Book Review: The Plague (1947)
Retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com/Plague-Albert-Camus/dp/0679720219
Hanna Vasilenka / March 23, 2020
The Plague (1947)
Author: Albert Camus
( 4 min read )
As we find ourselves in self-isolation, avoiding the new Covid-19 which besieges us in our homes, we ought to reflect on an older piece of literature written over half a century ago, which finds itself in an odd position of importance and relatability today.
Living in the era of global revolutions and upheavals, during the onset of technological progress, Camus writes an incredible story about the strength of the spirit of people, resistance, about faith and unbelief, about love and hate, madness and humility - the Plague. Camus was an adherent of existentialism, along with Sartre and other philosophers who came to prominence during the post-war period. His book shows us how ordinary human life with their everyday weddings, loves, deaths and births, celebrations and work can jump onto a completely different value vector of being. As its name suggests The Plague tells the story of a disease sweeping through the French-Algerian town of Oran.
Some major figures of the book are people from all swathes of life, such as Doctor Reuix, the travelling Tarrou, Rambert the journalist, Joseph Grand, a fifty-year-old clerk. Other characters include Cottard, the self-described travelling salesman and Father Paneloux, a Jesuit Priest.
The plague forced the citizens of Oran to adapt to the new social conditions of their lives. If before the epidemic, life in the city proceeded in the usual way, then under the isolated conditions of their new existence, the lovers who remained together began to love more, friends became friends more, doctors treated more, parents took care more. Thin lines of destinies expanded and stuck to each other as a result of forced joint activities. Aristotle had the courage to divide the concept of friendship into three types: friendship for the sake of pleasure, for the sake of benefit and for the sake of friendship (good). It is in the period of the plague that we can observe its most noble manifestation - friendship for the good, for each other. Such friendship means first of all wishing good to your comrade, rather than being the very centre of everything.
However, we can also say that from the very moment when the population of Oran allowed itself to cherish even the tiniest hope, the real power of the plague ended. Sometimes, people reach for religion as the only remaining ray of hope. Others, on the contrary, renounce it because of circumstances that made them lose faith. Camus explores these themes, and the role of religion, as the Plague spreads through the streets of Oran.
The more time passed, the more vague shared memories became and less and less people thought about the future. And even making all kinds of attempts to reunite with their past, with a loved one, people gradually began to lose their meaning in all this, which happened to a journalist who was involuntarily stuck, imprisoned in a painful Oran.
Rieux decided to write this story to testify in favor of the plagued, to leave a memory of injustice and violence against people. Indeed, if a certain affected group does not have enough resources for national sympathy, then such tragedies would remain only in the heads of people, and on the pages of books and archives.
