Mrs. Kelly DiPrinzio

1. Title: The Plague

2. Author: Albert Camus

3. The novel is called “The Plague” because it’s about a town that suffers from an epidemic of the plague.

4. The story is in chronological order.

5. The setting takes place during the 1940’s in the town of Oran, which is a French port on the Algerian coast. It is a very dull and boring town. The narrator describes it as being “ugly”. It has no trees or real vegetation. The town is filled with people that only care about making money, they don’t really care about having fun or enjoying life. It’s a pretty dismal setting.

6. The setting makes a pretty big impact on the novel. The town is struck with the plague, so the gates of the town are locked, and no one can get in or out. All the townspeople are stuck there and feel almost like prisoners. Because Oran is so bland, it certainly does not help to get peoples’ hopes up. The people feel trapped and some even try to escape. I think the setting caused the people to go a little crazy at times.

7. Dr. Rieux is the main character. He is a doctor that first recognizes that rats were dying exponentially each day and he wants something to be done about it. He wants to take action to make sure people don’t become affected by the disease, but the authorities are very relaxed about it and don’t want to jump to conclusions. He is a very caring person and puts the health of the town above his problems, such as his wife being separated from him.

The rest of the characters are not nearly as prevalent as Rieux, but some of the others include Cottard, Tarrou, and Rampert. They are all acquaintances of Rieux that basically symbolize the mood of the rest of the town. Each of them seems to represent a type of people and how they react to the plague. Cottard is a person who does not take any responsibility to help fight the plague. Tarrou is similar to Rieux in that he wants to help fight the plague. Rampert is someone who wants to escape and get out of the town. Each of the minor characters seem to represent how a bigger group of people react to the situation.

8. The story starts out with Dr. Rieux seeing a rat stumble, collapse, and cough blood out of its mouth. He at first thinks nothing of it, but then starts to see more rats and finds it peculiar. Rieux tries to talk to the authorities to get the bottom of the problem, but they think it’s a prank. Eventually there are more and more dead rats everyday. The authorities start to realize there is a problem and try to kill all the rats. Then one of the townspeople gets very sick and dies in a fashion similar to the rats. Rieux thinks that the plague is returning, but the authorities don’t want to believe him. More and more deaths start to occur and they realize that Rieux is right. The authorities are forced to close the town gate and lock everyone inside because they can’t let the disease spread. People begin to realize they are going to be stuck in the town for a long time. Some people are alone without loved ones because they were out of town when the gates were closed and they can’t get back in. Initially the townspeople panic and some people, such as Rampert, try to escape, but fail. Thousands of people are taken by the plague. Eventually the town starts to realize that they are in the situation together and begin to try to help one another get through it. They realize that everyone is dying, not just the poor or elderly, so they bond to help Rieux. At the end, the plague dies off and the gates of the town are reopened to begin normal life again.

9. I think one of the themes of the story is that we need to help each other, especially during difficult times. When the news of the plague first hit the town, everyone became selfish and only cared about themselves. Everyone only looked out for themselves. As the story progresses, the people realize that they are in it together, and that they need to help one another survive. I think by showing this, the author is saying that people naturally only care about themselves, but that by being selfish and isolated, we can’t survive. If we work together, we can get through tough times.

10. I thought an interesting when Rampert had his whole escape plan set up, but then he backs out because he feels bad about leaving while the plague is still going on. He had been trying to escape for much of the novel, but then suddenly has a change of heart. I guess he was moved by the way the town came together.

11. I read The Stranger by Albert Camus the first marking period and it was pretty good, so I thought I’d try another one of his books. I didn’t like this one nearly as much. The Stranger was written in a very different writing style. It was much more to the point than The Plague. It seemed to describe things less and the story moved a lot quicker. The Plague was very bland in my opinion. I know the stories were both originally written in French, so I think that different people translated each novel, which could have led to the differences in writing style. I would not recommend this book because it moves very slowly and the writing style is mundane. The ending is also very predictable, which makes the book even worse.

1. Title: The Stranger

2. Author: Albert Camus

3. The title, The Stranger, in my opinion refers to the main character, Monsieur Meursault, and his perception of life. He seems to have no feeling at all, while the people around him show emotion, so I think that’s why it’s called The Stranger. He doesn’t know how to really relate to other people. He doesn’t even seem to know exactly what he believes in. He is a stranger to life.

4. The story is organized in chronological order, and it’s separated into two parts; events leading up to the shooting of the Arab and everything that happens after the shooting (his time in jail, the trial, etc…).

5. The setting takes place in France during the 1930s or 1940s. At the beginning of the novel, everything takes place in small town or village that is within a bus ride of the beach. Halfway throughout the book the setting changes strictly to prison and the courtroom.

6. The setting simply makes the story seem real. Though there isn’t much description about the surroundings, they are talked about enough to make it seems like a real place. The physical structures aren’t described nearly as much as the weather and elements, which makes you feel like you are in the characters’ shoes.

7. The main character is Monsieur Meursault. He is a man in his twenties or thirties, and that’s all that you can infer about his physical nature. You do learn a lot about his personality, though. Meursault is a very odd character. He seems almost like a robot; he lacks almost any emotion or feeling. He has no opinion on almost all matters, so whenever someone asks him a question, he either simply agrees or says no. If he can’t respond with yes or no, he usually will not answer the question. He is very awkward, but people seem to like him even though he doesn’t talk at all. He lacks motivation, and just lets life pass by him.

8. The story starts out with Meursault saying that his mother died. He can’t remember if it happened today or yesterday, which shows his lack of emotion from the beginning. He goes to her funeral and shows no emotion at all; he doesn’t cry or even seem upset, and he doesn’t want to see his mother one last time before she is buried. After the funeral is over, he goes back home for the weekend. Meursault spends time with his girlfriend Marie going to the movies and to the beach. He also spends some time with his neighbor Raymond who has trouble with his girlfriend. Raymond thinks that she is cheating on him, so he wants to beat her. Raymond asks Meursault for his opinion on the matter, but he just agrees with Raymond in that he should get back at her.

Raymond follows through in hurting his girlfriend, which leads to him becoming a target of her brother. Her brother and his crew watch Raymond and Meursault as they get on a bus to go to the beach and visit a friend of Raymond. Raymond thinks that they will be safe, but when they are on the beach, the brother and his crew are there and attack Raymond. Raymond is cut on the arm and the mouth, but the injuries aren’t serious. Shortly after that, Meursault takes Raymond’s gun and goes out to the beach to find the brother, then shoots him five times, killing him for no apparent reason.

Meursault is then taken into custody and stays in prison for about a year. He doesn’t seemed phased at all by the fact that he killed somebody and that he is stuck in prison. During the trial, his insensitivity is brought up and used against him. He is found guilty and is sentenced to be beheaded in front of a crowd. No one can ever get through to him, not even the chaplain that tries to awaken him to his life.

9. I think the theme is basically about how people can be strangers to life, as is the case of Meursault. He shows no remorse for killing someone, he is not saddened by the death of his own mother, and always answers questions with a yes or no. He has no motivation for anything, like the idea of marrying Marie. She asks him to marry her, but he says that it doesn’t make any difference. I think the author is just trying to point out how it’s wrong to live like that, and that it’s necessary to have emotion and feeling to live a full life.

10. The most interesting scene in the book is the scene where Meursault shoots the Arab brother. The description of how the sun pushed Meursault toward him portrayed the scene very well. It was weird how Meursault was overtaken by this urge to kill a man, when normally Meursault was very calm and collected during the story. The scene seemed to stand out from the rest of the book, so that’s why I think it’s the most interesting.

11. I thought it was a pretty good novel. It was on the short side, but the author’s writing style allowed him to put all the necessary information he needed and portray the story the way he wanted to. I thought there might be a twist at the end and that Meursault wouldn’t be guillotined, but I was wrong. I also thought there would be a stranger introduced in the story that would help Meursault at some point, but at the end I realized that he was the stranger. The story is easy to read and it’s fairly eventful, so it was actually pretty enjoyable to read.