Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Initially Camus was even wary of the word plague. The plague that strikes Oran is thematically rich in its exploration of the absurd. No group is untouched. Battle Against Crisis at the Conclusion of The Plague, The Absurd and the Concept of Hope in Camus's Novels. Not affiliated with Harvard College. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. These “heroes” fit into his idea of Absurdism, as in…, While The Plague is a tale of absurdist philosophy, it is also a novel with living characters and a deeply human story, and Camus’ writing is potent in its imagery of suffering, despair, and courage. The plague does not care about politics, money, power, past sufferings, or morality; it simply is, and it is all-encompassing. He does not renounce his faith but sees his choice as all or nothing, as the complete relinquishment of any claim to answers or comprehension and instead the resting in God's ultimate mysteriousness. Abstraction is seen as deadening oneself to reality and mankind, sticking with statistics or philosophies or doctrines, focusing too much on rules or theories or putative panaceas. Because of this situation, humans have…, The rest of the themes generally follow as corollaries to Camus’ philosophy. Camus has the boy symbolize Jesus, another innocent sacrificed. This year has not only seen revived interest in Albert Camus’s novel The Plague (1947), it also marks a key anniversary: Camus’s death at the age of forty-six in a sudden car crash sixty years ago.The occasion has led to commemorations in France but it has been understandably overshadowed in the United States by COVID-19, the fateful presidential election, and beyond. The people of Oran deal with this meaningless suffering in various ways. In The Plague, language is often inaccurate and always inadequate. Many popular reading lists for the COVID-19 pandemic include The Plague, a 1947 novel by Albert Camus. As an atheist, Rieux finds it unfathomable that a God could allow the suffering seen in the plague and still be considered loving. Imagination in the context of the Camus' plague means identifying with people, with giving into love and grief, with confronting the real. The advantages or disadvantages of an ironic tone (or irony) in The Plague. The rats don’t simply symbolize the plague. The residents are solely focused on doing business and agriculture. The plague itself is thematic. It could also, of course, be the most concrete version of itself—a microbe, insidiously permeating every aspect of life and reminding people that they are subject to the forces of biology and nature just as much as they are subject to politics and economics. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. There is only plague, and they are stuck in its void. The boy has committed no sins, as Jesus did not, yet dies nonetheless. The people believed the Blacl Death signaled the Biblical apocolypse. “Rieux,” he said at last, “you must tell me the whole truth. The inability of a given person to express his meaning is a fundamental concern of the novel. The Plague by Albert Camus has many themes including exile and imprisonment. From the title, you know this book is about a plague. What was the status of life in Europe in terms of faith, technology, and trade before the Plague arrived? The town was small and peaceful with the absence of birds. If no one documents, then no one remembers. 2. The plague causes suffering among the rich and the poor, the old and the young, and men and women. In the beginning, the townspeople of Oran are still caught up in their own lives—their loves, their pursuits of leisure, their past and future, their unshakeable sense of themselves as the center of the universe. Despite the enormity of suffering and death in the world and the seeming omnipotence of the plague, there are instances of heroism and altruistic struggle as well. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Plague, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Camus immediately undercuts the “heroic” efforts of the volunteer groups by declaring that to the fight the plague is the only decent, truly human thing to do, but this is because he believes that humans are generally good. 1 Name Instructor Course Date An Essay on The Plague by Albert Camus This novel is about a plague that hits a large French Port called Oran in 1940. The citizens of Oran become prisoners of the plague when their city falls under total quarantine, but it is questionable whether they were really "free" before the plague. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. He needed to account for the ways life was disrupted, for the lives that were lost, for the quiet acts of heroism, for the endurance and the resilience and the charity and the overwhelming will to live. I count on that.” “I promise it.” Tarrou’s … While The Plague is a tale of absurdist philosophy, it is also a novel with living characters and a deeply human story, and Camus’ writing is potent in its imagery of suffering, despair, and courage. At the end of the novel, Rieux identifies himself as the author of the chronicle and explains his conviction to bear witness to the plague. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Teachers and parents! LitCharts Teacher Editions. I find the author’s plot, tone, and theme for … My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”, read analysis of Language and Communication. Depending on the perspective of the reader, the plague of the novel could relate to the fascism and Nazism of World War II and the French Resistance, a more universal application to the plague of oppressive governments or an even more universal application of the oppression suffered by a minority for no apparent reason. What was the philosophy of the “flagellants”? The story is narrated to us by an odd, nameless narrator strangely obsessed with objectivity, who tends to focus on a man named Dr. Bernard Rieux. Major characters in Camus' fiction, therefore, can probably be expected either to disbelieve or to wrestle with the problem of belief. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. As the plague ravages the population, it becomes clear that suffering is universal and inevitable. Set in the North African French colony of Oran, the novel chronicles a recrudescence of the bubonic plague and the various ways in which the townspeople respond to the pestilence. The characters in the plague span these binaries, demonstrating the multifarious responses to a trauma like the plague. The Plague Introduction. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44 in 1957, the second-youngest recipient in history. Those who fall ill or who have family members fall ill are isolated in camps and hospital wards, kept away from the healthy and deemed a threat. The chronicle’s unknown narrator eventually reveals himself as Dr. Rieux, who has been trying to take a more detached view of the plague. Paneloux initially sticks to standard Christian doctrine and sees the plague as God's censuring of human sin, but once he spends time on the ground among the ailing and the dying, he changes his understanding of his God. At its most basic, this philosophy holds that the universe is absurd and meaningless – there is no God or cosmic order – and that humans are doomed to suffer and die. They die in the streets, on playgrounds, in businesses…and then people follow suit. Camus is often considered an existentialist, but the philosophy he most identified with and developed was called absurdism. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Heroism and Defiance. Albert Camus, in relation to this idea, delivered to the literary world his existentialist work, The Plague, a novel based upon the central theme of the inanity of human suffering and the profound individuality with the human experience. They also indicate his continuing insistence that his book carry his metaphysical ideas of the absurd. Camus presents both of these perspectives as valid, though his personal sympathy is with Rieux, and shows that every single person tries to come to terms with the plague whether it is through religion, philosophy, volunteering, suffering, or other methods and means. Nearly all these early Plague ideas reveal Camus' concern for a truthful realism and a rejection of sensationalism. Exile and Imprisonment. The Plague Study Guide Albert Camus is one of the 20th century’s most esteemed writers, and La Peste, or The Plague (1947), is considered one of his masterpieces. “I know that man is capable of great deeds. Dealing with the absurd is not something most people have experience with, and Camus chronicles the various ways they confront the absence of all reason. The word exile means the state of being barred and expelled from one’s native country, typically for political or punitive reasons (dictionary.com). The story centers on a physician and the people he works with and treats in an Algerian port town that is struck by the plague. At first they try to ignore or downplay it, and then they see it as a personal antagonist separating them…, Despite the enormity of suffering and death in the world and the seeming omnipotence of the plague, there are instances of heroism and altruistic struggle as well. The Plague is essentially a philosophical novel, meaning that it forwards a particular worldview through its plot and characterization. This is a reflection of Camus himself, who describes the calamity of Oran objectively, without romanticizing…, The plague simultaneously exiles and imprisons the town of Oran, and its closed gates leave many citizens separated from their loved ones. Absurdism. Explore Course Hero's library of literature materials, including documents and Q&A pairs. 1. The suffering has three effects. Late in 1942, he cautions himself not to include the word in the title. Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) was a French author and philosopher who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.His novel The Plague has recently garnered much worldwide attention do to the pandemic of 2020.As a philosopher familiar with Camus’ thought, I’d like to highlight the book’s main philosophical themes.But first a very brief plot summary. Many are exiled from God, no longer able to reconcile the suffering they experience and see with the promises of Christianity. This particular plague happens in a Algerian port town called Oran in the 1940s. “Rieux,” he said at last, “you must tell me the whole truth. Everyone was buying it. The Plague Themes. The Question and Answer section for The Plague is a great This is the very essence of existential angst which the novel is dedicated to portraying. Camus also describes the townspeople’s feelings of exile as the plague progresses: first everyone wants to speed up time and end the plague, or they work ceaselessly…, Instant downloads of all 1389 LitChart PDFs People's wishes, dreams, fears, philosophies, and plans are all proven irrelevant. In the novel the bubonic plague is a symbol of many things – the harsh, meaningless universe, the human condition, or war – but all of them mean suffering and death. Rereading The Plague over these past weeks has … The author was an existentialist philosopher who was also a journalist, a writer, and a member of the French Resistance to the Nazi occupation. 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