Why this book: I’ve had it on my bookshelf for decades.  When my good friends Gary and Patsy told me they’d read it and found it insightful, esp during our pandemic, I decided that it was time to finally read it. Glad I did.

Summary in 4 Sentences.  This is a novel built upon real plagues that have happened in the past.  In this novel taking place in the mid-20th century, the large town of Oran on the coast of Algeria, is gradually and then overwhelmingly struck by the bubonic plague. The story is about how several individuals and the entire town respond to the increasing virulence of the plague, first with denials and a fumbling governmental response, and then a realization that this was a critical issue that required dramatic steps which included quarantining the entire town, suspension of most normal daily activities, and finally with the plague subsiding, the attempt at resumption of normal living.  The novel takes place entirely in Oran, and tells the stories of several individuals stuck in the city, dealing with it as best they could,  the central figure being a doctor who is busy 18+ hours a day helping individuals, working with authorities, and struggling with his own feelings and responses to the tragedies he encounters.

My impressions: A very powerful book, and a classic for a good reason.  Reading this while the COVID pandemic is on the rise in the US and around the world (Nov/Dec 2020),  it is tempting to see The Plague as a prescient book about pandemics.  The responses of the people and the government in Oran described in The Plague are very similar to what we have experienced in the US, as we (people, State and Federal governments) have fumbled through our responses to the Coronavirus.  But as the book concludes, Camus makes the reader aware that the book is really more about how people react to crises and death, and how these threats that upset their daily lives make clear their humanity and their true values.

Living in a quarantined city, there was no escape, and little that the outside world could do to help them – the people of Oran were largely on their own to deal with the plague as best they could. His description of people cut off from the rest of the world, their forced inactivity as the shops and businesses closed and the economy shut down, their sense of being prisoners  in their own homes, the doctors and health care workers exhausted and overwhelmed, and also becoming victims of the plague – is eerily familiar to someone reading this during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.   The Plague tells a story I feel like I’m living in Covid, USA, seeing the increasing fear and helplessness as the death toll continues to rise,  the futility of efforts to halt it, and the rebellion of many against strict measures that the government put in place in an effort to control it.

It is similar to extended combat. As I read The Plague, I was struck by how much people’s responses resembled how soldiers respond to extended combat, being constantly exposed to death, dying, and the ever-present threat of death.  Camus anthropomorphizes the plague as a powerful “enemy” –  clever, devious and resourceful, and the fight against it resembling a military campaign.  Like soldiers in extended combat against an overwhelming and powerful  enemy, the people of Oran eventually took on a defeatist attitude, were mentally exhausted,  became emotionally numb and detached, no longer felt or exhibited any real joy or happiness. Many sought to escape into short term pleasures of alcohol, promiscuity or other excesses.  Eventually even hope began to die, as month after month they were exposed to relentless death and dying, delivered randomly, not respecting rank, wealth, or character.    Gallows humor, apathy, resignation and torpor, and eventual cynicism toward hope became the standard fare in Oran; these are also often characteristics of soldiers in extended and unrelenting combat, away from their loved ones, afraid to look to the future, afraid to hope that they’ll survive.

The central character in the novel is Dr Rieux, a competent, reserved, thoughtful, dedicated physician, doing all he could to help his patients.  He was fully aware that there usually wasn’t much he could do to save those who were afflicted.  And he also became aware how over time, and with increasing exhaustion, he also became numb to the suffering he saw and lost much of  his compassion and ability to feel.

All of the primary characters in the book are men living far away from the women they loved, so they sought comradeship and connection with each other. The center of this circle of characters is Dr Rieux, and his circle included the thoughtful, the eccentric, the conniving, the frustrated, the romantic,  the desperate, and confused.  And these very different men connected with and supported each other.  The need for human connection in times of crisis is a key theme in the book – even as our characters lose the emotional capacity to truly give of themselves or even feel great affection.  We see the importance of men’s need for love and intimacy from their wives or lovers, and how even that need can fall victim to having one’s emotions worn down by months of merely trying to survive – day after day. The plague was “all the more potent for its mediocrity.  None of us was capable any longer of an exalted emotion; all had trite, monotonous feelings.”  Women unfortunately do not play a prominent role in the novel, except as supporters and lovers of the men.  Several of these women we see only in the imaginings and memories of their men, as they reside outside of Oran.  The one exception is Dr Rieux’s mother, who is the steady presence of love and wisdom in his life, as he struggles to serve others during the plague.

The plague caught everyone by surprise.  In “normal” times, most people live as if nothing will ever change, and almost robotically go through their lives, as if  the simple patterns and routines of their lives will go on forever.   But this stable predictability is an illusion, and can lull us into a state of complacency.  In The Plague Camus makes the point that sometimes, in order for people to appreciate the simple pleasures and joys of life, it takes a catastrophe to wake them up.   His opening chapter describes Oran as a town where “ you can get through the days without trouble, once you have formed habits.  And since habits are precisely what our town encourages, all is for the best…glamorless, soulless, the town of Oran ends by seeming restful and, after a while, you go complacently to sleep there.” So much is taken for granted that shouldn’t be.   It took the plague to wake people up.

Here are what I saw as some of the key themes of the book;

Duty is a subtle and occassionally explicit theme in the book.  When Dr Rieux is asked, or asks himself how and why he carries on almost helplessly in the face of so much suffering and defeat, he simply reminds himself and others that he has no other choice but to carry on.  Knowing how much suffering there is, and how futile so much of what he does is, he sees carrying on and doing the best he can as the only reasonable option, and it is his best defense against giving in to despair.  He refuses to think too much about the suffering and tragedy he sees.  He just carries on, doing what he can.  His example inspires several of his companions, to get engaged and do what they could as well, even though it often seemed fruitless.

Heroism  Camus through Dr Rieux downplays and deflates the idea of heroism and the heroic ideal at several places in the book.  Simply doing what one must, doing one’s duty is, he claims, not “heroic.”  This is a theme I’ve frequently heard Medal of Honor recipients repeat when they talk about their actions – they insist that they are not heroes, but were simply doing their job as they understood it, and that most of their comrades would have done the same. And they were lucky.    Rieux refers to one of the least “heroic” individuals in the book (Grand) as the embodiment of “quiet courage” who when asked to help with the sanitary group and put himself at greater risk of infection, “said yes without a moment’s hesitation and with the large-heartedness that was a second nature with him.”  Elsewhere in the book, Camus says that “a little goodness of heart and a seemingly absurd ideal.. render…to heroism the secondary place that rightly falls to it, just after, never before, the noble claim of happiness.”   And later, one of the other main characters says, “I don’t believe in heroism… what interests me is living and dying for what one loves.”

Love The tragedy of the plague also stresses and casts a different light on “love.”   The power of romantic love is expressed in the distress of one of the characters, who initially, will do anything to get back to his fiancé and lover – but even that love is set aside in response to a greater sense of duty, and takes on a different hue after the plague has run its course.  The love of good friends – very similar to comrades in war – is explored, and how men are often loath to express how important they are to each other – in fact often not realizing it until it’s too late.  Rieux’s mother’s love and the love he returned to her – was unexpressed, but understood in glances and mutual affection and commitment. We see how love is affected, even “infected” by the stress of constant fear, and the threat of death and loss.  In The Plague, love is a constant, and clearly the apogee of human connection, AND we see the challenge of sustaining it under great stress and fear, as people pull into themselves in their concern for their own fate.  But he concludes that “if there is one thing one can always yearn for and sometimes attain, it is human love.”

Religion and God. Camus was an athiest, yet one of the most powerful characters in the book is Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest in Oran.  As the plague picks up momentum, Father Paneloux gives a sermon in which he argues that Oran deserved the plague, that it was God’s punishment for the sins and indulgences of those who live there.   Many of his parishioners felt that they were being “sentenced for an unknown crime.”   As ridiculous as this argument may sound, Camus does not make Paneloux into a caricature of a fire and brimstone preacher – rather he treats him with great  respect.   In spite of this absurd explanation for the plague, I thought this sermon was a masterpiece; Father Paneloux notes that the plague provides a time for reflection, and he tells his congregation that it should shake them out of their complacency.  He advises his congregation to look for and find the positives, to find joy and offer up a prayer of love.  Many of his insights are inspired and insightful. As the plague progresses, Father Paneloux’s own faith is challenged.

Conclusion – Finding meaning in suffering. The book concludes as the plague has wound down and Oran has opened back up, and people are adjusting to the new reality of the plague’s aftermath.  The novel ends on a thoughtful and reflective note, with Dr Rieux sharing his thoughts on how the plague has affected him personally, affected those who have lost loved ones, and the city as a whole. He shares his thoughts and insights about life, death, and what is important in life, gleaned from his intense and traumatic experience trying to help desperate people and hold himself and his close friends together during this very difficult period.  These reflections are reminiscent to me of the conclusion to Man’s Search for Meaning, when Viktor Frankl, like the narrator in The Plague, is numb and still processing the trauma and suffering he has experienced.

• He notes that the trauma of the plague would leave it’s mark on everyone who lived through it.
• He refers to suffering as a teacher. Which reminds me of Nietzsche’s famous dictum, “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.”  But some in Oran were I’m sure, so traumatized by their experience that they never recovered.  Again, kinda like some soldiers in war.
• He makes the point that high ideals mean little in a life and death struggle for  survival.  He stresses the importance of asking and living for the simple and most important things – those things one can personally influence – love and human connection.
• The pestilence showed him “that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.” Many people in Oran rose to the challenge and readily put themselves at risk for their fellow man, to help each other and their community deal with the plague and to reduce suffering.
• He concludes with a lesson that we in Covid, USA should heed – these upsetting and tragic events, such as war and pestilence, have always occurred and will continue to rise up out of the calm shallow sea of “normality,” to challenge us, bring out the best and worst in us, force us to face our humanity and mortality, and remind us of what is truly important in our lives.