The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts
In part 4 of the Plague, Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.
Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let it control them, yet others do not. Some people are made aware of their sickness, and realize they need help. The only cure to this plague is Jesus. Mark 2:17 says "On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”' This plague that everyone is cursed with cannot be cured by treatments or medicine or surgery. Only Jesus can cure it. I believe the reason Tarrou does not realize this is because the author, Albert Camus, was an atheist. Neither the character not the author will truly know this fact.
I commented on Madalyn Dillard and Josh Naqvi's posts.
I find it interesting that, in a story written by an atheist, there is such a gospel message. Yet, how could there not be when the story illustrates so well the human condition. The themes of love, fear, and just death, among others, are basic issues of humanity which has been created by God. We, as Christians, know the true source of hope in the midst of death and love in the midst of fear, but from an atheists perspective, these are questions that he must wrestle with and, perhaps, never find an answer.
ReplyDeleteComparing sin to a plague is the perfect analogy for it. Both sin and plagues affect everyone in a negative way, both are not respecters of persons, and both cause death in people. Sin cause a spiritual death and the plague caused a physical death. The biggest similarity between them is that both can be cured if people are willing to do what it takes to be cured.
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