FREE ESSAY ON THE PLAGUE - NOVEL ANALYSIS

THE PLAGUE - NOVEL ANALYSIS

The Epidemic in a Few Pages
The Plague is a novel describing the plague epidemic in the large Algerian city of Oran
in the 1940s. In April, numerous rats staggered into the open to die. Once a mild
hysteria gripped the population, the newspapers began searching for any action they could
take. Finally, the authorities arranged for the daily collection and cremation of the
rats, but by mid-afternoon they were already pilling up again. When a cluster of cases of
a strange fever appeared, Dr. Rieux's partner, Castel, became certain that the illness is
the bubonic plague. He and Dr. Rieux are forced to confront the indifference and denial
of the authorities and other doctors in their attempts to urge quick, decisive action.
Only after it became impossible to deny that a serious epidemic was ravaging Oran, the
authorities did enforce strict sanitation measures, placing the entire city under
quarantine.
The public went into shock due to their sudden imprisonment and intense longing for
absent loved ones. Many people indulged in selfish personal distress, convinced that
their pain was unique in comparison to the rest of the town's. Father Paneloux delivered
a stern sermon, declaring that the plague is God's punishment for Oran's sins. Raymond
Rambert attempted to escape Oran in hopes of rejoining with his wife in Paris. He tried
to escape with the help of Cottard's criminal buddies. In the mean time, Meanwhile,
Rieux, Tarrou, and Grand relentlessly battled the death and suffering of the plague.
Rambert eventually finalized his escape plan, but, upon learning that Pieux was separated
from his wife, Rambert became ashamed to flee. He chose to stay behind and continue to
fight the epidemic. Cottard committed an unknown crime in the past, so he has lived in
constant fear of arrest and punishment. He found the plague to be a sign of relief
because he was no longer alone in his fearful suffering. He accumulated a great deal of
wealth as a smuggler during the epidemic.
Since the exile lasted for so long, the people lost their selfish obsession with personal
suffering. They came to view the plague as a disaster that was everybody's concern, and
many confronted their social responsibility and joined the anti-plague efforts. When M.
Othon's son suffered a prolonged, excruciating death from the plague, Dr. Rieux shouts at
Paneloux that he was an innocent victim. Paneloux, deeply shaken by the boy's death,
delivered a second sermon that modified the first. He declared that the inexplicable
deaths of innocent people forced the Christian people to choose between believing
everything or believing nothing at all about God. When he fell ill, he refused to consult
a doctor, leaving his fate entirely in the hands of divine Power. He died clutching his
crucifix, but the symptoms of his illness did not truly match those of the plague. 
When the epidemic ended, Cottard could not go on. He began randomly firing his gun into
the street until he was captured by the police. Grand, having recovered from the plague,
vows to make a fresh start in life. Tarrou dies just as the epidemic was ending, but he
battled with all his strength for his life, just as he helped Rieux battle for the lives
of others. Rambert's wife joined him in Oran right after the city gates were opened. Dr.
Rieux's own wife died of a prolonged illness before she and her husband could be reunited
and the public quickly returned to its old routine. 
Once I finally finished reading this novel, I was overjoyed. I was interest in the
bubonic plague and that was the only reason I chose this novel. Camus could have very
easily increased the enjoyment of reading by correcting a few problems, but there were
some aspects that I loved about it.
If I am reading any type of writing and I stumble upon a word that I cannot say, I
improvise with something that to anyone else would sound like a sigh of relief but it
sounds as it looks. The Plague, due to my limited ability to pronounce French names, was
filled with characters that practically had no names. I find it difficult to keep track
of each character anyway, and this made it virtually impossible. All of the time I was
reading, I was wondering who it was talking or trying to save a life. If Camus could have
only used names that started with different letters it would have been easier, but many
of the names started with the same letter such as: Rambert and Rieux. The name issue
really bothered me while I was reading this novel.
I enjoy books that do no veer away from the main plot of the story. When Camus mentioned
things about the characters' child hoods or an insignificant happening of their lives, I
felt as though I was watching a really good show on television, and it was paused for a
commercial. The subplots in some books are relevant and almost necessary to allow them to
make sense, but the ones in this book only served as page-fillers.
Even though when this happened the rats really did spread the plague, I enjoyed that
aspect of the novel the most. The rats symbolized filth and disease at the beginning, but
before it was over the rats had been reborn into a symbol of life and a chance to start
over. 
In Albert Camus's novel The Plague, there are three main cases of symbolism. All of these
cases portray the different stages that the plague went through. There are different
stages all of which are brought on by different occurrences that have a much deeper
meaning than what is printed on the pages.
Before any people fell ill, rats began to be found dead in numerous unexpecting places.
Dr. Rieux found a dead rat in his building to which his concierge replied, "There
'weren't no rats in the building,' ...so someone must have brought this one from
outside." (page 7) These dead rats truly symbolize the plague being spread from one
unexpecting place to another before the people had even begun to worry.
As the death number continued to rise, a telegram was sent from the Prefect that read,
"Proclaim a state of plague stop close town." (page 61) Even though this was the only
means to be taken by the authorities, it shows that the people are giving up the battle
against the plague and they are trying to fence in the disease and the people. One could
read into this that the authorities have decided to sacrifice the unlucky people of Oran.
This state of emergency symbolizes that a few deaths really do not matter in the over-all
scheme of things.
"[T]he townspeople paraded the brilliantly lighted streets in boisterous groups, laughing
and singing." (page 253) The people not giving up and returning to their regular lives
symbolizes how even though they have gone through months of torture, the plague is over.
The symbolism throughout this novel depicts all of the stages the plague went through
before life in Oran could return to normal.
I did not have to read far into this novel, before Camus's imagery had painted a vivid
picture of Oran in my mind. In the second paragraph a few sentences describe the feel of
the dark, dead city. It almost led me to believe the town was asking for an epidemic of
the plague by the way it let all of the seasons pass it by.
"The town itself... is ugly," gives me the image of an old town with colonial style
buildings packed along streets so tight that there is not room for a diseased rat to
filter between them in search of food. When seeing Oran, I do not see a greasy, cluttered
town, but I see a dried-up-town that has a layer of undisturbed dust form the lack of
wind through the town.
Camus described the town as "a town without pigeons, without any pigeons, without any
trees or gardens." This expresses that there are not enough rays of sunlight or breezes
of fresh air - for anyone that does not have to stay - to keep them happy. The pigeons
have chosen to leave this desolate town in search of greener grass. The idea of no trees
or gardens gives the image of dusty, barren fields that have not bared any life in many
years. 
The main imagery in this novel is established from the very start. This tries to prevent
the reader from establishing an image in their mind, and it makes Camus's job easier
because he doesn't have to persuade the reader to see things his way. He tells them what
to see. 
Dr. Bernard Rieux was the main character throughout this novel. He devoted all of his
energy for many months to try to find a cure for the plague. He also continued to see his
regular patients during this stressful time. Once the plague was over, Rieux could not
return to his normal life due to circumstances beyond his control.
Rieux had to send his wife away to stay in a sanitarium in the mountains due to a year
long illness. (page 8) This was the first character-building-step he went through. Being
forced to live without his wife toughened his heart. He did not even have enough time to
write her letters because there were so many people falling ill with the plague. Rieux
did not know how many changes he would go through before the ordeal was over.
All during the plague epidemic, Rieux was forced to face innocent deaths day after day.
Being a doctor, he felt somewhat to blame for the numerous deaths. A person cannot fail
so many times without beginning to wonder if they are truly a failure. Fighting to not
sink into depression, Rieux worked even harder to battle the plague. He worked so many
hours a day that there was not any time left for sleep or certainly not any time left for
a personal life. Rieux forgot how to be a person throughout the months of the epidemic.
Dr. Bernard Rieux was the main character throughout this novel, therefore, he took the
blunt of many of its blows. Losing his wife and worrying about everyone's well being
truly took a toll on him. At the beginning he was an average doctor who's wife was sick.
By the end, he had lost his wife and had practically worked himself to death. 
* The Plague takes place in a large Algerian city of Oran in the 1940s. The main epidemic
lasted from April until February. 
The town has a dead look about it. It seems that nobody new has moved her for many years,
and the people that live here are literally dying to get out. The children do not play in
the streets together anymore.
The movie theater played the same movie all during the epidemic, and all of the people
still came to watch it once a week. After a while, they became scared that setting so
close they could possibly get infected, and the theater became a deserted place as well.
Since only a few people were out after dark, the town authorities decided to only turn on
half of the streetlights. The town was almost completely dark during the night hours.
This made it very difficult for the people who were to find their way.
The people became numb to the idea of death and dying. Nothing really seemed to matter to
them anymore, as long as they did not contract the plague.
Due to all of the deaths, the cemeteries were running over. The authorities had resorted
to have two large pits to bury the bodies in-- one for men and one for women. After each
new load was dumped in they were dusted with lime to keep the odor to a minimal. Family
plots had ceased to matter anymore.
The setting of this novel shows how so many regular occurrences can change when such a
horrible thing happens in a community. 


  
    
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The Red Badge Of Courage
The Red Badge of Courage, by Steven Crane, has been proclaimed one of the greatest war
novels of all time. It is a story that realistically depicts the American Civil War
through the eyes of Henry Fleming, an ordinary farm boy who decides to become a soldier.
Henry, who is fighting for the Union, is very determined to become a hero, and the story
depicts Henrys voyage from being a young coward, to a brave man. This voyage is the
classic trip from innocence to experience. The story starts out with a heated debate
between the soldiers. One boy had heard a rumor that the regiment would be moving on to
fight a battle the next day. Some of the soldiers agree with this boy, while others think
that their regiment will never partake in a real battle. While watching this argument,
Henry, the protagonist, decides that he would rather go lay down and think rather then
take part in the heated argument between the soldiers. Henry, a simple farm boy, is
rather excited when he hears the rumor that they will be fighting soon. It had always
been a dream of his to fight in a war, and become a hero, and now his dream was coming
true. Henry begins to think about what life was like before he entered the army, and
remembers the stories of war he has heard from old veterans. This flashback is very
effective in showing how his previous experiences have affected his thoughts on war now.
It is blatantly obvious that he is afraid that he will not be able to withstand the
pressures of a battle. He keeps telling himself that if he wants to become a hero, he can
not run away. He must stick out the battle with the rest of his comrades. While marching
along, Henry sees the first corpse he has ever seen. He shows pity for the man, because
the dead man had died in such poor conditions. The souls of his shoes were worn bare.
When Henry sees the corpse, he begins to wonder if his generals actually know what they
are doing. He thinks that the generals are leading him right into a trap, right into the
middle of the rebels. Henry deals with his fear of battle by acting arrogant. He acts as
if he has been in a thousand battles, and complains about the walking, even though the
reader knows that he would rather be walking forever then go to battle at this point in
time. It shows one of Henry's defense mechanisms, how he uses his arrogance to hide his
innocence. Regiment 304 moves on to battle the next day. Henry becomes very scared, but
is too proud to talk to any of the others soldiers about his fears. All the soldiers are
very anxious to fight in the war, and Tom and Henry talk about how they are not going to
run away from war, and how they want to become big time war heroes. This is ironic,
because in the end of the book their wishes come true. When the battle starts, all the
soldiers get very anxious and nervous. Tom and Henry don't turn out to be as brave as
they think that they could be. While hiding, Tom finds Henry, and gives him a manila
envelope of letters for his family. Tom believes that this will be his first and his last
battle. Henry ends up fulfilling his worst nightmare. Instead of sticking out the battle
with the rest of his regiment, he hides behind some brush in order to spare himself from
dying. He listens in on the battle, and to much of his surprise, he hears cheering from
what's left of his regiment. He then takes off into the woods in anger. While running
through the woods his conscience begins to speak to him. His conscience calls him a
coward, and a deserter. Out of guilt, Henry runs back to the battle site, and meets again
with his regiment. These actions showed Henry's maturity, and desire to be a war hero.
When Henry meets up his regiment and older tattered man begins to have a discussion with
him. The old man asks Henry "where yeh hit, ol' boy?" meaning, where he got shot. With
massive feelings of guilt, Henry shrugs away from the man and runs back into the woods.
From behind a tree, he looks at all the wounded soldiers. "At times he regarded the
wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be
particularly happy. He wished that he, too had a wound, a red badge of courage" This
shows Henrys desire to be a wounded war hero. He does not want to be set apart from the
other boys as a coward. As soon as the old soldier passed him, he went back to the lines
and continued on with the boys. He starts walking next to Jim Conklin, a soldier that he
knew pretty well. They are talking, when all of a sudden Jim runs away. He falls onto the
ground and dies. This death has a very big affect on Henry. Jim was his first friend to
be killed in battle. He feels guilty that Jim was put through so much pain, and he just
ran away, like a coward. After spending the night sleeping near Jim's corpse, Henry woke
up and was ready to march again. He meets up with another tattered soldier, who is crazy
and dying. Henry gets very angry at the mad for talking to him, and runs away, swearing
that the man knows his secret. He refuses to go back to the regiment, because he thinks
that everyone will regard him as a coward. All of a sudden, Henry sees the soldiers'
frantically running. One grabs him, and Henry asks him why they are running so
frantically. The only response he gets is a whack in the head with the soldiers' gun. A
few moments later, when Henry is able to get up, he begins to march with passer by
soldiers. A soldier walking next to him notices the wound on his head, and automatically
assumes it to be a bullet wound. The kind-hearted soldier leads Henry back to his
regiment. The first person Henry sees when he gets to the group is his friend Tom. In
order to save face, Henry makes up a big story about how he got shot in the head, and
then got separated from the regiment. Tom takes great care of Henry, cleans him up and
makes sure that he gets enough food, and a good night's sleep. After being pampered by
Tom, Henry realizes that this is not the way to becoming a hero. In order to become a
hero, he must fight in battles, and get a real red badge of courage, not just a knock in
the head. He returns the envelope of letters to Tom. This scene marks a dramatic change
in character for both of the boys. It shows their movement from innocence to experience.
From then on, the two men walk side by side while marching. They showed their courage
often in tough situations. Henry suspected that his generals were leading them right into
trouble, and he gets very angry about that fact. Henry tells Tom about his speculations,
but Tom will not believe him. During the next battle, Henry shows his courage by being
the first and the fastest soldier to fire. After the victorious battle, Henry and Tom
over hear a conversation between generals and captains, and they find out that the next
battle they are going to be fighting is going to be very tough, and the general is
looking for spar regiment.. The leader feels that there is no way Regiment 304 will
survive the battle, and calls the soldiers 'mule drivers', thinking that they are slow,
and rather stupid. When Henry and Tom hear this, they are enraged. They are determined to
fight as hard as the can, with all their heart and souls. Henry and Tom prove themselves
well in the battle. They steal the confederate flag, and are both brave enough to go out
on the field with out weapons. After the regiment retreats, the general recognizes both
soldiers as extremely brave, and comment that they are fit to be generals themselves.
This final action is what finalizes the movement from innocence to experience for Henry
and Tom. They went into the war as little boys, and now they are moving on as men. They
have both earned their red badges of courage, as well as the hero status they had dreamed
of obtaining forever.