Term Paper

Paulo Parente April 30, 2013 Period 4 The Plague Term Paper: Freedom, Confinement and Isolation In the novel “The Plague” by Albert Camus characters are confined to the city because of a quarantine issued due to a deadly plague consuming the city. This physical confinement affects each character differently. Through each of their struggles both physical and mental it is clear that freedom is not necessarily a physical quality, but a mental capacity. The events that transpire throughout the novel affect each character differently. Were some people truly more free before the gates of Oran closed? Do their struggles with the plague bring this mental freedom to light for each character or do they simply return to their previous ignorance? The confinement that the people of Oran face is not simply the confinement to the city, but the isolation within themselves and from their fellow people that keeps them from truly living their lives. Dr. Rieux is the first character introduced in the novel and we quickly see that he is not a person without troubles. “The telegram informed Rieux that his mother would be arriving the next day. She was going to keep house for her son during his wife’s absence. When the doctor entered his apartment he found the nurse already there. He looked at his wife. She was in a tailor-made suit, and he noticed she had used rouge. He smiled at her.” (Camus, 10) Before the quarantine even begins Rieux a man without strong connections. He is emotionally isolated; he does not show much love or compassion at all with his wife who he is parting with for some time and this is one principle constraint on his “freedom”. People need to have friends and companions or they go crazy. Even as the novel progresses Rieux maintains this sort of detachment, when he goes to see his patients who have no hope of surviving, instead of providing some comfort he is cold and unemotional. After a while the struggles finally get to him and he talks about his wife “Rieux agreed, merely adding that the long separation was beginning to tell on him, and, what was more, he might have helped his wife to make a good recovery; whereas, as things were, she must be feeling terribly lonely.” (Camus, 191) In reality Rieux is not any more separated from his wife than he was before the plague, the separation has now just gone from emotion to actual physical separation. Nevertheless, this opening up to Grand is progress as Rieux is finally trusting a friend to talk about his problems, no matter how little he actually opened up and it shows that he is worried about his wife, breaking some of the emotional isolation, and freeing his mind. The physical confinement of the quarantine helps to start to break the previous mental restraints that Rieux burdened himself with. This mental freedom would only be possible with the physical restraint of the plague. A second character that is in essence “liberated” through this physical confinement of quarantine is Cottard. A man who before the plague, lived in fear of the authorities, always running and hiding in order to avoid jail. In so much fear that he even attempts suicide, is now in reality free. Because the plague has the authorities occupied he does not have to worry about them coming after him and he can go about his day. Before the plague not only did he fear the authorities, but he was isolated from society as well, “Cottard was a queer bird. For a long while their relations went no further than wishing each other good-day when they met on the stairs.” (Camus, 32) Even his own neighbor barely talks to him. This isolation from the other members of society seems to be a cause of his problems with the law. “Cottard sat down and replied rather grumpily that he was feeling tolerably well, adding that he’d feel still better if only he could be sure of being left in peace. Rieux remarked that one couldn’t always be left alone.” (Camus, 57) Cottard’s isolation from society generates some inner conflicts that cause his problems with the law that then cause him to want to isolate himself from the other members of society. Thus, starting a vicious cycle. The plague allows Cottard to sort of break this cycle by forgetting the authorities and returning to a relatively normal life, in which he once again integrates himself into society. Also by reentering society in this state he realizes that the quarantine will at some point come to an end so he makes the most of his time trying to earn friends that maybe at some point will testify in his favor. Thus, his the things he does such as help the journalist are a means of making friends in this world he hasn’t been a part of in so long and preparing for the return of how things were. A third and equally important character to analyze is Tarrou, how he has persevered throughout this quarantine. Tarrou came as a simple tourist to Oran intent on only spending a short amount of time, but is ultimately caught in this horrible situation. His detailed journal of his time in Oran is what Dr. Rieux uses to help gain an objective view of the story for his narration. Tarrou is an outsider from Oran and thus provides and more critical view of the people and their situation. Also, the fact that he does not believe in God influences his opinions of social responsibility. His views seem to be very similar to that of Dr. Rieux. For example both want the help of the people to clean up Oran, but while Dr. Rieux would be willing to get anyone to do the job, Tarrou believes that only people who are truly willing to help should be allowed because otherwise they will no do the job properly. Tarrou’s personal set of morals and ideals help provide a contrast to the people of Oran. Tarrou’s physical freedom was taken away when the plague came to Oran, but his involvement in the city’s affairs, his helpful initiative, and his preservation of his ideals keeps him mentally free and above the horror that is this plague. Though the book revolves mainly around a few main characters, 3 of which have already been discussed, Dr. Rieux, Cottard and Tarrou, but they are not the only people of importance. The narrator (Dr. Rieux) frequently mentions “the people of Oran” and how they have been affected by this quarantine and how they change in the face of this confinement. The people of Oran provide a nice contrast to that of the few main characters, as they lose their individuality though this confinement as opposed to surpassing that barrier. “It might indeed be said that the first effect of this brutal visitation was to compel our townspeople to act as if they had no feelings as individuals.” (Camus, 68) Also the people of Oran as the quarantine drags on they start turning towards religion for comfort and they in essence have nothing to lose since they think they will die soon. These kinds of actions taken by the general body of Oran along with these newfound ideals of looking towards religion serve to contrast the average person with the unique character of Dr. Rieux, Cottard and Tarrou. This unique contrast that is presented serves to further depict the uniqueness of these character’s situations. They have risen above just the physical confinement and found a purpose, or changed for the better, and thus this plague has brought them spiritual freedom. This isolation and confinement has brought them a release that they did not have before. What makes these ventures and character progressions special is that it is not something that everyone does, it is something that is unique for these characters and no one else can take that away from them. Thus, freedom is mental state of being which cannot be taken away by physical confinement or isolation. If a person is about to find a purpose or find some sort of release they will be able to forget the confinement and cope. Nevertheless this is a small minority of people as can be seen by the contrasts with the general population of Oran to the main characters. Works Cited Camus, Albert, and Stuart Gilbert. The Plague. 1st American ed. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1948. Print.

Term Paper

 

Veronica Ucros

30 April 2013

4^th Period

The Plague Term Paper

The Plague, a novel by Albert Camus, depicts an accurate portrayal of how people react in masses as opposed to as individuals. By making the narrator one of the characters in the novel, the reader has insight into what a couple of individuals are doing and thinking as well as what the whole town’s situation is at that particular moment in time. Analyzing the citizens of the city in which The Plague takes place in with social psychology proves that although the novel was published in 1948, many of the basic ideas and observations hold true of humans in the 21^st century.

The people that live in the Algerian town called Oran can be seen as an individual. They have a collective personality, opinion that develops and shifts as their circumstances change. The collective personality of the citizens of Oran at the beginning of the novel is one of humdrum productiveness. They all live to work, they commute, they do their jobs, they get married, have a family, continue to work and die. The city is not lively, it has no vibrant night life, no scandals just a few individuals here and there that, like bad apples, get in the way with their humanness. Then the rats started dying.

The universal opinion au debut of the rat carcasses that littered the street? They believed that it was gross and an inconvenience, after a while they even paid no mind to it, the city just devised a strategy to get them out of the way and it kept on functioning, like a well-oiled machine. Then one person got infected, bumps emerged on their skin, fever, pain, death, the government refused to quarantine a member of society based on only speculations of a disease. How were they to stall the flow of the economy for a silly little infection? They say that the government reflects the people they represent, and like the people of Oran, they brushed it off and continued with their jobs. More and more people began to get infected, and the citizens started to stress and worry. The government issued a town-wide quarantine. People then actually started to worry, but even then the general reaction was an intense desire for the people who lived outside of Oran, people who, under normal circumstances, were not of much importance. There was a resistance though; the people of Oran tried to stick to their routines even after the quarantine, obviously to no avail. They eventually do realize that they are doomed and start doing things that would help them out in the long run.

The description of the town’s relationship with religion also changes with time. At the beginning of the novel the people of Oran did not really believe in anything. They believed in themselves and placed the locus of control within themselves. If they wanted a promotion, they would work for it instead of sitting down and praying to God for a miracle. An excellent example of this type of thinking is Dr. Rieux, the doctor of Oran and the narrator of the novel, which is an atheist. During one of his conversations with Rambert, another inhabitant of Oran, Rieux starts speaking of how it is his lack of faith in a God that propels him to save and help people. He feels that if he does not do his job as a doctor, no other superior begin will come and do his job for him. Contrary to the mind-set that Dr. Rieux, an individual, maintains throughout the plague, during the outbreaks of the plague, the people began to attend religious sermons as a type of safety net. They went to church and prayed because they wanted to exhaust any option that they had at salvation. Also placing the pressure and blame on something bigger, something mysterious and supernatural was much more readily accepted than placing it on themselves. During the sermons, the priest Father Paneloux blames the citizens’ lack of religious affinity for the plague; he tells them that it is God’s punishment and that they should pray. Camus brings forth an interesting point with this sermon. Why, if we pray and worship this all-powerful being, must he bring to the world such hardship and destruction? Does it count to start living a religious life when you are at the brink of death as a form of insurance? This notion is pushed even further when a little boy gets infected with the plague and dies. Even Father Paneloux starts to doubt his own preaching. “He spoke in a gentler, more thoughtful tone than on previous occasion, and several time was noticed to be stumbling over his words. A yet more noteworthy change was that instead of saying "you" he now said "we."” (Camus, p.222) After having experienced more personal encounters with the plague Father Paneloux, who always blamed the citizens of Oran and not himself, began to realize that the plague was very real, not just some mythical thing sent to teach bad people a lesson. No, the plague was there in Oran and it was there for all of them including him. This inclusion in the problem made him a more compelling speaker and character.

Death is also a complicated situation with the citizens of Oran. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator tells the readers that Oran is different to other cities because of the “discomfort one may experience there in dying” (Camus, p.5) which is ironic because of the events that occur shortly after. Oran goes from a place which is uncomfortable to die in; to a place which it is ignored to a place in which it is panicked and leveling off at a place in which death is no new news. What is interesting from the novel is that the people go through the cycle of emotions when the rats die as well as when the people start to die. Camus might be suggesting something greater than just the adaptation to death, he is hinting at the adaptation-level phenomenon that all humans experience as a consequence of having memory. Humans adapt quickly to situations and they become desensitized through exposure to certain things. The people of Oran become desensitized by the constant exposure to death just like children nowadays become desensitized to guns and killing due to the constant exposure to violent video games and sensationalist media. 
         Regardless of Camus’s motives or sources of inspiration for the novel, it is safe to say that he captured a somewhat timeless still of human interaction and behavior in The Plague. The bland inhabitants of Oran were his blank canvas which he dotted and added hints of color by his unique characters that stood apart from the white masses. The actual plague placed the people, his canvas, in a situation that made them react organically, within their own limitations. The genuineness of his descriptions, his characters, and their actions make The Plague a novel applicable to any group of people in a situation of high stress.

Works Cited

Camus, Albert, and Stuart Gilbert. The Plague. 1st American ed. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1948. Print.

Term Paper: Courage in the Face of Hardship

Lauren Schrager

Period 4

May 1, 2013

Courage in the Face of Hardship

The Plague, by Albert Camus, is a novel documenting the horrific affects of an epidemic of the plague on the small town of Oran. A central focus of the novel is on the plague’s progression through the population of the town and the effects it has its citizens. While some resort to violence it the resulting disarray, other’s step forward to face their daunting opponent, willing to sacrifice everything to help fight it. The novel focuses three characters: Dr. Bernard Rieux, Joseph Grand, and Raymond Rambert. Through these characters and their adaptation to the plague one of the underlying themes of the novel is illustrated: courage in the face of adversity.

One of the characters that display courage in the face of hardship is Dr. Rieux. He works every day, all day, in the plague hospitals trying to fight the increasingly fatal epidemic. If not informed by the narrator, the reader would never know there was an underlying hardship in Rieux’s life. He commits himself so whole-heartedly to the job it appears as if it is the only thing in his life; his work appears to consume him entirely as he fights to save lives. However, this is a misconception created by his courage and work ethic in response to the epidemic. He has a sick wife in quarantine outside of the town. He is subject to the same sense of isolation and separation that the rest of the town feels. This is a feeling that drives many of the citizens, as seen with Rambert initially, into listless hopelessness. This despair felt by the citizens of the town who have been separated from a loved ones is felt so acutely by the majority of the population that it is described for about one hundred pages of the novel. This feeling is what dictates many peoples behavior throughout this time. It leads to the increase of business in bars and restaurants during this time of plague; these isolated individuals flock to these places in an attempt to find some escape from their sense of loss. They think that if they go to highly populated areas they will feel as sense of community somehow, that their feeling of wholeness will be restored. Dr. Rieux, throughout the novel, suffers from this same sentiment that drives the majority of the town into desolation. However, Rieux doesn’t let it affect him. He maintains complete control and focus over himself. Even when he has reason to believe his wife’s situation has worsened – through her increasingly friendly and optimistic telegraphs constructed to put him at ease – he never stops his battle against his faceless opponent.

“Grand was the true embodiment of the quiet courage that inspired the sanitary groups. He had said yes without a moment’s hesitation and with the large-heartedness that was second nature to him” (Camus, 135).  Like Rieux, Grand is another character in this novel that exhibits courage in the face of the adversity provided by the plague. Joseph Grand is an elderly gentleman that has been stuck in the same temporary position at the post office for twenty-two years. He is complacent – not a man of action, never speaking up in regards to his boss’ exploitation of him. “All he desired was the prospect of a life suitably insured on the material side by honest work, enabling him to devote his leisure to his hobbies” (Camus, 44).  

He is not a capitalist, something that distinguished him from the majority of the population of Oran. As seen described in the very beginning, and throughout the town’s battle with the plague, the citizens of Oran are inherently concerned with personal gain. This tendency of the town is so drastic that the narrator notes it as a bad place for elderly people: for they will be left behind, unattended to, as their families go off in pursuit of material gains. Despite the overwhelming majority of his peers’ behavior, Grand is never driven by a desire for material gains – he simply wishes to make enough to support himself. This attitude further highlights Grand’s complacency: he cannot take action even to benefit himself. He is neutral character is further defined by his trouble with language, seen in his inability to write his book. He is stuck on the first sentence. He is so reluctant to take action, so filled with self-doubt and insecurity, that he is unable to move past even one single written sentence and begin what he wants to be his grand venture into literature. All of these factors contributing to the total blandness of Grand’s character are why I found his bravery in the face of the plague so interesting; this form of action taking is almost out of character for him. In volunteering to work on the sanitation squads he is actively standing up for what he thinks is right rather than letting external forces or people decide his fate for him. Granted, he is only helping with registry and statistics, but it is still an act to help the plague-fighting effort. He even eventually goes one step further in this newfound trend of taking action; he begins doing much of his work in the actual hospitals alongside Reiux. When thanked for volunteering he replied: “Why, that’s not difficult! Plague is here and we’ve got to make a stand, that’s obvious. Ah, I only wish everything were as simple!” (Camus, 134). Grand was a formerly neutral character, a man of little ambition or sustenance. However, when faced with the plague a change is seen in his character: he becomes more of a man of action, sacrificing his own time and possible health willingly in an effort to help fight the plague.

Raymond Rambert is another individual on whose character the plague has had a profound impact. He is a writer for a newspaper in Paris and happens to be in Oran on assignment when the outbreak of the plague beings. He is consequently trapped inside of Oran when the town is quarantined. He believes because he has no attachment to the city he should therefore should be allowed to leave, despite the quarantine. He has left his wife behind in Paris and is desperate to return to her; it is this desperation that blinds him to his selfishness in his endeavors to escape the town. He first goes to the Prefect’s office, explaining how his “presence in Oran was purely accidental, he had no connection with the town and no reasons for staying in it [therefore] he was surely entitled to leave” (Camus, 84).

He is unable to see the inherent selfishness in his actions: the whole town is in quarantine, he can’t be the only one there by chance, yet he expects an exception to be made in his case. In his appeal to Dr. Rieux to write him a certificate of health Dr. Reiux explains to him that “there are thousands of people placed as [he] is in this town, and there can’t be any question of allowing them to leave it” (Camus, 86). Entire families have been separated as a result of the quarantine, however Rambert is unable to gain perspective because of his central focus of his own escape. He is persistent in his desperation: appealing to every official in the town. His argument remaining “that he was a stranger to [the] town and, that being so, his case deserved special consideration” (Camus, 106). He is always met, however, with a response qualifying that “a good number of other people were in a like case, and this his position was not so exceptional as he seemed to suppose” (Camus, 106).  Despite being met with this response at every turn, he continues his frantic search for a way out of the town. The fact that, despite receiving a similar response from everyone whom he tries to evoke sympathy, he still maintains that his position is exceptionally important illustrates how blinded to reason as a result of his desperation he is. After exhausting all of his legal methods of escape, he beings contacting smugglers. Cottard volunteers in his quest for illegal transport out of the city, however, as Rambert is on the brink of escape the two smugglers with whom Cottard put him in contact back out of the deal. By their absence the smugglers, who typically brought lesser items such as notes in and out of the town, illustrate their comprehension of the gravity of the town’s situation: they understand that by smuggling one individual out of the town they could possibly risk catalyzing the spread of the plague not just through surrounding areas, but because of its high level of contagion, possibly the world. The fact that Rambert cannot realize that not only would his escape from the town be unfair to the families who have suffered separation as well, but could possibly cause a worldwide epidemic, is incredible. More incredible still is that he could maintain the value he places on his escape while continuing his acquaintance with Dr. Rieux - and in turn being exposed to news of the devastation of the plague first hand, as well as being privy updates as to its brutality and ease in spreading. His relationship with Dr. Rieux serves to foil his character: he is desperate to fulfill his own selfish desires and escape the town to return to his wife, while Dr. Rieux steadfastly battles a seemingly endless plague while his wife’s condition worsens in a sanatorium outside of the city. Before his transformation as a result of the plague, Rambert’s weakness of character and morals is seen highlighted through the foil Dr. Rieux provides by his strength and devotion to fighting the plague, despite his own personal circumstances.

Rambert’s transformation does not occur all at once; it begins with his request to “work with [the sanitation squads] until [he finds] some way of getting out of the town” (Camus, 164). It is catalyzed after an argument Rambert has in defending his position of “living and dying for what one loves” - his wife. After Rieux vehemently reassures him that he is not wrong in his personal quest for happiness, he is informed that Rieux’s wife is in a sanitarium over a hundred miles away. This display of silent strength on Dr. Rieux’s part – his encouragement of his friend to find the happiness he himself is deprived of – is what finally resonated with Rambert. After this argument Rambert comes to Dr.Rieux’s apartment and signs on to help fight the plague. However, his transition is not complete here for he still continues his quest to find a means of escape.

After working for some time with the sanitation quads Rambert is finally successful in his mission: he finds a way out of Oran. However, on the brink of escape his character completes its transformation, he is unable to leave the town. Even after Rieux “told him that was sheer nonsense; there was nothing shameful in preferring happiness” (Camus, 209) to the suffering of the town, he chooses to stay. After working with Rieux, Rambert realizes that he belongs in Oran, “whether [he] want[s] it or not” (Camus, 209). He realizes that, like Rieux and the majority of the town, he must sacrifice for the good of the whole. Be the sacrifice choosing to stay and prohibiting the possible spread of plague, or choosing to remain working in the hospital, Rambert finally realizes that his personal plight insignificant in comparison to the plague and the misery it has brought to everyone. Rambert, out of all the other character’s seen in the novel, undergoes the most drastic transformation at the hands of the plague: from a person entirely focused on achieving his own selfish goals to one who demonstrates courage and chooses to sacrifice his own happiness and continue to battle the formidable opponent that is the plague.

The novel centers on the town of Oran’s struggle once infected with the bubonic plague. Through the introduction of specific characters and omniscient narration, the reader is granted insight into the character’s own internal struggles and developments as a result of the plague. One of the predominant themes in the book, as seen through highlighted through several main characters, is courage in the face of hardship. Dr. Rieux, Grand, and Rambert all suffer at the hands of the plague; however, they bravely choose to stay and fight their formidable foe, even at the cost of their loosing loved ones, and possibly their lives.  

Works Cited

Camus, Albert, and Stuart Gilbert. The Plague. 1st American ed. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1948. Print.

2000 Words for paper

This is not at ALL my final rough draft, just pieces of the paper waiting to be meshed together. 
I am actually moving away from my theme, too general and hard to pin-point. I am now trying to lean towards a paper analyzing the contrast between the people of Oran as a mass and the individuals presented to us by the author, taking into account existentialist philosophy and narration. Its getting there, just organizing my thoughts.

Albert Camus is often associated with the existentialist movement. Existentialism, in short, was coined in the 1900s, it covered a wide array of genres and authors who all shared one thing: the belief that everything stems from the individual. The individual chooses what will become of his life and what his life is. In the novel The Plague, Albert Camus plays with various existentialist notions. Although the Plague itself can be taken as a simple narrative, the complexity of its characters and the severity of the situations that they face make the reader question the real reason and meaning behind the novel. The narration style gives us an insight into the character's internal struggle, which according to existentialist theory, is a battle that is imperative for every single human to go through.

Out of all the characters in the Plague, Dr. Rieux is the one which we get to know the most. He is distant, methodical and professional. He works like a dog to save people's lives and does not consider himself a hero. Due to the fact that the Paris serum does not work he delivers more bad news than good, but he even holds a good standing in what I believe to be the meaning of the whole novel. Even when it is hopeless, he continues his work. Not for the praise or glory, just for his profession, an admirable behavior when facing such a horrible point in time. He molds his job and motivation by his label given to him in Oran, the label of a Doctor. Doctors generally have the answers, especially when what is happening has to do with the health of the people. Society expects Dr. Rieux to react to the plague as a doctor, cool calm and collected, not like a person, panic-y, frantic and stupid. He faces the existentialist core of the internal struggle of man. Does he panic and try to run away, looking like an unprofessional coward, or does he brush it off, move forward and handle the situation like the real doctor he is. This is just brushing the mere surface of Dr. Rieux’s internal struggles.
"here lay certitude; there, in the daily round. All the rest hung on mere threads and trivial contingencies; you couldn’t waste your time on it. The thing was to do your job as it should be done."

                Despair, a common theme in existentialist philosophy is described as a state of complete and utter lack of direction, drive because of an extremely bad situation with no visible escape. Since the Plague was told from a seemingly third person, it appears that Dr. Rieux unconsciously decided to take on his role as a doctor and beat the slump, using the external factors as motivation to work through the plague.

 Due to the nature of his work, he is constantly in situations in which the lives of others were in his hands. He had infinite options, decisions as a doctor. Who to save. What patient to see. In addition, he had infinite decisions as an human. His personal endeavors were as monumental to the meaning of the novel as the events themselves. He chose to be indifferent when facing these hardships. He could not be compassionate for every single one of his patients because they were most likely to die and any attachments or false hope would be worse than just to sever an already distant thin tie between the doctor and his patients.

                Out of all of the characters in the Plague the character that differs the most with Dr. Rieux is Rambert. They were both in Oran, they both were separated from the loves of their lives. Dr. Rieux aimed to do his job and strive to belittle the malignant effects of the horrible plague whilst Rambert constantly looked for ways out of this situation of despair. Rambert had little moments of angst that against the plague, against letting oneself be overcome by a disease without a fight, even though ultimately he is setting himself up for disappointment. Rieux does not expect to be happy, he works against the disease regardless of the likelihood of his success. Rambert initially fights to get out, he fights his situation, the rules, everything.As he comes to realize that there is no way out Rambert learns the hard way that he is part of something bigger than himself, and that he has to quit helplessly trying to escape his situation and face it like a man. He does, and the reader is proud of him. After accepting that the plague was all of their problem he even risks his life to help fight the plague.

2,000 words for term paper

Theme: courage in the face of hardship

The Plague, by Albert Camus, is a novel documenting the horrific affects of an epidemic of the plague on the small town of Oran. A central focus of the novel is on the plague’s progression through the population of the town and the effects it has its citizens. While some resort to “revolutionary violence” it the resulting disarray, other’s step forward to face their daunting opponent, willing to sacrifice everything to help fight it. Throughout the novel a central focus is placed on three character’s and their adaptation to their new plague-ridden surroundings: Dr. Bernard Rieux, Raymond Rambert, Joseph Grand, and Jean Tarrou are all characters that risk their lives daily to help those affected by the plague. Through these characters and their adaptation to the plague one of the underlying themes of the novel is illustrated: courage in the face of adversity of an underlying theme.

One of the characters that display courage in the face of hardship is Rieux. He works every day, all day, in the plague hospitals trying to fight the increasingly fatal epidemic. If not informed by the narrator, the reader would never know there was an underlying hardship in Rieux’s life. He commits himself so whole-heartedly to the job it appears as if it is the only thing in his life. His work appears to consume him entirely as he fights to save lives. However, this is a misconception created by his courage and work ethic in response to the epidemic. He has a sick wife in quarantine outside of the town. He is subject to the same sense of isolation and separation that the rest of the town feels. This is a feeling that drives many of the citizens, as seen with Rambert initially, into listless hopelessness. This despair felt by the citizens of the town who had been separated from a loved one is felt to acutely by the majority of the population that it is describes for about one hundred pages of the novel. This feeling is what dictates many peoples behavior throughout this time. This feeling leads to the increase in business in bars and restaurants during this time of plague; these isolated individuals flock to these places in an attempt to find some escape from their sense of loss. They think that if they go to highly populated areas they will feel as sense of community somehow, that their feeling of wholeness will be restored. Dr. Rieux, throughout the novel, suffers from this same sentiment that drives the majority of the town into desolation. However, Rieux doesn’t let it affect. He maintains complete control and focus over himself. Even when he has reason to believe his wife’s situation has worsened – through her increasingly friendly and optimistic telegraphs constructed to put him at ease – he never stops his battle against his faceless opponent.

“Grand was the true embodiment of the quiet courage that inspired the sanitary groups. He had said yes without a moment’s hesitation and with the large-heartedness that was second nature to him” (135).  Like Rieux, Grand is another character in this novel that exhibits courage in the face of the adversity provided by the plague. Joseph Grand is an elderly gentleman that has been stuck in the same temporary position at the post office for twenty-two years. He is complacent – not a man of action, never speaking up in regards to his boss’ exploitation of him. “All he desired was the prospect of a life suitably insured on the material side by honest work, enabling him to devote his leisure to his hobbies” (44).  

He is not a capitalist, something that distinguished him from the majority of the population of Oran. As seen described in the very beginning, and throughout the town’s battle with the plague, the citizens of Oran are inherently concerned with personal gain. This tendency of the town is so drastic that the narrator notes it is not a place for old people – for they will be left behind, unattended to by their families, as their families go off in pursuit of material gains. Despite the overwhelming majority of his peers’ behavior, Grand is never driven by a desire for material gains – he simply wishes to make enough to support himself. This attitude further highlights Grand’s complacency: he doesn’t care to take action even to benefit himself. He is neutral character is further defined by his trouble with language, seen in his inability to write his book. He is stuck on the first sentence; either because he is a perfectionist and is unable to move on until he finds it perfect or because he simply doesn’t have a firm grasp of the language in which he is writing. He is so reluctant to take action he cannot even finish a written sentence. All of these factors contributing to the total blandness of Grand’s character are why I found his bravery in the face of the plague so interesting; this form of action taking is almost out of character for him. He is actively standing up for what he thinks is right rather than letting external forces or people decide his fate for him; he volunteers himself to work in the sanitation squads. Granted, he is only helping with registry and statistics, but it is still an act to help the plague-fighting effort.  He even eventually goes one further in this newfound trend of taking action – doing much of his work in the actual hospitals alongside Reiux. When thanked for volunteering he replied: “Why, that’s not difficult! Plague is here and we’ve got to make a stand, that’s obvious. Ah, I only wish everything were as simple!” (134). Grand was a formerly neutral character, a man of little ambition or sustenance. However, when faced with the plague a change is seen in his character: he becomes more of a man of action, sacrificing his own time and possible health willingly in an effort to help fight the plague.

Raymond Rambert is another of the characters on whose character the plague has had a profound impact. He is a writer for a newspaper in Paris and happens to be in Oran on assignment when the outbreak of the plague beings. He is consequently trapped inside of Oran when the town is quarantined. He believes because he has no attachment to the city, and therefore he should be allowed to leave, despite the quarantine. He has left his wife behind in Paris and is desperate to return to her; it is this desperation that blinds him to his selfishness in his endeavors to escape the town. He first goes to the Prefect’s office, explaining how his “presence in Oran was purely accidental, he had no connection with the town and no reasons for staying in it [therefore] he was surely entitled to leave” (84).

He is unable to see the inherent selfishness in his actions: the whole town is in quarantine he can’t be the only one there by chance, yet he expects an exception to be made in his case. In his appeal to Dr. Rieux to write him a certificate of health Dr. Reiux explains to him that “there are thousands of people placed as [he] is in this town, and there can’t be any question of allowing them to leave it” (86). Entire families have been separated as a result of the quarantine, however Rambert is unable to gain perspective because of his central focus of his own escape. He is persistent in his desperation: appealing to every official in the town. His argument remaining “that he was a stranger to [the] town and, that being so, his case deserved special consideration” (106). He is always met, however, with a response adding that “a good number of other people were in a like case, and this his position was not so exceptional as he seemed to suppose” (106).  Despite being met with this response at every turn, he continues his frantic search for a way out of the town. The fact that, despite receiving a similar response from everyone whom he tries to evoke sympathy, he still maintains that his position is exceptionally important illustrates how blinded to reason as a result of his desperation he is. After exhausting all of his legal methods of escape, he beings contacting smugglers. Cottard volunteers in his quest for illegal transport out of the city, however, as Rambert is on the brink of escape the two smugglers with whom Cottard put him in contact back out of the deal. By their absence the smugglers, who typically brought lesser items such as notes in and out of the town, illustrate their comprehension of the gravity of the town’s situation: they understand that by smuggling one individual out of the town they could possibly be risking catalyzing the spread of the plague not just through surrounding areas, but because of its high level of contagion, possibly the world. That Rambert cannot realize that not only would his escape from the town be unfair to the families who have suffered separation as well, but could possibly cause a worldwide epidemic is incredible. More incredible still is that he could maintain the value he places on his escape while continuing his acquaintance with Dr. Rieux, and in turn being exposed to news of the devastation of the plague first hand as well as its brutality and ease in spreading. His relationship with Dr. Rieux serves to foil his character: he is desperate to fulfill his own selfish desires and escape the town to return to his wife, while Dr. Rieux steadfastly battles a seemingly endless plague while his wife’s condition worsens in a sanatorium outside of the city. Before his transformation as a result of the plague, Rambert’s weakness of character and morals is seen highlighted through the foil Dr. Rieux provides by his strength and devotion to fighting the plague, despite his own personal circumstances.

Rambert’s transformation does not occur all at once; it begins with his request to “work with [the sanitation squads] until [he found] some way of getting out of the town” (164). It is catalyzed after an argument Rambert has in defending his position of “living and dying for what one loves” – his wife. After Rieux vehemently reassures him that he is not wrong in his personal quest for happiness, Tarrou informs Rambert that Rieux’s wife is in a sanitarium over a hundred miles away. This display of silent strength on Dr. Rieux’s part – his encouragement of his friend to find the happiness he himself is deprived of – is what finally resonated with Rambert. After this argument Rambert comes to Dr.Rieux’s apartment the next day and signs on to help with the fighting the plague. However, his transition is not complete here for he still continues his quest to find a means of escape.

After working for some time with the sanitation quads Rambert is finally successful in his mission; he finds a way out of Oran. However, on the brink of escape his character completes its transformation: he is unable to leave the town. Even after Rieux “told him that was sheer nonsense; there was nothing shameful in preferring happiness” (209) to the suffering of the town, he chooses to stay. After working with Rieux and Tarrou, Rambert realizes that he belongs here “whether [he] want[s] it or not” (209); that, like Rieux and the majority of the town, he must sacrifice for the good of the whole. Be the sacrifice choosing to stay and prohibiting the possible spread of plague, or choosing to remain working in the hospital, Rambert finally realizes that his personal plight is of insignificance in comparison to the plague and the misery it has brought everyone. Through Rieux’s compassion and dedication in the face of the plague Rambert is finally able to gain a larger perspective on his situation. Rambert, out of all the other character’s seen in the novel, undergoes the most drastic transformation at the hands of the plague: from a person entirely focused on achieving his own selfish goals to one who demonstrates courage and chooses to sacrifice his own happiness and continue to battle the formidable opponent that is the plague.