay behind and help fight the epidemic. Requests to the government to initiate a strategy before an epidemic gets out of control are ignored and only after the death toll skyrockets are leaders finally incapable of denying the seriousness of the situation. The sacrifice being made by Rieux inspires Rambert to give up on his plan to escape and stay to fight the epidemic. The Plague concerns an outbreak of bubonic plague in the French-Algerian port city of Oran, sometime in the 1940s. Another visitor who is trapped by bad timing is Jean Tarrou. Those who followed this movement were regarded as a dangerous threat to church authority. Bernard Rieux (behr-NAHR ryew), a physician and surgeon in Oran, Algeria, where a plague is claiming as many as three hundred lives a day. He and Dr. Rieux are forced to confront the indifference and denial of the authorities and other doctors in their attempts to urge quick, decisive action. Flush with the freedom to do whatever they want, the residents of town more or less go back to their lives as they were before the plague arrived. This is, in a sense, what Camus is doing in the opening scenes of The Plague. What was the status of life in Europe in terms of faith, technology, and trade before the Plague arrived? Not affiliated with Harvard College. By the time they finally respond to the gravity of the outbreak, the only choice is absolute quarantine of the city. Note: This is a summary and analysis of The Rebel and not the original work.The Rebel is a 1951 book-length essay by Albert Camus, which treats both the metaphysical and the historical development of rebellion and revolution in societies, especially Western Europe. Adding to the horror is a death toll affecting so many people that cremation is necessary to keep up. They indulge in selfish personal distress, convinced that their pain is unique in comparison to common suffering. Grand, having recovered from a bout of plague, vows to make a fresh start in life. The Plague is a novel about a plague epidemic in the large Algerian city of Oran. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view. Like, Mary Poppins windy, which is bad news when you live on an unprotected plateau. Truth has a victory. This illness is … They confront their social responsibility and join the anti-plague efforts. They come to recognize the plague as a collective disaster that is everyone's concern. As the rat carcass problem is contained, Dr. Rieux treats the concierge where he lives, who is complaining of an unusual fever. In the 1990s, a South American city is rocked by the imminent outbreak of a plague. Suddenly, everyone is just as lonely and afraid as him. Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) was a French author and philosopher who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.His novel The Plague has recently garnered much worldwide attention do to the pandemic of 2020.As a philosopher familiar with Camus’ thought, I’d like to highlight the book’s main philosophical themes.But first a very brief plot summary. The Plague by Albert Camus is an existentialist classic, in which he continues to question the absurdity of life and applies the notion of rebellion. Rambert, a Parisian journalist unlucky enough to happen to be in the city when the outbreak begins, is determined to escape back home to reunite with his wife. A lucid evaluation of the crisis has been achieved, the enemy has been revealed and can now be confronted. The title refers to a terrible plague that strikes Oran, Algeria. Cottard committed a crime (which he does not name) in the past, so he has lived in constant fear of arrest and punishment. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Dr. Rieux records him as a "doubtful case.". These observations stimulate him to organize sanitation duties with the help of volunteers. When he falls ill, he refuses to consult a doctor, leaving his fate entirely in the hands of divine Providence. When a cluster of similar cases appears, Dr. Rieux's colleague, Castel, becomes certain that the illness is the bubonic plague. Camus focused less on the ambulances and body counts in stricken Oran than on how the plague affected the citizenry, who, like us, had to realign priorities, schedules, in … The Plague by Albert Camus 1001 Words | 5 Pages. When M. Othon's small son suffers a prolonged, excruciating death from the plague, Dr. Rieux shouts at Paneloux that he was an innocent victim. A paranoid criminal named Cottard attempts to aid Rambert in his escape. The public quickly returns to its old routine, but Rieux knows that the battle against the plague is never over because the bacillus microbe can lie dormant for years. Paneloux, deeply shaken by the boy's death, delivers a second sermon that modifies the first. Word Count: 785. But now it’s hitting the center of the Oran, where all the businesses are. The mess starts when rats everywhere die. He begins randomly firing his gun into the street until he is captured by the police. While many attempt to flee the city, Dr. Bernard Rieux sends his sick wife away and does his best to care for the plague's victims. Rieux recognizes the importance of the plague’s name, but even … From the title, you know this book is about a plague. Unique among those trapped inside Oran, Cottard is actually glad to see the effects of the plague on the town. His attempts are foiled by the ineptitude of both the government and the underground network he consults. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The work is an allegorical account of the determined fight against an epidemic in the town of Oran, Alg., by characters who embody human dignity and Camus presents Grand as an anti-hero, a mediocre, strange sort of everyman who still contains the practical goodness and daily heroism that is the best response to plague (or the absurdity of life). In April, thousands of rats stagger into the open and die. As the year draws to a cold and melancholy close, in contrast to Paneloux, other victims begin to make miraculous recoveries and avoid death. What was the philosophy of the “flagellants”? Through the use of allegory and point of view, Camus substantiates that when people are not aware of time and its advancing, they are wasting the precious and limited time of … This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Plague by Albert Camus, an existentialist classic in which he continues to question the absurdity of life and applies the notion of rebellion. The acceptance of the plague under these terms lessens the selfishness of the town, but does little to alleviate the collective despair and hopelessness. So far, the plague has been semi-limited to the outer districts of the town. Abstraction is seen as deadening oneself to reality and mankind, sticking with statistics or philosophies or doctrines, focusing too much on rules or theories or putative panaceas. When the epidemic ends, Cottard cannot cope. The reaction of the residents of Oran vary widely in terms of specifics, but share a commonality of experience: it is the sense of imposed exile from society and the longing for simple human contact with friends and family outside the closed gates that drives every individual response. That note of optimism is ultimately undercut, though, by his haunting reminder that the microbe responsible for bubonic plague can lie dormant for so long that it creates the illusion of being gone forever when in reality it has the power to recrudesce into an epidemic with little warning once more. Meanwhile, Rieux, Tarrou, and Grand doggedly battle the death and suffering wrought by the plague. Meanwhile, just as Rambert is ready to put his escape strategy to the test, he learns that Dr. Rieux—who has been the leading figure in trying to fight the plague—has a wife on the outside experiencing her own medical quarantine as a patient being treated in a sanatorium. It is the story of a plague epidemic in the city of Oran in the 1940's and tells of the individual destinies of some of its inhabitants, who all react to the situation in a different way. The novel tells the story of a devastating plague afflicting the city of … Rieux and an elderly colleague named Castel suspect Oran has become the victim of an outbreak of bubonic plague. The public reacts to their sudden imprisonment with intense longing for absent loved ones. Through the voice of his compassionate protagonist, Dr. Rieux, Camus speaks of the graphic horror of the plague and its effect on the population. The Plague, written in 1948, is a fictional account of events that take place in a North African town that is stricken with a fatal contagion. The initial self-centered response of individuals to the quarantine as a personal tragedy eventually gives way to a widespread realization that everyone is affected equally even if in starkly different ways. When a mild hysteria grips the population, the newspapers begin clamoring for action. The Plague Summary. Because he defines The Plague as a chronicle, one would expect a journalistic report of the facts. Soon thereafter, M. Michel, the concierge for the building where Dr. Rieux works, dies after falling ill with a strange fever. After the term of exile lasts several months, many of Oran's citizens lose their selfish obsession with personal suffering. The sight of Oran littered with the carcasses of rats stimulates panic among the citizens and forces the government to order a special force tasked with cremating the rodents. Against the background of events, he creates various attitudes of human beings toward the plague, … He has become the exception, however, and soon the town can barely contain its desire to celebrate the evidence that the plague is diminishing and will soon disappear. Not only that, he is making a killing in the booming business of smuggling, another consequence of the epidemic. He declares that the inexplicable deaths of innocents force the Christian to choose between believing everything and believing nothing about God. Directed by Luis Puenzo. The chronicler is Dr. Rieux and his book is composed as a testament to the victims and those who fought it rather than as a self-serving story as a personal victim of the tragedy. Imagination in the context of the Camus' plague means identifying with people, with giving into love and grief, with confronting the real. With William Hurt, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jean-Marc Barr, Robert Duvall. He accumulates a great deal of wealth as a smuggler during the epidemic. Camus' The Plague is an uncannily prescient description of the world of COVID-19, giving us reasons for reflection, and finally for hope. 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