Dead Rats In Adam Camus The Plague

How could you expect anything to happen in a city that is considered lifeless? In Algeria, there is a city called Oran that is soulless due to the ordinariness of the people and their lifestyle. The city, itself, lacks in anything interesting or pleasing to the eye. In the story, the town is even described as ugly. Everything soon changes when the city gets struck with the plague. In the beginning in Part One, it begins to depict how the rats started to captivate the lives of the people living in Oran. As the days go on, the number of dead rats increase. In The Plague by Adam Camus, suspense is shown through how naive the people of Oran were when they first saw the rats and the rising death counts of them and their impact. In the beginning of Part One, there are many interactions with the people and the rats. On of the first ones was when Dr. Rieux found a dead rat in the hotel. In the book it recalled, "personally he thought the presence of a dead rat was rather odd, no more than that," …show more content…
Their appearance caused worry and discomfort and the increasing numbers stir up wonder of what is to come. An example would be when Rieux says "these dammed rats had given him a shock," (Camus 14). In this quote, it recalls how surprising the arrival of the rats are. For them to suddenly display themselves from no where and having no one come up with a reasonable explanation creates suspense. The feeling of the unknown also can contribute to the suspense because no one can convey the origins of the rats. The rising amounts of them have began to create worry among the people of Oran. In the book, it states "it was about this time that our townsfolk began to take show signs of uneasiness" (Camus 15). This quote conveys that as a result of the rodents, people have sensed a lack of security. Suspense is created because of the increase in rats and the impact it has quickly had on