The reaction to the plague in Oran

When reading this book, there was one thing that struck me very strongly: the similarity between what is going on in The Plague and what is going on with Covid-19 in our world. I'm sure many people will be writing about this, but I just can't pass on this opportunity. 

One thing that was very similar to me was on page 114: "But he also noted that peppermint lozenges had vanished from the drugstores, because there was a popular belief that when sucking them you were proof against contagion." This is exactly like the many rumors that have circulated since the beginning of the pandemic about certain things that could potentially protect you. (Maybe it can also be compared to Trump telling people to inject bleach?)

A second place that I found a similarity was on page 119: "'In spite of the growing shortage of paper, which has compelled some dailies to reduce their pages, a new paper has been launched: the Plague Chronicle...' Actually this newspaper very soon came to devote its columns to advertisements of new, 'infallible' antidotes against plague." At the beginning, we can see a similarity to the toilet paper shortage (even though this one is set on by isolation with the rest of the world), and people taking advantage of this situation to make money with a new newspaper, which is seen all over the world during Covid-19. At the end, we again see the promotion of rumored "antidotes" against the plague.

So yeah, 73 years later people are doing the same crap. Maybe we should start learning about our mistakes?

Comments

  1. RylandNovember 29, 2020 at 6:35 PM

    I think it is interesting that these were only predictions based on his research. Camus predicted that human nature would blind us and that most people do not look after the common good. One trivial difference that I found interesting is that it is actually the summer months that are the worst for Oran and not the winter ones. I don't know if that was a mistake or because they did not have central heating or cooling but it just seems off to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aakash V.November 29, 2020 at 9:22 PM

    I like that you specifically pointed out connections of what has happened in The Plague to key, notable, and newsworthy events within the whole storyline of the coronavirus pandemic. It is interesting and pretty amazing that there are so many connections to what is happening now to what is described in the Plague, especially considering Camus' possible lack of experience when it comes to his interpretations of plague. As Camus notes, there are a few responsible people (Dr. Rieux, Tarrou, etc.) that answer the question "What are you going to do about it" but on the other hand, there are people that only look out for themselves, looking to these ideas of possible safety measures to look out for their own benefits.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LaraNovember 30, 2020 at 8:08 PM

    I completely agree and the specific connections you made were really accurate and great quotes to pick. I was so frustrated at some points reading the book because of how I could understand the ignorance of some people because I literally see it firsthand. You're completely right, we all need to get our crap together and not make the same bad mistakes because we'll never learn to handle these situations better if we don't.

    ReplyDelete
  4. EliasJanuary 8, 2021 at 9:31 PM

    I also used this opportunity to write as much comparative work as I could lol, but something I liked about your post was that I hadn't actually touched on or even noticed the things that you wrote about which was refreshing. But yeah I totally agree with you about the learning our mistakes thing, honestly this mess is so aggravating, especially at this time in my life, I would've like to experience a little more of high school. Not even just like disease stuff though, I feel like too many unfortunate things have been repeated in general. Not that I can name any off the top. Nice post.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jason's Coming of Age

     I know this is a broad topic, but I thought it was important to address Jason's broad coming of age in this book, and, more specifically, the ways in which we can tell. His behavior changes a lot from the beginning to the end. At the beginning, we can tell that he is uncomfortable, immature and scared to speak up, even when other people are hurting him. However, he goes through many growth experiences throughout the book that open his eyes, the most notable of which being his interactions with Eva. She points out many interesting things to him that he hadn't noticed before, and kind of exposes all of these things that Jason has been keeping locked up inside of himself (like his stammer and the "hairy barbarians").      One of the biggest changes we notice in Jason is the fact that he stops using the word "gay" to describe things, and even sometimes uses words that he would have described as "gay" before (like "beautiful" when he'...
Read more

Triggering the Atonists

     Mumbo Jumbo. A phrase we have all heard throughout our lives to describe gibberish, nonsense, and the ridiculous. As a extremely stigmatized term, I wonder: why would Ishmael Reed use it to name his novel?  In fact, for someone who seems to be trying to destigmatize a lot of the things in his book, why would he seemingly make his novel so much more confusing for readers who have probably never heard these terms before?     I think the answer has been right in front of us the whole time: he's trying to weed out the atonists. Now, hear me out. In the context of the novel, a possible explanation is that the atonists are purposefully trying to delegitimize the book by adding in typos, making it seem more confusing, etc. But let's take it outside of that context for a second. What is Reed's actual reason for making everything so confusing? I think it's to both weed out and anger the atonists, the enemy. What would be an atonists worst nightmare? A nove...
Read more

Oswald and Ruby, Ruby and Oswald

 When we started reading the part of Libra  on Jack Ruby, something immediately stood out to me: the eerie similarity between Ruby and Lee. They're obviously different in a lot of ways (Ruby is trying to take out loans from the mafia, whereas Lee is advocating for communism and the advancement of communist ideals in the United States).  The similarity, however, lies in their personalities and the way in which they are viewed by the world. They are both guys with really bold ideas who think they are important in the grand scheme of things, but with huge insecurities. Everyone else around them views them as a joke, and the serious actions they take (Lee going to the Soviet Union or Ruby beating the guy up) aren't really seen as that important. No one thinks they are actually a danger or at risk of really acting on their words, which is really interesting when you think about what they both end up doing. Obviously, Oswald ends up assassinating John F Kennedy and Ruby ends up...
Read more