The Plague

In the mid 1940’s, Albert Camus, began to write the novel The Plague. The story has been read over and over again, yet it tells more than it seems to. It tells the story of a town gripped by a deadly disease, and of how the inhabitants thrive to overcome it. Many consider the inhabitants’ fight against the plague to be an allegory to the German Occupation of France, however, as critic Albert Maquet says, “…

…dies and that the day would come when 'it would raise up its rats again.”20 Rieux reflects Camus’ compassion for man, and his belief that man is inherently good. Camus “stressed that The Plague was to be a more positive book than The Stranger.”21 And, though the novel centers on a gruesome plague, it also tells the tale “of a final victory. ” 22The characters fight against the ‘absurd’ and by doing so gain our admiration.