Historical Background

So speculation is that The Plague was inspired by a cholera outbreak that happened in Oran in the 1940s. Oran is situated in the Northwest of Africa, in Algeria. Algeria borders the Mediterranean and was a colony of the French at the time that Camus wrote the Plague. The narrator does not specify what year specifically what year it is, but he does mention 194- which gives us a nice time frame of the year it was taking place. The 1940s were a time of war (WWII) and actual plagues, so I can totally see where this whole war like description thing comes into play. Camus is like channeling his surroundings into his book, but enough about Camus, back to Oran. Oran has actually been featured in more than one book as the setting. Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quijote, wrote a novel in 1615 titled "El Gallardo Español" which took place in Oran. What is the appeal of Oran? Well it is not the biggest town in Algeria, but it is not the smallest. It was once under Spanish dominion, then French. It has lived a couple of full-moons.