Indifference

The panic is settling down and being replaced by this new coping mechanism, indifference. In these pages of the novel the people have seemed to have given up hope and stopped caring about finally being rid of this plague. All they seem to do is "mark time" (page 189). Unfortunately, all the characters seem to have relapses, there they lose control of their feelings and break down. Rieux is one example. Up until this point we have barely heard of his wife and he has scarcely mentioned her, but he finds himself speaking of her to Grand. Also as he seeing his colleagues scumming to the pressures of their work, he begins to realize the effects the plague has had on him, such as having grown "hard and brittle" (page 192). Rieux realizes that the only means of moving on is close himself off.

This isolation and indifference is the only way to keep going because as a doctor, everyday he goes to see patients, and simply has to tell them that they are going to die. The families beg and plead, but unfortunately there is nothing he can do. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to practically be the executioner of these dying people since they are just condemned to lay in bed isolated from their families to avoid the risk of spreading the disease while there is nothing you can do for them.