Examples Of Allegory Of War In The Plague

Written by Albert Camus, The Plague is an allegory of war because people begin to distrust others, the citizens suffer from the separation of their loved ones, people are all equal in the plague, and the death of victims increases dramatically. First of all, the book is an allegory of war because people cannot trust others when the plague is spread, no matter how close they are. It is “common knowledge” that people cannot believe in their neighbors, as “he may pass the disease to you without your knowing it, and take advantage of a moment of inadvertence on your part to infect you” (199). People begin to suspect everyone around them, even though they are familiar with those people. The distrust among all the citizens in Oran break their relationships
with other people, and they all keep a distance to the other as “the mistrust that keeps them apart” (199). As a result, the relationship in the town is destroyed by the plague since people cannot they do not know if somebody transmits the disease to them. The situation is similar during the war time. In the war, people cannot believe in anyone around them, because they might be the spy sent by their enemy, so getting too close to them might be dangerous to those citizens. Everyone is suspicious and everyone might be dangerous during the war, which is the same as what happens in Oran when the plague takes place. Thus, the book is an implication of war. In addition, The Plague is an allegory of war since the citizens in Oran all suffer from the separation of their beloved ones.
When the town first becomes isolated, people who are apart from their lovers “had a vivid recollection of the absent ones and butterfly felt their loss”. However, as time passes, those people “had trouble in picturing what he or she might be doing”. Later, they hardly remember the things about their past, as “they no longer saw it in memory’s mirror” (180). Because of the isolation, the lovers who are separated from each other slowly forget their lovers’ faces as well as the joyful memory that they used to have, thus, they are “wasting away emotionally as well as physically” (180). The pain caused by the isolation grows stronger as the time that they cannot see each other gets longer. This kind of missing caused by the separation of the loved ones is similar to that in the war. When the soldiers leave their homes for the battles, they will not see their loved ones for months or years. In that case, the relatives of the soldiers suffer the pain of slowly forgetting the time they have spent with those soldiers, but yet they keep missing them in their hearts. This kind of pain will become more serious if the war does not stop. Accordingly, The Plague is an allegory of war since people all suffer the pain of being separated from their loved
ones. Besides the separation, the book is an implication of war since now people are all equal in the outbreak of the plague. Threatened by the plague, all the citizens in the town have the same possibility to be infected, and the disease attacks people without any discrimination. In the jail of the town, “the plague was no respecter of persons and under its despotic rule everyone, from the warden down to the humblest delinquent, was under sentence” (170). Also, the equality of the plague is shown when people buy products, as “nobody troubled about the quality of the clothes or food he bought”, and “everything was taken as it came” (184). No matter what kind of person that somebody is or which class he comes from, the opportunity to survive is equal to everyone during the outbreak. People have the same possibility of being infected, and share the same resource for survival. The war, on the other hand, is similar since it takes away lives without discrimination as well. From the commoners to the upper class, from the soldiers to the commanders, the war kills every person equally, like a machine which works accurately but ruthlessly. Both the plague and the war threaten people without any discrimination, and take away their lives equally, so the book is an allegory of war.
Moreover, the citizens in Oran begin to be concerned about the community instead of the individual benefits, which is also similar to the war. When the plague comes, “no longer were there individual destinies; only a collective destiny, made of plague and the emotions shared by all” (167). When the whole society is threatened by the plague, people no longer think as individuals, instead, they start to concern things as a group. They now focus on the benefits of the whole community more, just like what people do during the war. When the war begins, the patriotism will raise throughout the whole country, in the hearts of each person. The honor of the society becomes more significant than the feelings of the individuals. People in that community are sharing the same feelings toward the war, thus, the book is an allegory.
Lastly, the book implies that Oran is a war zone because of the dramatic growth of the deaths. As the number of the victims increases, too many dead people need to be placed in the tombs. In order to ensconce all of them, citizens in the town need to hold the funerals rapidly. “Formalities had been whittled down, and, generally speaking, all elaborate ceremonial suppressed”, and before someone’s family can see the body, it “had been washed and put in the coffin and when the journey to the cemetery was about to begin” (173). Since the number of the deaths increases exponentially, the funerals during the plague are hold as brief as possible so that the staff can have enough time to bury all of the people who are killed by the epidemic. Meanwhile, the families of those dead people even have no chance to see their loved ones in their last sight as the funerals are rush. It is similar to the war time because there are too many dead soldiers in the battles, it is impossible to hold grand and formal funerals for them. The style of the funeral is relatively simple and the dead bodies are buried much earlier before their families can see them for the last time. Therefore, the situation of Oran in the plague is similar to the war. Furthermore, the huge number of dead people causes the use of the mass grave. As the citizens of Oran suffer under the epidemic, more and more bodies need to be buried in the almost-full cemetery. Thus, the staff of the cemetery has dig two pits, and “one was reserved for the men, the other for the women”. However, as the disease goes worse, “men and women were flung into the death-pits indiscriminately” (175). In order to bury all of the victims of the plague, people in the town begin to use the mass grave to solve the problem of the shortage of the cemetery, but as what is described in the book, “this last remnant of decorum went by the board” (175). The mass grave represents the ruin of the basic morality and restrict of human being, as the dead bodies are buried randomly, without the discrimination of the sexes. The bodies are also naked and burned by the quicklime for sterilization, which is a dispose of no order and respect (176). Nevertheless, people still choose to get rid of the dead bodies in this way, which indicates that the amount of dead bodies is too large for the citizens to take care. This is a reflection of the war because during the war great number of dead soldiers are buried in the mass grave as well, in a way without dignity. Accordingly, The Plague is an allegory of death due to the dramatic increase of the victims.
In general, The Plague contains some of the elements of wars. Both the plague and the war let people distrust others, as people do not know if they are safe or not. They both separate people from their loved ones, and neither has discrimination in people’s lives. The plague causes the number of the deaths to increase dramatically, which is also what the war does. Therefore, the book is a reflection of war.