The Plague: a rise and fall “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” ~Winston Churchill. In Albert Camus’s The Plague, his characters experience a figurative and literal hell. They witness the deaths of thousands of people. Through the uneasy beginnings of the plague, its horrific climax, and its eventual downfall; the men are greatly changed and the city with them. “Looking from his window at the town, outwardly quite unchanged, the doctor felt little more than a faint qualm for his future, a vague unease”. Dr. Rieux remains unaware of what was to come and the horrors he would soon endure. Understandably, the city and its inhabitants are unprepared for the tidal wave of death which quickly approaches. (Pattern 13) Both the doctor and the town are highly individualistic and materialistic; focusing on the things in life and not the people. …show more content…
No man is immune and all are violated by the unflinching arbiter of death. During the outbreak many men change, Tarrou starts a massive effort to combat the plague using sanitation teams, while Rieux and his fellow doctors work hard to spar with death. The fight grows hopeless and seems unending until the crucifixion like death of a child: Jacques. (Pattern 10) “…slowly the lips parted and from them rose a long, incessant scream…so little childish that it seemed like a collective voice issuing from all the sufferers there”. Jacques tragic and undeserved death marks the end of their journey into a figurative hell. Now, they begin the long journey back to