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Essay on the Power of Language in The Plague

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The Power of Language in The Plague

In his novel The Plague, Albert Camus presents a pseudo-historical documentary of a plague that confines and controls the citizens of Oran within their city gates. The plague possesses the power of life and death over the people, as it determines which citizens will face their death or those who work to stop death. These latter men, personified by the character's of Rieux, Grand, and Tarrau, each struggle endlessly to master the plague's power over their lives, even with the realization they may never succeed. For Camus, this idea of "impossible struggle" against an unseen power resonates throughout the novel and reoccurs in another "plague" which these men must contend - the limits of human …show more content…

47). Here Camus presents the power of certain words like "syndrome" as their use suggests or outlines a certain course of action for the doctors. Rieux recognizes this power and initially rejects the use of "syndrome" as it would mean almost immediate implications upon his profession as a doctor. Camus furthers this when Rieux considers the use of the word "plague". Rieux hesitates, knowing that this word possesses certain implications that will change the lives of all Oran's citizens through quarantine. Thus for Rieux, "It's not the question of the term I use; it's a question of time" (P.47). In this description Rieux establishes that the real issue of using the term "plague" concerns whether the "time" is right to unleash the word's power to change both their careers and the townspeople's lives. Through Rieux's hesitation in stating these terms, Camus demonstrates how language, like plague, can have the power of life or death over people like Rieux.

However, Rieux also realizes that he will never master or control this power, no matter how carefully he chooses his words. Rieux elaborates upon this in his descriptions of the letters and telegrams he writes as ultimately resulting in "the living words, into which we had as it were transfused our heart's blood, were drained of any meaning" (p.63). Here Camus's beautiful metaphor illustrates Camus' conception of language as a "living" entity that is both

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