The_Plague

The Plague In considering Camus' philosophies and beliefs, I think The Plague is an essential read. Compared with my other exposure to him, it seems to be his only work where he provides both the question and answer of life (as he sees it). In The Fall and Exile and the Kingdom we were made very familiar with Camus' idea of the problem of humanity: of isolation. He did not, however, give us much more than a glimpse of that problem's solution. In The Plague, on the other hand, Camus gives us another account, through symbolism, of isolation and then its antidote. I believe the city of Oran is a symbol for the world; that Camus depicts us as people locked in a city of plague. The plague, I think, is representative of the pain and death. With this symbolic setting, Camus makes the statement that humans, as mortals, are, irrationally (as he was an atheist) being constantly chased by death. With this we are once again presented the hopelessness of the Camusian world. These ideas were common in his other works also. In The Plague, however, we are given a sort of plague, death, camus, hope, however, paneloux, hopelessness, world, way, views, think, tarrou, much, meaning, isolation, idea, dying, city, characters, camusian, both, works, work, victimize, very, validify, unlike, understanding, unashamedly, two, trying, through, symbolism, symbolic, symbol