"The Plague" Reading Notes

When the gates of Oran were sealed by the plague, and humanity was thrown into a desperate war against an invisible enemy, Camus's "The Plague" transcended the metaphor of a single infectious disease to become a timeless reflection of the human existential predicament. After reading this masterpiece, I was deeply struck by how its revelations still shine with astonishing reality in our world today.

Camus suffered from tuberculosis as a child, a near-death experience that shaped his life and propelled him towards philosophy. A believer in existentialism, his work is characterized by a pronounced social pessimism, exploring themes such as suicide, murder, unrest, and terror.

This novel tells the story of a plague that sweeps across the French Algerian city of Oran, told from the perspective of a narrator whose identity remains unknown until the final chapter. Through the author's uniquely absurdist perspective, the novel offers a microcosm of life in Oran.

"What exactly is plague?" the narrator asks himself, and answers: "It's life, nothing more." This seemingly simple statement contains profound wisdom. The plague is not just a sudden disaster, but rather a metaphor and reflection of life to a certain extent. Unpredictable suffering, unavoidable death, and incomprehensible misfortune are part of everyday life.

Although Camus objected to the label "Existentialism," "The Plague" is still considered a classic of existentialism, emphasizing the protagonist's powerlessness to influence his own fate.

The irony of "The Plague" lies in Camus's treatment of "freedom." When the city of Oran is completely quarantined, its citizens become prisoners of the plague, but before the outbreak, it is questionable whether they were truly "free." Their lives were enslaved by various unconscious behaviors. Moreover, it is questionable whether they were truly alive. Only when they are isolated and separated from their friends, loved ones, and family do they love them most passionately. Before, they simply took their loved ones for granted.

In the early days of the outbreak, the citizens of Oran were indifferent to each other's suffering, each believing their own pain to be unique and distinct from "common suffering." As the outbreak dragged on for months, many citizens of Oran transcended their own identities by joining the effort to combat the plague. Viewing the plague as a collective concern enabled them to break through the alienation that characterized their existence. Thus, they chose to defy death and, in turn, gave meaning to their lives.

Just as any resistance to death and suffering is futile, efforts to combat the plague seem to have little impact on its course. Yet, Camus’s novel asserts that even in the face of unending defeat, this resistance remains a noble struggle.

Looking back at the COVID-19 pandemic that seems to have passed but still seems to be lingering around us and continuing to affect us, "The Plague" has more realistic significance.

The coronavirus has exploded in modern society much like the plague did back then. We have witnessed not only the ravages of the virus itself, but also the panic, discrimination, and people like Cottard that have followed. Camus seemed to foretell all of this: how disasters magnify existing social inequalities, how they test the resilience of institutions, and how they simultaneously reveal the darkest and brightest sides of human nature.

The Plague is a simple story about a universal and ultimately unwinnable struggle with death, but it also explores the moral courage of individuals in the face of great tragedy, whether secular or religious.