The Plague compliments The Myth of Sisyphus. And the overall idea remains the same: you ask meaning from life and it responds with absurdity. It doesn't answer your question, but throws catastrophes your way. Press the title to read more notes.

My Notes

Camus uses a bigger narrative for The Plague, though. We are introduced to the city of Oran, a dull port town where nothing important seems to happen. Then it is hit with the plague epidemic. The entire story narrates the events unfolding in the city—the denial, the quarantine, the deaths, the depression. But there is also a protagonist: Dr. Rieux. He is a local doctor who fights the plague alongside others—Tarrou, Rambert, Grand, Father Paneloux. But his efforts are futile. The aggressive spread of the plague makes the doctor's progress look tiny, almost meaningless. Bodies pile up faster than they can be buried. People keep dying anyway.

But Rieux doesn't give up. Each morning, he returns to the hospitals. He treats patients knowing most will die. He keeps his records. He doesn't pretend the work matters in some cosmic sense—he simply does it because someone must. This is what makes him the absurd hero. Like Sisyphus pushing his boulder, Rieux fights a battle he will never win. The difference between despair and heroism is not the outcome, but the choice to continue. Rieux fulfills Camus's answer to absurdity: not suicide, not hope, but revolt. He sees the futility clearly and acts anyway. Camus calls it triumpth. Not over the plague, but over the despait itself.

The Plague was the last book in my Absurdism series. Interesting ideas, Albert Camus. Recommend reading, but with a little bit of prep and intellectual "pillow." Might too depressing for some.