Evolution of Death

A feeling of desperation and anguish rushes over with the sudden evolution from rat death to man death. Humans are important. These deaths were brushed aside, as if not that important, and it is that belittling of the problem that leads to the ultimate, horrific fate that plagues the town. All suggestions by Dr. Rieux, of quarantining the first victims of the strange bumps, are brushed off as exaggerated nonsense, when in fact they would have contained the disease from spreading. This reaction to what was happening reflects the town’s, as a whole, lack of knowledge, and lack of desire to know what was happening. Nothing is worse than a collectively ignorant group of people. Effectively, when analyzing the deaths, they realize that more people had died than what they thought, and Dr. Rieux said it was the plague. The narrator then, even though he said he would be unbiased, decided to input his belief on plagues hidden under the façade of factual information. He compared war to plague, and speculated on how stupidity had its ways of remaining prevalent, which he supported well and to anyone might look like if it is factual. He also critiques human’s belittling of any situation and their lack of foresight. The narrator later specifically singles out Dr.Rieux as one of the more able people, and he still says how little he actually knows about what is to come, and how he only feels “unease” whilst facing this catastrophe.

Veronica Ucros