The novel, The Plague, written by Albert Camus, will be the focal point of the Multicultural essay. Further delving into Albert Camus and his life, he was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. At a young age, he lost his father due to an injury suffered during World War I, and was raised under the domineering hand of his grandmother alongside his mother (Lottman 52). Camus did exemplary in school and through his political engagement led him to join the Communist Party. Deeply advocating for individual rights, he became opposed to French colonization and argued for the empowerment of his people in politics and labor, leading him to later joining the French anarchist movement. Camus introduced and elaborated on elements of absurdism …show more content…
After the quarantine lasts quite a few months, many of Oran 's citizens lose their selfish obsession with personal suffering and come to recognize the plague as a collective disaster that is everyone 's concern, and join anti-plague efforts. The citizens are subjected to their Christian beliefs being tested and the citizens must choose to believe everything or nothing about God. All or the citizens faced difficulties during the plague epidemic, excluding Dr. Rieux, who faced irreparable difficulties die. This leads to the other citizens’ difficulties becoming resolved after the quarantine and the public quickly returns to its old routine of normalcy. Dr. Rieux knows that the fight against the plague is endless because it can exist dormant for years. The Plague is his account of the situation of human suffering that so many people are willing to easily forget. This novel was chosen due to its unique characters and plot overview. The idea of absurdism is quite apparent in this story. Absurdism is defined as the intentionally ridiculous or bizarre behavior or character or the belief that human beings exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe. With the reintroduction of the bubonic plague to the society, the characters begin to live in a chaotic state where they display bizarre behaviors of indulging in selfish, personal distress, and are convinced that their suffering is like no one else’s. This
The plague affected people not only on a physical level but a mental one as well. The mental health of the citizens of Oran was amongst the plague's many victims, it suffered of exhaustion as well as being forced to handle mental confrontations. When the citizens dealt with these issues, some people lost their capacity to love as intently, but overall the general capacity of people to uphold their devotion remained resilient to the challenges the plague provided.
"The Black Death" is known as the worst natural disaster in European history. The plague spread throughout Europe from 1346-1352. Those who survived lived in constant fear of the plague's return and it did not disappear until the 1600s. Not only were the effects devastating at the time of infection, but during the aftermath as well. "The Black Death" of the fourteenth century dramatically altered Europe's social and economic structure.
A book of horrors, fear and death. “The Plague” is a book by Albert Camus which weaves these emotions and events into one suspenseful tale. Each paragraph and section is written and structured in such a way as to give the reader insight into the feelings of the victims of the plague, and to show somewhat of a theme. The passage from section 4, part 4, line number 1 to line number 35 gives us a glimpse of the melancholy of the people of Oran to their dead loved ones to the extent that they do not attend All Souls' Day, for they were thinking of them too much as it was. Albert Camus fills this passage with figurative devices, including, diction, personification, pathetic fallacy, metaphors, irony and a turning point. The first two paragraphs
Sometimes the missteps of the medical community went so far as to cause inadvertent harm. Jacme D’agramont, physician and professor, writes in his “Regiment de preservacio a epidimia o pestiliencia e mortaldats” of the dangers of bathing because it opens one’s pores and “through these pores corrupt air enters and has a powerful influence upon our body and on our humors.” (Aberth, 1186). The entire period was wrought with novelty cures and hypotheses about overcoming the plague, and so often these approaches failed that eventually the people would find solace wherever they could. Even art had a voice in coping with the Black Death. Much of the art was not only therapeutic for the artists and those who enjoyed them but they serve as an insight into the shared setiments of the time. These pieces understandably emphasize death and its inevitability as a primary theme. While the real victor over the plague turned out to be time, this perspective on conflict serves as a testament to the long-suffering determination of humanity to survive and thrive.
The plague, otherwise known as “the Black Death”, brought on much turmoil and suffering for the habitants of Pistoia. Numerous ordinances were put into effect with the primary goal of limiting the spread of the plague as well as to keep the city as healthy as possible. These ordinances typically focused on confinement, i.e. no one goes to Pisa and Luca and no one from Pisa and Luca is allowed to enter Pistoia (ordinance 1), how death and burials are to be processed (ordinances 3-12), and how butchers were to handle their animals and animal carcasses (ordinances 13-19). Essentially, confinement was targeted in hopes of stopping the spread of the infection while keeping the city isolated. Secondly, how the bodies of plague victims and their
The reappearance of the plague virus was utterly unexpected in Camus’ novel. The Algerian government involvement with the epidemic was lackadaisical. They refused to address the new, hastily spreading virus as the bubonic plague. Through this denial the infected city of Oran was completely quarantined. Those that were infected with the deadly virus were transported into sick isolation wards that were equipped to provide patients with immediate treatment and ensure the “maximum prospect of recovery” (Camus 26). The people were isolated in “quarantine camps” (Camus 115), and the majority of those that were infected with the plague died painful deaths. After a prolonged period of experimentation, the serum to cure
The plague was a catastrophic time in history, and happened more than once. It took millions and millions of people’s lives. It destroyed cities and countries, and many people suffered from it.
The book When Plague Strikes, is about 3 deadly diseases. It 's about the Black Death, Smallpox, and AIDS. Each of these diseases can cause a serious outrage of death. The book also tells about how doctors try to come up with treatments, medicines, and antibiotics to try and cure these diseases. All these diseases got the best out of everyone. Some people reacted differently than others with these diseases. All the diseases came in play in A. D. 1347, when the Black Death broke out for the first time in what’s today is know. As southern Ukraine.
The word “plague” is defined as a contagious bacterial disease characterized by fever and delirium, typically with the formation of buboes, and sometimes infection of the lungs. The article entitled, “On the Progress of the Black Death”, written by Jean de Venette, a French Carmelite friar who was a leading clergyman around Paris at the time of the Black Death, is a well-known account of the spread of the plague in Northern Europe. In this account, Jean de Venette explained the history of the plague, its causes and its consequences.
Norman F. Cantor, In the Wake of the Plague (New York: Harper Collins First Perennial edition, 2001) examines how the bubonic plague, or Black Death, affected Europe in the fourteenth century. Cantor recounts specific events in the time leading up to the plague, during the plague, and in the aftermath of the plague. He wrote the book to relate the experiences of victims and survivors and to illustrate the impact that the plague had on the government, families, religion, the social structure, and art.
Geraldine Brook’s novel, Year of Wonders is based on a true story which recounts a 17th Century Plague, which struck the English village of Eyam and put many in strife. The story revolves around the protagonist, Anna Frith as she develops strength throughout the novel from being a maid in the beginning of the novel and eventually becomes a midwife. Similarly, Steven Soderbergh’s Film, Contagion is set in 21st Century America, which narrates the epidemic of the MEV1 virus, which causes dispute amongst many characters and has a manipulative effect on the characters in the film. In both the text and the novel, Diseases not only attack individuals but also causes the breakdown in society. Diseases cause the greed and the want for money in some characters, which has a huge impact on society as a whole. Similarly, diseases cause the need for self-preservation in order to survive. On the other hand, diseases cause characters to lose faith.
Let’s begin, in the year 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean and landed in america. That was the start of The Great Plague, see Columbus was from Italy and sailed with and english crew, so their immune systems were built to resist dangerous diseases, but just because it didn’t affect them doesn’t mean that it wasn’t there, so when they landed in ‘India’ and he saw the ‘Indians’, he passed on the still living plague on to them, and since they never encountered the plague they weren't built to resist it so they began to pass the plague on to other Natives and soon most of the population had the disease.
The Black Death is one of the worst disease in ancient history. It was an epidemic that killed millions of people between 1349-1351.Many people suffered from lack of care and lack of remedy, also it became difficult to find a medical person to diagnose such a horrible disease. Boccaccio, Tura and Venette describe the physical and social effect of Europe when the Plague had begun. In this selection, they describe how people respond and changed their behaviors .People were so scared from Plague therefore, some of them searched isolated place to abode .Another type of people would enjoyed the life with drinking ,singing, dancing, and telling jokes with each other and tried to forget the horrible disease. Other types of people believed to run away from effected place and they abandon all their family and belongings. Plague killed a lot of people and it effected on Europe’s population.
In Albert Camus’ novel The Plague, the author employs three main characters -- the narrator, Tarrou, and Father Paneloux -- to represent extremist views on religion and science in culture. The narrator, Rieux, most closely resembles Camus’ own perspective while Tarrou and Father Paneloux represent the radical views of the two opposite sides. Tarrou lives a life strictly reliant on science and throws faith to the void; Father Paneloux being the man of religion has no consideration for the world of science. Rieux often finds himself leaning more towards Tarrou, but with a fuller understanding of Camus’ philosophy one can surmise that Rieux is not entirely opposed to the faith culture, and thus excluding Camus from a full blown postmodernist view (Brizee Oct, 2017).
The Plague (French, La Peste) is a novel written by Albert Camus that is about an epidemic of bubonic plague. The Plague is set in a small Mediterranean town in North Africa called Oran. Dr. Bernard Rieux, one of the main characters, describes it as an ugly town. Oran’s inhabitants are boring people who appear to live, for the most part, habitual lives. The main focus of the town is money. “…everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, 'doing business’” (Camus 4). The citizens’ unawareness of life’s riches and pleasures show their susceptibility to the oncoming plague.