Nobel Prize in literature in 1957, Albert Camus is an author impossible to circumvent of the French language. The Plague
is a diverting work. Oran, in the years 1950, is cut from the world because of the plague. The city is then plunged in the most complete isolation in order to avoid the propagation of the
epidemic in other cities.
How do the
inhabitants react in front of the epidemic? Some try to flee, others are resigned, others benefit from it. And,the more time passes the more the inhabitants fear that the plague will never disappear. Oran resembles then a concentration camp where the life of everyone is threatened. But, the time of the delivery finally arrives.
The inhabitants become again free. However, for Doctor Rieux, central character of the story, the plague still haunts his spirit. If the plague left; it can return at any time. The plagues are integral part
of man. They strike whenever wherever whoever. If this
literary work is pure fiction, it shows us nevertheless a disturbing reality: the second world war and the extermination camps. Except that, in this work, the plague is the plague and not human beings. Reality is more afflicting than fiction.