Lea's Reviews > The Plague

“But what does it mean, the plague? It's life, that's all.”

A great piece of literature, very important for the current pandemic situation that the world is facing, but has relevance for all times in human history, as it was said - plague never really goes away.

I see the plague as a symbol od inevitability of human suffering - crisis, sickness, torture, death that can come up at any moment, at any time. That is existential vulnerability that we as humans have to live with, thought out all ages.
But in face of collective adversity, we have the ability to chose with our own distinctive response, that is ours only - that is our fundamental freedom.
Characters in The Plague represent sometimes almost stereotypical ways that humans can respond to suffering (maybe even discussions that Camus had with himself). Religious view, clinging to duty, surrendering to obligations, hope, closeness, tenderness and connectedness to others, making the best out ourselves and others, small joys of everyday life, illegal actions for our own benefit - that are all paths that we can take in the face of a destructive force that is bigger than ourselves. The main theme is also how we come to form our own meaning, morality, philosophy and world-view and how that philosophy is challenged with the reality of life. We have opposites in father Paneloux and Tarrou - one using the external system of belief to impose forced meaning to senselessness and one coming to his own morality in conjunction with his own self, respecting the absurd element of life. In some ways, The Plague reminded me of The Brothers Karamazov each character using different system of belief in face of life's burden (especially the debate about religion and God, and using the argument of suffering children as an argument against God as Ivan Karamazov did.).
The cruelty of nature is best described in the scene of agony of the death of a young boy. That is the brutal and indifferent nature of suffering, the absurdity - it’s randomly distributed, and innocent suffer as much as the vile, and that is something that is not comprehensible to human reason, whether someone is religious or not.
What to do in face of the absurdity of suffering? Camus imposes the answer is in the act of rebellion against cruel circumstances, no matter how futile our actions seem to be. One must imagine Sisyphus happy, right? I also saw overlapping themes with the Stranger, with the human law in contrast with justice, judging versus trying to understand one’s actions.

In this book, there is a lot of commentary on the collective but also on the individual. The beauty and horror of the story are represented in unique, very memorable scenes. Dead rats on the streets are something that is haunting and really sets the torturous atmosphere of the book. The whole experience of the book took me back to the time I worked in palliative care, facing dying people day after day. So I really resonated with doctor Rieux, especially the burnout process he experienced, in tiredness and sense of apathy in face of suffering, still maintaining devotion to duty. No matter how helpless you feel, meaning is found in small acts of kindness and connection. But I think one of the main ideas is also - even when you can't find meaning life is worth living, and a small moment as swimming at the sea can make the burden of being tolerable.

This book has so many layers and there are so many terrific reviews from my friend from Goodreads so I don’t want to repeat everything that has already been said, but if you haven’t, read the book!!