Compassion In Tim O Brien's The Plague

It is easy, and sometimes simplest, to fall into the everyday rhythms of a society and to forget one’s sense of compassion for others. The general working-class in the town of Oran is prone to such emotional detachment, which leads to many people finding themselves lost in the midst of an organized chaos. In the case of Bernard Rieux, it initially appears that he lacks an emotional compass, however, it becomes evident throughout the novel that the doctor is, in fact, empathetic and utilizes such emotional intelligence to determine his professional ethics in relation to the plague. When the narrator, whose identity is concealed at the beginning of the novel, introduces Dr. Rieux as just another worker businessman from the town of Oran

At this point, it becomes nearly impossible for the Dr. Rieux to maintain his composure. The narrator recalls the incident so vividly: “This human form, his friend’s, lacerated by the spear-thrusts of the plague, consumed by the searing, superhuman fires, buffeting by all the raging winds in heaven, was foundering under his eyes in the dark flood of the pestilence, and he could do nothing to avert the wreck” (289). After this incident, the narrator reveals himself to be Bernard Rieux, which ties the entire novel together. This is the moment in which the reason that Rieux does not expose himself originally becomes obvious to the reader. It seems highly unlikely that a man who does not have the capacity to emote to remember such a death in detail to this extent. Furthermore, the word choice suggests that not only was Tarrou being tortured by this plague, but so was the doctor (in seeing his close friend being destroyed from the inside out). This moment brings about the idea that Rieux has always been been able to emote, however, the plague (specifically the death of a friend,) has taught him that although action in a time of crisis is quintessential, being able to emotionally process the world around him is just as