The Plague by Albert Camus begins with a simple narration, detailing Oran, a large French port on the Algerian coast, how it is an extremely ordinary, and how the events that will be discussed are so strange to have occurred in such an ordinary place. The protagonist Dr. Bernard Rieux is a house call doctor who begins to notice a large number of dead rats in the city. Over the next few days the increasing number of dead rats causes a mild panic in the city. This right off the bat is a bad sign, with disease spreading it is only a matter of time before the human population is infected. Dr. Rieux seems at first to be disregarding the rats when “he kicked [the rat] to one side and, without giving it further thought, continued down the stairs” but this seems to me to be because of his wife who has been sick for about a year along with his work has been keeping his mind occupied. Nevertheless his work in the town is slowly bringing this rat problem to his attention, as rumors and the news of the increasing number of dead rats is constantly bombarding him. As the rats disappear the Doctor’s interests also seem to predominately vanish, but curiously enough human patients with strange symptoms begin to appear. At the end of the first 20 pages one of Dr. Rieux’s patients is “vomiting pinkish bile, […] has a fever of 103, the ganglia of his neck and limbs were swollen and two black patches were developing on his thighs”. This to me seems to be the black plague, and allows for a wide range of possible problems as the story develops.
I thought the story started off unusually. The narrator talks about how boring and lacking in character the town of Oran is – the town where the story will take place. The town basically never changes and is always hot and ugly with only bearable weather coming in winter. This town is run on the basic principal of survival of the fittest, however, with a modern capitalistic twist. In the town everyone’s sole concern is making money, “as much as possible” (4). The town is so driven by this material incentive that it is no place for the sick; they will be overlooked, “while the whole population, sitting in cafes or hanging on the telephone, is discussing shipments, bills of landing, discounts!” (5). While he doesn’t give us a specific setting, the narrator tells us that the story takes place during the 1940’s. The narrator then amends his seemingly harsh criticism of the town and its citizens’ moral by saying that once one develops habits, existence in the town becomes manageable – in fact the town becomes a place one can trust. He creates the image that although life here is mundane and boring, it’s safe; while it is “treeless, glamour-less, soulless, the town of Oran ends by seeming restful and, after a while, you can go complacently to sleep here” (6). This description of the boring yet safe life that the citizens of Oran lead serves as a background for the mayhem the author foreshadows will come.
This story wastes no time getting to the foreshadowing; in the first few lines a dead rat is introduced – creating an eerie tone that will be held throughout the upcoming pages. The main character, a doctor named Bernardo Rieux, makes house calls, and in this way of traveling around he learns of the dead rats. When he first comes across one on his doorstep he thinks nothing about it, although he lives on the second floor. I just found it kind of astonishing that, being a doctor, when he encountered a second rat wobbling towards him, who then collapses spewing blood, he doesn’t give it any thought. As a reader with no medical background, the ailment that was traveling like wildfire through the rat population immediately roused my interest and led me to think about a possible human infestation. I found it unusual that the doctor was not more inquisitive into the cause of the rat “plague” and its possible impact on humans. Even with something as unnatural as the rats coming out of their holes to die, the doctor only comments on how it “get[s] on one’s nerves” (13). In fact, every person with whom the doctor speaks seems to be more concerned with the appalling death toll of the rats than the doctor. All of the clients he visits in some way or anther make a comment in regards to the unusualness of the situation, and he appears neither curious nor suspicious. Finally, after seven pages (about 4 days) detailing the high death rate and the distress it is causing, does he show some concern and tell the Municipal Office to look into it.
The opening paragraphs give the initial feel of a social commentary. The people of a small dull town called Oran live busy and preoccupied about money, no time for pleasure or fun, just work and routine. The narrator even speaks of how that mindset extends to most modern cities. In contrast to those other cities, he describes that his town is different because of the “discomfort one may experience there in dying”. They are described, by our anonymous, “unbiased” narrator, to be so detached that they care nothing about their neighbors and family. This description, though, does not fit that of what is demonstrated by Dr. Rieux, in the first pages of the The Plague. Maybe it is due to the nature of his profession, but he even helps out his poor patients for no pay, he cares for those around him. When dead rats start to emerge throughout Oran, he seems to brush it off as nothing, but as the number of rat casualties start to increase and more people start to go to him with theories and concerns, he grows more curious. For some reason, the first few pages hook the reader in a way that makes going through descriptions of rats dying by the hundreds bearable and intriguing. Jean Tarrou’s account of the events leading up to the concierge’s strange death were made possible by his documentation in a small journal that he kept while in this “intrinsically ugly town”. He first wrote about the mass deaths of rats when watching an old man call for his unresponsive cats. He wrote that maybe the death of so many rats would send them on a hunting rampage, but then remembered that his own cats turn their head to dead things. Jean knew a disaster was about to occur, yet he remained in the town, this along with his reaction to the news of a fever going around, caused some workers to wrongly describe him as a fatalist. The contrast between his view and Mr. Rieux’s gives the reader a feel of what was happening in the town from two very different men of different backgrounds.
The Plague by Albert Camus begins with a simple narration, detailing Oran, a large French port on the Algerian coast, how it is an extremely ordinary, and how the events that will be discussed are so strange to have occurred in such an ordinary place. The protagonist Dr. Bernard Rieux is a house call doctor who begins to notice a large number of dead rats in the city. Over the next few days the increasing number of dead rats causes a mild panic in the city. This right off the bat is a bad sign, with disease spreading it is only a matter of time before the human population is infected. Dr. Rieux seems at first to be disregarding the rats when “he kicked [the rat] to one side and, without giving it further thought, continued down the stairs” but this seems to me to be because of his wife who has been sick for about a year along with his work has been keeping his mind occupied. Nevertheless his work in the town is slowly bringing this rat problem to his attention, as rumors and the news of the increasing number of dead rats is constantly bombarding him. As the rats disappear the Doctor’s interests also seem to predominately vanish, but curiously enough human patients with strange symptoms begin to appear. At the end of the first 20 pages one of Dr. Rieux’s patients is “vomiting pinkish bile, […] has a fever of 103, the ganglia of his neck and limbs were swollen and two black patches were developing on his thighs”. This to me seems to be the black plague, and allows for a wide range of possible problems as the story develops.
ReplyDeleteI thought the story started off unusually. The narrator talks about how boring and lacking in character the town of Oran is – the town where the story will take place. The town basically never changes and is always hot and ugly with only bearable weather coming in winter. This town is run on the basic principal of survival of the fittest, however, with a modern capitalistic twist. In the town everyone’s sole concern is making money, “as much as possible” (4). The town is so driven by this material incentive that it is no place for the sick; they will be overlooked, “while the whole population, sitting in cafes or hanging on the telephone, is discussing shipments, bills of landing, discounts!” (5). While he doesn’t give us a specific setting, the narrator tells us that the story takes place during the 1940’s. The narrator then amends his seemingly harsh criticism of the town and its citizens’ moral by saying that once one develops habits, existence in the town becomes manageable – in fact the town becomes a place one can trust. He creates the image that although life here is mundane and boring, it’s safe; while it is “treeless, glamour-less, soulless, the town of Oran ends by seeming restful and, after a while, you can go complacently to sleep here” (6). This description of the boring yet safe life that the citizens of Oran lead serves as a background for the mayhem the author foreshadows will come.
ReplyDeleteThis story wastes no time getting to the foreshadowing; in the first few lines a dead rat is introduced – creating an eerie tone that will be held throughout the upcoming pages. The main character, a doctor named Bernardo Rieux, makes house calls, and in this way of traveling around he learns of the dead rats. When he first comes across one on his doorstep he thinks nothing about it, although he lives on the second floor. I just found it kind of astonishing that, being a doctor, when he encountered a second rat wobbling towards him, who then collapses spewing blood, he doesn’t give it any thought. As a reader with no medical background, the ailment that was traveling like wildfire through the rat population immediately roused my interest and led me to think about a possible human infestation. I found it unusual that the doctor was not more inquisitive into the cause of the rat “plague” and its possible impact on humans. Even with something as unnatural as the rats coming out of their holes to die, the doctor only comments on how it “get[s] on one’s nerves” (13). In fact, every person with whom the doctor speaks seems to be more concerned with the appalling death toll of the rats than the doctor. All of the clients he visits in some way or anther make a comment in regards to the unusualness of the situation, and he appears neither curious nor suspicious. Finally, after seven pages (about 4 days) detailing the high death rate and the distress it is causing, does he show some concern and tell the Municipal Office to look into it.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe opening paragraphs give the initial feel of a social commentary. The people of a small dull town called Oran live busy and preoccupied about money, no time for pleasure or fun, just work and routine. The narrator even speaks of how that mindset extends to most modern cities. In contrast to those other cities, he describes that his town is different because of the “discomfort one may experience there in dying”. They are described, by our anonymous, “unbiased” narrator, to be so detached that they care nothing about their neighbors and family.
This description, though, does not fit that of what is demonstrated by Dr. Rieux, in the first pages of the The Plague. Maybe it is due to the nature of his profession, but he even helps out his poor patients for no pay, he cares for those around him. When dead rats start to emerge throughout Oran, he seems to brush it off as nothing, but as the number of rat casualties start to increase and more people start to go to him with theories and concerns, he grows more curious. For some reason, the first few pages hook the reader in a way that makes going through descriptions of rats dying by the hundreds bearable and intriguing.
Jean Tarrou’s account of the events leading up to the concierge’s strange death were made possible by his documentation in a small journal that he kept while in this “intrinsically ugly town”. He first wrote about the mass deaths of rats when watching an old man call for his unresponsive cats. He wrote that maybe the death of so many rats would send them on a hunting rampage, but then remembered that his own cats turn their head to dead things. Jean knew a disaster was about to occur, yet he remained in the town, this along with his reaction to the news of a fever going around, caused some workers to wrongly describe him as a fatalist.
The contrast between his view and Mr. Rieux’s gives the reader a feel of what was happening in the town from two very different men of different backgrounds.