Tarrou’s importance

In this section of the novel the townspeople are starting to realize that the plague is a serious threat not only to their happiness and relationships, but also to their lives. Previously, the narrator focused primarily on describing the inconveniences the plague brought to the citizens of Oran through their forced separation from their loved ones. Now, however, the focus of the novel is the overwhelming threat to the population of the town that this plague may pose. Tarrou serves as a useful character, again, to highlight the truly dire situation of the town. Tarrou reflects that, if the plague should be left to progress much farther, there would be no use for the serum or the doctor- foreshadowing that the entire population would be decimated. Tarrou also puts into words possibilities hinted at prior by the relative infectivity of government-mandated precautions. He discusses how the government is useless against the plague – “Officialdom can never cope with something really catastrophic” (124). The government-established sanitary department is, as described by Tarrou “understaffed […] and worked off their feet” (124). Tarrou highlights information for the reader, however he also is extremely important in the novel. He volunteers a solution for the problem facing the sanitation department in terms of efficiency: he volunteers to create a group of sanitation volunteers. At this point in the novel he shifts from an individual who passively observed and commented to one who is actively involved in his surroundings.