The Plague Symbol in "La Peste"

a) In assessing the plague's effectiveness as a symbol of the human predicament in general it must first be stated what exactly is meant by the human predicament. It can obviously be taken at many levels to mean many different things, such is the ambiguity of the phrase. In the context of La Peste however we must take it to mean the absurdity of existence. The fact that man has no control over his fate and the only thing he can be sure about is death. It is about the vulnerability of man, powerless against the forces of the universe, in which he is a stranger. There are many ways in which we can compare the plague to the human predicament.

In Le Mythe de Sisyphe Camus wrote about the eternal struggle of man. Sisyphe had to push a huge boulder up a hill and every time he got to the top the boulder would merely roll down and Sisyphe would be forced to start again. The problem he faced is like the problem man faces in life, one continual uphill struggle. The comparison in La Peste is Rieux. The plague is the boulder and Rieux is pushing it, constantly battling against the plague and yet seemingly getting nowhere.

In La Peste, as in many of his other works, Camus shows a strong preoccupation with death. Indeed his works have been described as "le monde du condamnes a mort". Death is prevalent throughout La Peste and can strike at anytime and completely at random. The plague is not selective, it kills men, women and children. The death of Dr. Richard is told in indifferent terms, he is simply "enleve par la peste", helping to point out that one day you can be alive and the next day you're gone, it's as simple as that. The metaphysical aspect of death is that it can't be changed, man doesn't have a say in the matter. As Rieux points out to Tarrou, "l'ordre du monde est regle par la mort".

John Cruickshank, who has written extensively on Camus, described La Peste as,

"...convey[ing] a general picture of man's position in the universe, faced by the problem of evil and the necessity of suffering."(1) This problem of evil is one which man faces throughout his life and one which he cannot escape, just as the inhabitants of Oran are faced with the plague. The idea is that suffering is a test to which man is subjected throughout his life, a sort of test to see what happens to you when you die. Man is put on the earth to suffer.

In La Peste we are told,

"des gens d'origines tres differentes se coudoyaient et fraternisaient". The battle against evil brings men together in their fight and puts everyone on level par. The fact that you are from a different background does not mean you are any less likely to be struck down by the plague.
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To conclude this first part of the question therefore we can see that the plague symbolises well the human predicament. Indeed this was one of Camus' objectives in writing the novel. In his Carnets he declared,

"Je veux exprimer au moyen de la peste l'etouffement ou nous avons tous souffert et l'atmosphere de menace et d'exil ou nous avons vecu".(2) Camus suffered throughout his life in various ways and he wanted to express this by means of realism in La Peste. The novel shows human suffering, the inability of man to control his destiny and the idea ...

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