Paper Summary:

This paper examines Albert Camus's "The Plague", a tale about a small town's struggle with the infection of bubonic plague and the way in which they deal with this affliction. As well as being a well-written tale of natural calamity, the author, Albert Camus, also wrote "The Plague" as an allegory for Germany's occupation of France during the Second World War. It shows how, in this allegory, Camus uses many symbols to represent occurrences involving this invasion. It also analyzes how Camus had several purposes for writing this novel; firstly, he wished to document his perspective of Germany's attack on France, and secondly, he wished to provide some warnings to humanity regarding the good and evil and correct and incorrect reactions in disastrous situations.

From the Paper:

"If Albert Camus had documented his opinions on the French government's management of the German invasion, he surely would have been persecuted. Instead, he created an allegory where he used symbols which paralleled with realistic events. The first of these important symbols were the rats which suddenly appeared on the streets of Oran symbolizing Germany's unexpected invasion of France. The next symbol was the serum used to combat the plague which, when eventually arriving in Oran, was too little, too late. This symbolizes France's own need to call for reinforcements, but upon arrival, they were too little, too late. The final, important symbol can be seen in Camus' portrayal of the Prefect. During the outset of the Plague, Dr. Rieux called for strict measures to be taken. However, the Prefect and his advisors did not want to believe that their town was infected by the plague and delayed any action which would ensure against mass infection."

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