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The Plague by Albert Camus: An Allegory

Having to stay in one spot for an extended period can be a frustrating experience. The

Plague by Albert Camus wonderfully demonstrates how being confined to a small space makes

you feel, especially while others are dying around you. Many feelings arise, including sadness,

sacredness, loneliness, and reflection of religious or spiritual views. For many people, finding

serenity and escaping the reality of their situation is a constant struggle. When a tsunami of

destruction sweeps across a community, society transforms as people lose hope that they will

survive.

The allegory Camus was seeking to convey was made evident by using themes like

absurdism and humanism. Camus' allegory was the Nazi invasion of France. It was an epidemic

that rats carried, and people in town were afraid to admit that something awful had happened.

When a townie "made a brief movement in the direction of the train, then turned back toward the

exit," he was being ignorant. Is it the rats, or is it something else? He said that. As though it's

nothing (Camus 11). It was Rieux's opinion that resuming his day was more important than a

discussion of rats dying. Instead of allowing the worst to happen to him, he opted to find

meaning in his life. As the Nazis took over France, they didn't do it all at once. As they

approached the French, they made it clear that they were not dangerous. The French people had

no idea that their friendly Nazis were slowly destroying them from the inside out.
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Humanists, like some of the people in the plague, believe in the importance of morality.

In the end, they'd rather be hopeful about death polluting the community than lose their morality

and self-worth. There is no genuine pity in Rieux's heart for the people of his community who

are suffering from the plague. Rambert tells Rieux, "You don't care; you never gave a thought to

anyone, you didn't take the case of those who are divided into account" ( 87 ). In his care of

patients, he didn't detect that the plague was much more than a simple illness. When the Nazis

invaded France, the French people opted to sit and watch instead of fighting back. They chose to

disregard that the invasion was far more significant than a few soldiers taking control of their

country. The plague and the Nazi invasion of France are brilliantly depicted in Albert Camus'

novel through the motif's humanism and absurdism.

Many epidemics have been recorded throughout history, but none as devastating as the

Black Death. Initially transmitted by fleas' digestive tracts, the disease spreads to rats, infects

humans, and contaminates clothing and bedding. It can lay dormant for years, only to re-emerge

from the shadows at any time. As the bacterium that sparked the pandemic and those in the past,

Y. Pestis is to blame. It can be passed on either directly or through indirect means. People had

only heard of a terrible rathe ravaging a town when ships brought it to ports. Until many

individuals had already died, Oran was unaware of the plague's presence in the area. Only flu-

like symptoms and groin and armpit buboes were available to clinicians. Faith was the only thing

that kept people going when there was no remedy. Patients carried herbs in their pockets, while

doctors used unusual methods like bloodletting to treat their patients.

For months, the sickness continued to spread, claiming the lives of anybody who came

into contact with its path. The worst part was not knowing what was going to happen next. Why

this place? Why are they here? Who is to blame? What happened to it? One theory was that if
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you stared at the disease, you would become infected because your eyes would be diseased as

well, which was absurd. Everyone was left wondering if God was punishing us in some way. The

pneumonic plague struck just as everyone was beginning to feel at ease with their surroundings.

After first being transmitted by fleabites and rat bites, the disease started to spread through the

air. A few sneezes and coughs were all that was needed. Thousands of bodies were buried at a

time in mass graves in the town. At that moment, some people could have considered it the worst

possible consequence to survive. As a result, the difference between a minor nuisance and an

agonizing discomfort can be a matter of hours or days.

In the end, both those who had and those who did not have the plague were fighting to

bring this pandemic to a stop, despite their differing methods of doing so. Finally, Camus

concludes his story by stating, "[H]e understood what those cheerful masses did not know...that

the plague bacillus never dies or departs for good...it would raise its rats again and send them

forth to die in a happy city" (287). That which "never dies" is equated to what happens after one

dies in this metaphor. Camus claims that the "plague bacillus never dies" but then adds "send

them forth to perish" simultaneously. Since the "plague bacillus never dies," Camus explains that

because the plague "never dies," misery never dies, which means that humanity will always have

to endure suffering and battle it to survive.

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Works Cited

Huang, Ya F. "The Disease Narrative in Albert Camus' The Plague." English Language and

Literature Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, 2021, p. 1.