First 500 Words: CRISTINA VALENCIA

Throughout his work, The Plague, author Albert Camus reserved the beginning of every chapter to identify the sentiments of the individuals living in Oran, a town that had been swept by the tragedies caused by the plague. In his novel, the townspeople undergo a whirlwind of emotions nevertheless; they always manage to remain hopeful or optimistic of the future outcome even when there were more dead than alive in their town. Camus allocates much time in his novel to writing about the evolutions of his town’s hope as a direct result with the progression of the plague. The behavior of the town as a whole is quite interesting due to unwavering aspirations for their seemingly destroyed town and I find Camus’ notion of optimism quite intriguing. Furthermore, the townspeople of Oran do not lose hope because throughout the novel they are constantly exploring different methods of keeping the faith and future of both themselves and their families alive in the town. When the plague first struck the town of Oran, the people of Oran did not lament; they gathered the finest doctors and physicians the towns had to offer and put them to work in an effort to find a cure. When the plague was worsening and the death toll was increasing by 100 each day, they began creating sanitation squads. They also attempted in using different techniques or practices to keep their mind of the worsening effects of the plague: they went to theaters when they were experiencing boredom and began to go to the beach when they began loosing some ambition, they also began going to church when they lost faith due to worsening conditions and the town was quarantined. Author, Albert Camus’ notions and time spent on writing about the people of Oran leads me to believe that Camus is attempting to make a general statement of people’s inherent nature. What leads me to this conclusion is Camus’ past life and experiences. Through certain situations, individuals are able to grow and change ultimately resulting in drawing certain conclusions about the way in which humans work. I believe that through Camus’ experiences he has been able to further understand human nature and the way individuals interact to certain situations, directly, providing him with inspiration in which he mentions in his book. Through his writings at the beginning of the novel of individuals in the town of Oran, I was able to draw conclusions and have a better understanding for both their way of life, before, throughout, and during the plague. In the beginning, Camus insinuates that the townspeople of Oran are almost a little strange.