The Plague: A Tale of Survival, Resilience and Shock - Essay Sample

Introduction

The book by Albert Camus talks about a shocking tale of unrelieved horror of survival and resilience. It also tells of the ways that human beings confronted the event of death. The scope of the story is quite relevant to recent events that have been taking place in the world today. The events in the book take place in a coastal town in the Northern Part of Africa called Oran (Camus, 1947). The plague begins as various parts of clues that were disregarded by different people. Time goes by in the book, annihilating the traces of the past and making the victims suffer.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The Microbe in the Movie

The infectious agent of tuberculosis that came from rats in the book was fictional. The story in the book communicated some critical messages to the readers. It explained how people went on to adopt ways of how to live with the infection in the country. Using features of anti-allegory in the plot, it shows how human aspirations and dreams were futility.

It also explains how human beings were inevitable to suffering. The fictional story talks about the death of rats began to rise for no accountable reason. Later on, people also start to get ill. This event makes people start getting worried about the safety of their health status. The plague that hits the town in the story is called the Bubonic plague that swept people in the Middle Ages. The book explains that people did not believe it.

The people get tension, but at the same time, they refuse to admit that the disease is killing people at a very high rate. The people keep on dying in the town, and some people even began to kill themselves. An example was the townsman, Cottard, but is saved by his friend in the neighborhood called Grand. The neighbor was a friend to Dr. Rieux.

The Science Involved in the Film

In the book, Dr. Rieux and other medical doctors urge the authorities in the Oran town to take precautionary measures to control the disease. The action that the authorities take is to quarantine the town from the rest of the world. The quarantine was meant to prevent them from spreading the disease to the other parts of the world. The idea of quarantine came after the doctors urged the authorities to have some measures to prevent the spread.

Microbiological Knowledge in the Story

The science that the doctors used was applicable in controlling the effects of the disease in the town. There was no creative license involved in the whole plot of the story. The idea that the scientists suggested to the authorities regarding the quarantining of the town is something that could happen. With the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus in the world, the idea of quarantine is applied by nations to prevent them from getting more infections as they contain the virus. The other thing that could happen today is the idea that Dr. Rieux shared in the book, that the battle against the plague was not over because the bacillus microbe could stay in a dormant form for a long time. Some things will not happen in a scientific way because they are not proved to have occurred in the world.

Rating of the Movie

The book would have a scale of about 4 of bacteria. The reason behind the rating was the ability of the doctor to help in handling the spread of bacillus bacteria. The story in the book is excellent and has some relevance to the things that happen today in the world. It shows that it can assist people in handling cases of outbreaks of diseases.

References

Camus, A. (1947). The plague.