The Plague: Part One

Pre-Reading Reflection Prompt

Before you start reading the novel, take some time to jot down, journal, or illustrate your answers to the following question:

Where you hear or read the word “plague,” what comes to mind – sights, sounds, scents, images, feelings, experiences, places, etc.?

Part I

In his wonderful book of little essays on the many dimensions of fiction, The Art of Fiction, the novelist David Lodge writes the following:

The Plague begins with what seems at first to be a classic case of third-person narration. By the end of the second paragraph, though, the narrator is speaking confidently in the first-person plural: “we have deluges of mud,” “our little town,” “our citizens work hard,” etc. Then at the close of the opening chapter, the narrator informs us directly that he or she is a member of the community, and a direct witness to the events described; however, he or she has chosen to withhold his or her name, and will speak as a “historian.”

What do you make of this decision on the narrator’s part? And of Camus’s part in setting up the narration this way?
How does the shifting attention to different characters’ perspectives affect our experience in this first and the subsequent parts?

The narrator of The Plague mentions that he is writing as a historian, chronicling the events that took place.

What if you kept a chronicle of your reading experience and journaled about the images, feelings, thoughts, and questions that arise – questions you might have for a specific character, for the narrator, for Camus, for God?

If you feel comfortable using another medium of expression, how might you express what arises as you read using sound, drama/dance/movement, or art (whether it’s using color, making marks on paper, using material, clay, or images).

In the early pages of the book (5), Camus describes the experience of dying in Oran.

What stands out to you about this description?
What does the author mean by “modern death”? As you read through the book note how the attitude and experience of death and dying develops as the plague takes hold.

Rieux reflects on the “great plagues” of the past (38–39).

How are these past plagues described?
Where does his reflection lead him and how, at all, does it affect his view of his current task grappling with the developing epidemic?

Part I is pretty graphic in its description of the plague’s onset.

How does this matter of fact but graphic telling shape your responses to the characters and the scene?

General Reading Questions Next: Part Two

How does faith in Christ change the way we read The Plague?

Reading Through the Lens of Faith