2020 has left many of us scratching our heads as to where to look for guidance, what to take from this year, and how to make the most of the situation. Thankfully five decades ago one of the periods leading philosopher told a fictional tale which has never been more applicable.
In Albert Camus’ 1947 novel The Plague, Camus tells the story of a doctor and a handful of allies as they watch the rapidly spreading deadly illness take hold across the town and themselves.
Throughout the novel the town’s doctor, Rieux, comes to realize that the fate of an individual patient was less and less of interest, and the focus became on the collective destiny of the town.
While in the novel little was understood about the disease, and seemingly futile procedures were made which usually extended the inevitable at best, Rieux was able to not just learn more about the disease, but about man itself.
“We might try to explain the phenomenon of the plague, but, above all, should learn what it had to teach us”
Throughout the experiences in the novel, one of the men who decided to help the doctor had begun his time determined to escape the locked-down city and return to the woman he loved. Months later after being on the front lines of handling the plague, “He knew that was out of the question now; he had changed too…
