Sunday, September 23, 2012

People of Oran


http://www.flickr.com/photos/jetrated/4890190702/


People do not appreciate what they have until it is taken away from them. Even if this something they do not do, they always have the liberty to do it. Now, put a person in prison, or tell them that they can not leave their house. There they will notice the freedom they once had, and more importantly, now do not. Even if this person stayed most of the day in their house, now that it is prohibited for them to leave, they will feel the need to get out. This is exactly what happened to the citizens of Oran when they were forced into quarantine. They mostly went by their routines, stayed within the confines of their houses and kept to themselves. When they were told that they were completely detached from the outside world, they suddenly longed to write to their relatives and leave Oran. Isolation and fear were a direct result of the quarantine, the feelings swept through the town quickly touching those infected and even worse, those yet to be infected. They knew not how long the plague would last, or if they would get out alive, all they knew was that they were stuck there.  Any other group of people would cause havoc, but  the habitual demeanor of the citizens of Oran enabled their keeping of the panic at bay. The panic was more at a minimum since the people were just to absorbed in their own suffering to care about the bigger picture. They just cared about themselves and their immediate present.

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