The Plague Close Reading

Final Close Reading: The Plague

Reflection:

All of these quotes relate to the themes of death, love, and rising above oneself. Death is shown throughout the book with the mass amounts of people dying due to the plague. Love is shown with the people feeling a need to be with their loved ones. Once the citizens of Oran realize how precious life is, they realize how much they really love their family members, relatives, and friends. The citizens come to realize how quickly life can be taken away from them, so they shouldn't take their loved ones for granted. Once the citizens come together, they give meaning to their lives by choosing to fight against the plague. These themes are used to present the philosophies of the author. In order for the citizens to realize how important life it, something had had to happen to them so that they stop taking life for granted. These quotes were picked because they show the author's style with words, along with illustrating an important message of the importance of life.

Close Reading:

For each quote decide which theme it associates with and any other thoughts about the quote:

“I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.”

“At that moment he knew what his mother was thinking, and that she loved him. But he knew, too, that to love someone means relatively little; or, rather, that love is never strong enough to find the words befitting it. Thus he and his mother would always love each other silently. And one day she--or he--would die, without ever, all their lives long, having gone farther than this by way of making their affection known.”

“And he knew, also, what the old man was thinking as his tears flowed, and he, Rieux, thought it too: that a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one's work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.”

“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. For the sensation, confused perhaps, but none the less poingant for that, of all those days and weeks and months of life lost to their love made them vaguely feel they were entitled to some compensation; this present hour of joy should run at half the speed of those long hours of waiting.”

“And indeed it could be said that once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion of plague was ended.”

“Well, personally, I've seen enough of people who die for an idea. I don't believe in heroism; I know it's easy and I've learned that it can be murderous. What interests me is living and dying for what one loves.”

“But it's not easy. I've been thinking it over for years. While we loved each other we didn't need words to make ourselves understood. But people don't love forever. A time came when I should have found the words to keep her with me, only I couldn't.”