Comments

• Talyor

  Ok, this is going to be my rant for this section! Why are the leaders ignoring what is going on? It makes no sense to me because when you have an outbreak like that you ACT on it!! But instead they are sitting there waiting for their entire population to get sick!
  
  This also made me draw a comparision, one you asked us to think about Ms. O'shea, and that is airport security. The U.S waited and waited until it was too late to out proper security messures to prevent 9/11. Like in the book the U.S sat back and watched as we were attacked even though we had warning signs. The colony officials did the same thing, they had the warning signs with the rats buts chose to ignore those signs and acted like nothing was happening!

  3/5/2009 7:43:52 PM
• Tanner

  From what i know about the life of Albert Camus, i know that each character in this book is designed after a small piece of himself. The Plague is almost a sequil to The Stranger in the sense that The Stranger introduces Camus' ideas and background of what existentialism is, but The Plague takes it further and actually develops it. Existentialism is often confused with nihilism, which is what many people confused The Stranger for. The Plague is Camus' atempt to clarify this difference. To show that while even though it may not matter what you do, it doesn't mean you should do nothing. Rieux has the choice whether he wants to continue helping the plague victims, and he continues to do so, even though all of his efforts are futile, and the people still die. More over, many of his patients don't have the means to pay him, but Rieux still helps them not because it is his responsibility, but because it is his choice to make the world better. Canmus is really trying to stress his belief that although actions do not matter, you should still try for the best.

  3/6/2009 4:16:35 PM
• Jared

  It seems like information sent around town is somewhat distorted, or people or uninformed or misinformed by the media. "Well Doctor? It's cholera, isn't it?" Plus the news likes to create fear, for example by reporting the cases every day, the reports in which might not be accurate.
  Rather than acting on 9/11 and saving many lives, the American government uses 9/11 to create fear. Fear does not necesarily mean action.

  3/6/2009 8:48:13 PM
• bennett

  from what ive seen of the CDC research, epidemics manage to go un noticed for what they are until enough people are sick or dead to draw attention. thats why modern protocol is immediate quarantine.
  Oran is supposedly a relatively happy, peaceful town, in the interests of preserving that peace they struggle to call it what it is. honestly in my opinion, who cares what its called, a disease is a and the only legitimate solution is to isolate it and allow it to burn out.
  
  the only true cure is prevention, and considering the fact that the rats had started dying in droves, the fleas carrying the disease were already in town. government measures seem to always be a reaction. 9/11 the intel pointing to an attack was garbled. in oran they didnt know enough about the disease to realize that it was plague.
  
  after the fact, damage control the town seems to do a decent job, once 40 people die, which really is pretty rapid realization, of a situation, and measures, weak at first are enacted, which do slow the spread

  3/7/2009 8:35:00 PM
• Kelsey

  I think it makes since that the officials are trying to ignore it. We know that there is a plauge and we want them to do something about it, but what if that hit us? No one would want to face the facts that it has. As frusterating as it is that no one does anything about it for a long time, I can understand why.

  3/8/2009 1:36:33 PM
• Ms. O'Shea

  Welcome, Tanner! "Thus each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky." That strikes me as an echo of the very last sentence of The Stranger--great point! Also, the original claim of the narrator, that to get to know a town you have to know "how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die" seems relevant. It would be fun to apply that sentence to the main character in The Stranger.

  3/8/2009 10:08:08 PM
• Michael S.

  I agree with what many have said. Authorities are always reluctant to spread the truth because, often, truth incurs turmoil. This reading reminded me of FDR's First Inaugural Address when he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Of course, the plague was something to fear but, beyond the chaos and instability that would come with the epidemic, is the nature of perception that comes with fear. When enough people are manipulated by fear, nobody can say what will happen next. Uncertainty - Definitely one of the scariest things any given individual may be faced with.

  3/8/2009 11:23:42 PM
• Brie

  I agree with Kelsey, because even though it may seem stupid to us that the doctors take such a long time to declare the disease the plague, once were in an instance of that magnitude it might be hard to come to the realization that everyone's going to die.
  on another note, while i was reading this section two things that marked me as curious were the suicide attempt and the journalist. I think the journalist will have some significance later on so I'm interested to see where that goes. I agree with Jared on the fact that the media creates a bigger reaction than the government calls for or has themselves.

  3/9/2009 12:53:33 AM
• Patrice

  I agree with Kelsy. It makes sense to me that the people of Oran would attempt to avoid any formal recognition of a plague. I feel like it's human nature to fear what we know will hurt us and therefore to deny that force's existence. While I completely agreed with Dr. Rieux that the label has no real importance in comparison to the measures that needed to be taken to contain "'the fever'", the level of fear and thus denial did not seem out of the ordinary to me. On a side note, how creepy is Cottard?!

  3/9/2009 11:09:49 AM
• Sam

  I think what most of the doctor's would have been concerned about by officially dubbing the disease as "plague" is that it might cause undue distress among citizens. Thus, they being become more concerned with making sure they are calling it the right thing rather than dealing with it. Rieux has the right idea and knows they should be taking steps to handle the disease, no matter what it is. He seems like the most level headed person in this book, as he is always looking at situations rationally.

  3/10/2009 12:02:15 AM
• Sarah Shelburne

  replying to Patrice's comment, Cottard is really creepy! but his actions are really very interesting to me. I think that his motives and actions are representative of what the entire town is going through. He is very secretive, as the officials are about the plague, as well as uneasilly seeking human contact with Dr. Rieux which is a situation that all of the characters are feeling and then fearing in the face of the Plague. So much fear is seen in this section, fear of isolation, fear of starvation, fear of pandamonium, and most importantly, fear of the "plague" itself

  3/10/2009 12:18:56 PM
• Anna (the coolest!)

  This is gonna get kinda political, but oh well. I think the truth behind the government not telling the truth is because they fear the populace. The fear what the populace, what the masses are capable of in a state of fear. I remember, in 9th grade, when Mr. Cummings said (kind of randomly) that government is just a person that has the idea of power over another person. If, truly, the fear exploded, what could the authorities really do? If all of the populace attacked the guards at the gates, what could they do? The people are stronger than the government, and that is why the government is fearful of the fear of the people.

  3/10/2009 12:37:04 PM
• Anna (the coolest!)

  Also, Sam, I kind of disagree and agree about Rieux. (How in the world do you say his name?). Yes, Rieux is extremely rational, but he is also very indifferent. When Rambert (I'm sorry if this is the wrong section to write about this in) is practically blaming Rieux for the plague and the quarantine and is professing that he WILL leave the city, Rieux is not stirred at all, at least not anyone else would be. I wonder if Rieux is rational unto the point of being emotionless....could that be Camus' point?

  3/10/2009 12:40:32 PM
• Kyle

  I do not think that Rieux is emotionless, but rather he is existential. We must remember that this is a Camus novel, it is existentialism. Rieux just knows that whatever anyone does doesn't really matter. Some would argue that if this is the case, then why does he help people? Well he knows it will make no difference, but he does it because he chooses too, he believes it is the right thing to do. So i would not say he is emotionless, just rational in an existential way....

  3/13/2009 3:39:07 PM
• Sarah

  I agree with kyle's perspective on Rieux's existential emotionalism, however i don't think its just that he chooses too, I'm not sure that he really wants to believe in the existential philosophies that he's leaning towards. I think that perhaps his way of dealing with his absence of control is to take control of other people's lives through their health, its an escape for him.

  3/17/2009 2:31:56 PM