Albert Camus The Plague

In 1947, The Plague was published by renown philosopher, war journalist, and novelist Albert Camus. Taking place in the Algerian town of Oran during the 1940s, The Plague is a gripping novel narrated by one of the town’s doctors, Bernard Rieux. The town has an outbreak of the bubonic plague, followed by an outbreak of pneumonic plague. The citizens of the town die in droves, yet the government denies that there is anything wrong. That is until over a thousand citizens die every, single, day. The government quarantines the city, and people are separated by loved ones and the rest of the world. The novel The Plague is a multifaceted novel that acts as an allegory for the Nazi-Occupation of France during World War II, as well as an outlet for Camus’ ideas on absurdity and revolt which stemmed from what he witnessed during the war.
Albert Camus was a man heavily influenced by both of the world wars. Born in Algiers in 1913, Camus was thrust into a world war before his first birthday. This war resulted in the death of 16 million people, one of which was his father. 25 years later, Camus moved to France during the Nazi-Occupation (Camus, Albert). There he witnessed absurd brutality, hunger,
During the occupation of France, there were several groups of civilians that blamed the French people for the scourge of Nazism inside their borders. In The Plague, the idea of blaming oneself is relevant to the religious sect of Oran, specifically Father Paneloux. Paneloux claimed the plague was “a scourge sent by God to those who have hardened their hearts against him”(The Plague). The idea of blaming a person's lack of faith for a disease or punishment is very common in religion, and the idea of blaming a person, such as the French, for a negative event, such as the Nazi-Occupation, was commonplace in