(Part 1, Pages 1-2) Content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky. "But what does it mean, the Plague? Chapter 9, - 87, Quote 8: " the dreary struggle in progress between each man's happiness and the abstractions of the plague." This quote effectively articulates how such class differences not only deeply rankle, but how they may result in the poor dying in higher numbers. Best quotes from "The Plague" by Albert Camus 1 There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise. Summary & Analysis Part I: Chapters 1-3 Part I: Chapters 4-8 Part II: Chapters 9-10 Part II: Chapters 11-14 Part II: Chapters 15-17 Part III: Chapter 18 Part IV: Chapters 19-25 But now that I've seen what I have seen, I know that I belong here whether I want it or not. They were assured, of course, of the inerrable equality of death, but nobody wanted that kind of equality. Thanks. I have some more in mind but these are my favorites, especially White Shroud The book was published in 1947 and is considered one of the most important works by Camus. Needless to say, he knew the sympathy was genuine enough. In fact, it comes to this: nobody is capable of really thinking about anyone, even in the worst calamity." Now and again a gunshot was heard; the special brigade recently detailed to destroy cats and dogs, as possible carriers of infection, was at work. But now that I've seen what I have seen, I know that I belong here whether I want it or not. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, Whereas during those months of separation time had never gone quickly enough for their liking and they were wanting to speed its flight, now that they were in sight of the town they would have liked to slow it down and hold each moment in suspense, once the breaks went on and the train was entering the station. GradeSaver, 9 June 2020 Web. It's the event that proves them right. Part 5, pg. ", "No, we should go forward, groping our way through the darkness, stumbling perhaps at times, and try to do what good lay in our power. However, those with money do find it easier to keep to a higher standard of living and inoculate themselves slightly more than the poor. Albert Camus. Born place: in Mondovi, Algeria Of course, Rieux didn't greet the plague on day one with this kind of clarity. Martin Luther King, Jr. Military, War, Mankind. Part 5, pg. To Harry's intense embarrassment, he suddenly realized that Dumbledore's bright blue eyes looked rather watery, and stared hastily at his own knee. We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and Their friends have forgotten them because they have other things to think about, naturally enough. On plague, pandemic, and constant vigilance: "'All the resthealth, integrity, purity (if you like)is a product of a vigilance that must never falter. The man who spits on cats is a character who illustrates the absurd because his action has no greater meaning, yet he takes delight in it. Grand, too, had suffered. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, 'doing business.'" The the sun lifted clear, like an immense coin. . ", "Until now I always felt a stranger in this town, and that I'd no concern with you people. Indeed, one's chief impression was that the epidemic had called a retreat after reaching all its objectives; it had, so to speak, achieved its purpose. Book excerpt: Until now it has been impossible to read the full story of the relationship between Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. ", "The truth is that nothing is less sensational than pestilence, and by reason of their very duration great misfortunes are monotonous. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, In fact, it comes to this: nobody is capable of really thinking about anyone, even in the worst calamity. ", "Nobody is capable of really thinking about anyone, even in the worst calamity. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. "The Plague Study Guide." His focus on using imagination, instead of simply experiencing the plague, is part of Camus's sense that more than one's present experience is significant. 291, Quote 27: "Once plague had shut the gates of the town, they had settled down to a life of separation, debarred from the living warmth that gives forgetfulness of all." I say stumble, because the warm breeze"une brise deja` tie`de" https://www.thoughtco.com/the-plague-quotes-738216 (accessed April 18, 2023). Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a representative of non-metropolitan French literature. 2023. He feels the great need of friendship and understanding, but he is reluctant to confide in others, and when he does, expects to be misunderstood or even betrayed. If today the plague is in your midst, that is because the hour has struck for taking thought. The Plague Study Guide. novels The Plague and The Fall), philosophy (notably, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel), drama, and social criticism secured his literary and intellectual reputation. Chapter 19, - It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another, as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which exists not. He was not overly religious, but he did consider himself a fair prophet and liked to study the styles of his predecessors. "He has an insight into the anomalies in the lives of the people here who, though they have an instinctive craving for human contacts, can't bring themselves to yield to it, because of the mistrust that keeps them apart. They can reside in capacious abodes and restrict their interaction with others. Thus the first thing that plague brought to our town was exile. That evening, as he watched Grands receding form He realized how absurd it was, but he simply couldnt believe that a pestilence on the great scale could befall a town where people like Grand were to be found, obscure functionaries cultivating harmless eccentricities. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it's up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences. Camus won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957 at the age of 44. ", "Thus, too, they came to know the incorrigible sorrow of all prisoners and exiles, which is to live in company with a memory that serves no purpose. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. Michels death marked, one might say, the end of the first period, that of bewildering portents, and the beginning of another, relatively more trying, in which the perplexity of the early days gave place to panic Our townsfolk realized that they had never dreamed it possible that our little town should be chosen out for such grotesque happenings as the wholesale death of rats in broad daylight or the decease of concierges through exotic maladies Still, if things had gone thus far and no farther, force of habit would doubtless have gained the day, as usual. But if he isn't capable of great emotion, well, he leaves me cold. Paneloux is right, Tarrou continued. - 5/5: You there! Camus stated that within all of us exists a certain 'plague,' the deep existential problem which states that at any moment our freedom, integrity and our own lives can be taken from us with any freak accident. What was the philosophy of the flagellants? PART I . On the day when the death-roll touched thirty, Dr. Rieux read an official telegram that the Prefect had just handed him, remarking: So theyve got alarmed at last. The telegram ran: Proclaim a state of plague stop close the town. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Unlike some. Pussy! in a voice at once haughty and endearing He then proceeded to tear some paper into scraps and let them fall into the street; interested by the fluttering shower of white butterflies, the cats came forward, lifting tentative paws toward the last scraps of paper. Christmas day? "They fancied themselves free," Camus' narrator says of Oran's townspeople, "and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences." The novel proceeds to illustrate just how devastating a deadly epidemic can be to our most cherished notions. What's to-day, my fine fellow goodreader? 218, Quote 20: "No, we should go forward, groping our way through the darkness, stumbling perhaps at times, and try to do what good lay in our power. ", "8,000 rats had been collected, a wave of something like panic swept the town. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. We have become a plague upon ourselves and upon the Earth. Their days are "aimless" because there's no point to anything; their memories are "sterile" because what use are they? But, now they had abruptly become aware that they were undergoing a sort of incarceration under that blue dome of sky, already beginning to sizzle in the fires of summer, Grand went on talking, but Rieux failed to follow all the worthy man was saying. That's just the thing Rieux insists he isn't doing. Part 4, pg. willthewitch444 Also recommend same genre: Albert Camus Stranger, The White Shroud by Antanas kma (which I think everyone should read in their lives), The Plague by Albert Camus, The Metamorphosis by Franc Kafka. ", "Thus, for example, a feeling normally as individual as the ache of separation from those one loves suddenly became a feeling in which all shared alike andtogether with fearthe greatest affliction of the long period of exile that lay ahead. All the resthealth, integrity, purity (if you like)is a product of the human will, of a vigilance that must never falter. It is cosmically unlikely that the developed world will choose to end its orgy of fossil energy consumption, and the Third World its suicidal consumption of landscape. 128 Unforgettable Quotes From Shakespeare's Macbeth, Quotes From Leo Tolstoy's Classic 'Anna Karenina', Iconic Quotes From the Novel 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn', 27 Quotes From Military Leaders About Wars, Battlefields, and Bravery, A Selection of Quotes From 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', M.A., English Literature, California State University - Sacramento, B.A., English, California State University - Sacramento. Unsurprisingly, once the plague is declared over and the gates are open, the people want to return to normal as quickly as possible. 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