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."
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.
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