Camus' "The Plague"

Camus' The Plague, is a novel about a terrible plague that afflicts the town of Oran. The rats come out of hiding and die in the streets and soon, slowly, people begin dying too. The authority figures of the novel ignore what is happening until the plague is out of control and undeniable. For months the town's people suffer and die alone, focusing on their own pain and depression. Eventually, they realize that their pain is collective and that the plague will never end. They then must choose to either band together and fight against the plague or suffer and die alone.

Camus' Plague is an analogy for the absurdness and uncertainty of life. The people of Oran are afflicted by the Plague and must acknowledge the fact that life is unpredictable and that death is inevitable. There is no avoidance of pain and suffering and eventually, no matter what, the pain and suffering will lead to death. Camus' Plague is very similar to Sartre's Nausea. It is the post-metaphysical realization that life is meaningless. Not only do the lives of the people of Oran hold no meaning, but their lives are painful, absurd, and will eventually lead to death. This is true of the lives of all humans on the planet.

In the beginning, the people of Oran were standing alone. They were suffering through life and looking out for their own needs. Eventually, their ideals shift, when they realize that the plague will never go away and that their suffering is collective. Everyone is living an absurd and unpredictable life and standing alone does not make it easier. The realization that everyone is suffering allows them to band together and create anti-plague efforts. Even when these efforts make little difference in their lives, there is more meaning in the effort than in standing and suffering alone.

The difference between Sartre and Camus is that Sartre proposes that the meaninglessness be coped with by creating personal meaning within an ultimately meaningless existence. Camus is proposing a much more optimistic and community oriented view. He is proposing that the meaninglessness of life be coped with by banding together and creating joint experiences. He suggests meaning be created by reaching out to others. His concept of meaning is in community instead of Sartre's concept of assigning individualistic meanings to life.

Camus' account is successful. Sartre's concepts are very lonely and isolating. Camus creates an approach to the meaninglessness of life that assigns meaning to personal relationships. His approach allows for love and comfort, whereas Sartre's approach of assigning personal meaning is much more self fulfilling.

The success of Camus' account is largely a result of the humanity of his proposed solution. Humans are pack animals, they are not designed to live and die alone. Camus' solution of banding together to fight the meaninglessness of life is optimistic and attainable. Even though efforts to improve the experience of life will frequently seem impossible, it provides meaning and connectedness to others, that in and of itself creates a positive life experience.

Humans have been doing this all along. They have always been living in family groups. They have always had friends. There have always been people banding together to make life a little happier by lessening the suffering. The realization that life is absurd and meaningless does not change the fact that humans have been banding together against this exact problem since the beginning of time. Camus is not saying we haven't been doing it all along, but is saying to keep doing it despite the realization of the meaninglessness, because it has created meaning all along.