Another post comparing The Plague to COVID
I caught way too many similarities between the setting of the novel and the current state of America as I read through this novel, and I'd like to take a minute to summarize them.
The very first sentences of Part III describe the attitudes of the townspeople as the plague continues to roll on: "Some, like Rambert, even contrived to fancy they were still behaving as free men and had the power of choice. But actually it would have been truer to say that by this time, mid-August, the plague had swallowed up everything and everyone" (144). It continues to amaze me (and hopefully most of you) how lightly many Americans take such an obviously real and threatening virus. I worked at a restaurant over the summer and we had a few encounters with customers who disputed our new capacity rules, wanting to dine same way they had before the virus struck despite the obvious risks. There are countless other examples across America even aside from mask deniers and COVID deniers, just young people that know the virus exists but decide to ignore it and live as they have been. I think it's impressive that Camus even wrote this ignorance into the town. Maybe it's not on the same level as it happens in our world, but he predicted the weird ways that our inner desires of ignorance show themselves.
Additionally, the way the government of the town reacts to the illnesses at first struck me. In meeting, they had to keep reminding themselves that their main priority is citizen health, but their conversations say otherwise, seeming to prioritize the calmness of the town. It had been made clear to everyone that the illness resulted in death within 48 hours, but all the Prefect says in return is "'Quite true,'...'but I shall need your professional declaration that the epidemic is one of plague'" (45), seemingly because he does not want to take responsibility for the resulting panic himself. When Rieux finally sees posters outside warning about the sickness, he notes "the measures enjoined were far from Draconian and one had the feeling that many concessions had been made to a desire not to alarm the public" (47). Much of America had a similarly flippant response to Coronavirus for the same reason. Former President Trump told journalist Bob Woodward in an interview in September "I wanted to always play [COVID] down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic" (BBC). America's response to the virus was delayed explicitly from trying to avoid panic, exactly like in The Plague.
The way The Plague is written shows me that America's response to COVID was foreseeable and preventable. Camus didn't have any experience with plague but the way he wrote the people's reaction to it was scarily accurate. He was making a statement about the internal desire for peace we have in us, and how despite how much we wish we could continue with normal life, it should not prevent us from making logical, safe decisions as usual. In The Plague we see many townspeople taking on a nihilist attitude, since they can see everyone around them dying and know their days are limited. Contracting Coronavirus doesn't lead to death as often as the plague, which means there are less nihilists, but the resulting ignorance is more deadly in a way. I personally think we should start including The Plague in the curricula of all American schools so we can prevent Coronavirus 2 from happening a generation from now. Until then, thanks for reading.
I agree with your description of the similarities between the current pandemic and the outbreak from The Plague. I think your last paragraph highlights human nature throughout history very well. I think that, as Mr. Butler and Mr. Leff so often say, that History doesn't repeat, it rhymes. It's amusing -- or rather disappointing -- to me that every time there has been a disaster or event throughout history, there are always people who say it could have been prevented because of past events. I think that if people paid more attention to the past, many events, such as the current pandemic, could have been avoided, or at least minimized.
ReplyDeleteYes it is rather disappointing that the response of trying to keep the public calm instead of alerting them and getting preventative measures in place that happens in a fictional book is also something that we have experienced in our pandemic. I was surprised with all the details Camus got accurate in terms of our experiences with the pandemic. I also find it interesting that there are all these similarities in Oran, in a different time period, with our present situation. Of course there are differences, but still a lot of similarities.
ReplyDeleteHis writings were informed by research and he did a good job predicting how this behavior would play out in the 20th century. I have to say that I am almost disappointed in human nature if it could be predicted and it would actually transpire that people would not place public safety as a top priority and instead choose to continue benefitting themselves. This whole book has made me kind of sad that this is the way people are.
ReplyDeleteI think the way Camus was able to portray what the experience of a pandemic would be like without having experienced one himself (at least, not a biological plague) shows how effective his comparison of fascism in France to a plague epidemic really is.
ReplyDeleteObviously, we hope that, in the future, people will be able to look back on the mistakes that were made in this pandemic and avoid making the same ones in future crises, but, based on what we've seen throughout history, this isn't likely. What is more likely is that, in a future crisis, people will end up making some of the same mistakes that were made in the COVID-19 pandemic. It's just another example of how humans are imperfect creatures who have a tendency to act irrationally.
I agree with all the similarities you pointed out between how people treated Covid and the disease in The Plague. It's pretty disappointing that we couldn't prevent or at least minimize the effects of an event that someone could accurately describe 70 years ago without even living through it himself. We know so much more about how the disease spreads and what measures are most efficient in mitigating it, yet somehow we still ended up in a situation with the virus out of control even a year later.
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