Rhetorical Techniques In The Plague

In Albert Camus’ novel, entitled The Plague, he uses assorted rhetorical strategies like plot, commentary, and tone to discuss the meaning of community in the struggle against the inevitability of death. As an existentialist, Camus accepts the inevitability of death, and outlines his idea of life’s meaning by proposing that one can only achieve meaningfulness by fighting death (whether it be through finding true love, chasing happiness, or fighting sickness), realizing its’ inevitability, and continuing to fight anyway. Camus acknowledges that there is no reason to fight death since one cannot win, but also argues that there is no excuse to be passive to it either. In the first weeks of the plague, it is only the city’s population of rats and a scattered multitude of citizens (starting with M. Michel, the concierge of Dr. Rieux’s office building) that die. Most people aren’t affected beyond slight unsettlement over piles of …show more content…
Camus includes the commentary of the asthma patient in order to capture and clarify the attitude of the general public by having an average citizen voice his opinion. In part two of the novel, the asthma patient is found to be passing his time by marking it “with his two saucepans, one of which was always full of peas when he woke in the morning. He filled the other pea by pea at a constant, carefully regulated speed.” (page 117) This is representative of the public trying to make their lives meaningful by spending their time actively. This practice of counting peas also represents the meaninglessness of just spending time. Camus uses this example to argue that simply occupying one’s time is not enough to give meaning to life, but fails to provide a definite and specific way to truly live beyond fighting