The Plague
Tuesday, 1. July 2008, 20:55:48
Undoubtedly one of my favorite books from this last year’s reading, The Plague by Albert Camus poses some interesting philosophical questions. Though not, certainly, the best choice for fun reading, The Plague is well written and gripping, and Camus’s characters are complex (a facet I have come to value more and more as I have learned to predict plots). Most of all, The Plague is food for thought.
The Plague follows the lives of several people trapped in the town of Oran by an outbreak of plague. From the days prior to the plague to the day when the city emerges from quarantine, this book follows a handful of city dwellers through their struggles with the disease and with themselves. A doctor, a priest, a criminal. A do-gooder, an invalid, and a love-sick man. These people compose the primary players in Camus’s book as months of confinement and sickness reveal their natures. Well portrayed through good writing, the strength of the characters, I believe, made the story for me.
As I said, The Plague also has a deeper side. Seen allegorically, the quarantined city of Oran may be seen as the world, closed to all outside (or divine) influence. Upon examination, each character reveals a slightly different worldview, and the struggle with the plague shows where each philosophy leads its owner. When this sampling of worldviews has passed through the fire, however, and the remaining options are examined, the picture is anything but hopeful. Camus himself was no Christian—the priest reveals only an incomplete and confused form of Christianity—and so the book’s conclusions are (I must warn you) hardly uplifting. Nonetheless, as a depiction of the philosophy of his time, of the hopelessness of the problem of suffering without the light of truth, the book is impressive.
I came away from The Plague queerly overawed. Impressed as I was by the writing and characterization, I think I was more impressed with Camus’s realization of where the philosophy of his time pointed and the clarity with which he displayed on a small scale the philosophies of a world. But the final taste in my mind as I set the book down was one of pity. And I still pity the author who could see so clearly and yet never found the one hopeful solution by which we can fight evil while serving a good, omnipotent God.
The Plague follows the lives of several people trapped in the town of Oran by an outbreak of plague. From the days prior to the plague to the day when the city emerges from quarantine, this book follows a handful of city dwellers through their struggles with the disease and with themselves. A doctor, a priest, a criminal. A do-gooder, an invalid, and a love-sick man. These people compose the primary players in Camus’s book as months of confinement and sickness reveal their natures. Well portrayed through good writing, the strength of the characters, I believe, made the story for me.
As I said, The Plague also has a deeper side. Seen allegorically, the quarantined city of Oran may be seen as the world, closed to all outside (or divine) influence. Upon examination, each character reveals a slightly different worldview, and the struggle with the plague shows where each philosophy leads its owner. When this sampling of worldviews has passed through the fire, however, and the remaining options are examined, the picture is anything but hopeful. Camus himself was no Christian—the priest reveals only an incomplete and confused form of Christianity—and so the book’s conclusions are (I must warn you) hardly uplifting. Nonetheless, as a depiction of the philosophy of his time, of the hopelessness of the problem of suffering without the light of truth, the book is impressive.
I came away from The Plague queerly overawed. Impressed as I was by the writing and characterization, I think I was more impressed with Camus’s realization of where the philosophy of his time pointed and the clarity with which he displayed on a small scale the philosophies of a world. But the final taste in my mind as I set the book down was one of pity. And I still pity the author who could see so clearly and yet never found the one hopeful solution by which we can fight evil while serving a good, omnipotent God.
Dear Rabecca
Im sorry if I spelled your name incorrectly but I had just recently found where your blog was and thought I would post closer to a question rather than a comment. Gran was doting about your reading of classic literature and I had wondered if you had read any of Dante's books as I had recently been perusing classic books and his nine circles perspective of Hell struck me as rather interesting.
sincerely
Your Cousin
By anonymous user, # 2. July 2008, 01:14:36
sorry for not including my email in that last post but it is Dprisley@comcast.net I would email you but I dont have your email and if you do write if you could send me samuels email as well
By anonymous user, # 2. July 2008, 01:17:37