Symbolism In The Plague

The Plague, commonly referred to as the Black Death, swept the French Algerian city of Oran. The novel The Plague centers its focus on a deadly epidemic of disease and the course it took throughout Oran. This disease was spread through bacteria carried by fleas that lived on rats. Due to the fleas, the rats were able to rapidly spread this malady worldwide resulting in millions of deaths globally. In the novel, various rats stumbled into the open and began to die hastily. When a strange fever began to ensue, Dr. Rieux's colleague, Castel, identified the illness as the plague. This resulted in denial, but soon after the city was placed under quarantine to take precautionary measures. Finally, the citizens of Oran were able to identify the transmitter of death, the rats. In short, the rats provide the symbolic meaning of the people in Oran, the Plague, and recovery to the literary work. To begin with, the rats died everywhere throughout the novel. They were found dying on the streets, in businesses, in apartments, and playgrounds. As the number of rat deaths increased, so did the number …show more content…
These rats serve the purpose of a darkness in the world that people try to make sense of. The humans in the novel ignore rats until they are dying in front of them. This relates to how Father Paneloux tries to justify the plague as a judgment from God. He does so full heartedly until he is inflicted with the death of a child, which permanently altered his faith in God. In part four Paneloux stated, “I understand, that sort of thing is revolting because it passes our human understanding. But perhaps we should love what we cannot understand.” Rieux straightened up slowly…“No, Father. I’ve a very different idea of love. And until my dying day I shall refuse to love a scheme of things in which children are put to torture.” This quote shows how people tried to make understanding of this horrible epidemic, but could