Existentialism and Camus

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Rai Cramer AP English IV 13 January 2012 Camus and the Existentialist When Albert Camus first wrote The Plague in the mid twentieth century, he had every intent of sharing the idea of existentialism and emphasizing its tenets. The Plague, which is revered as an existential classic, tells the story of a plague-stricken town in Algeria named Oran, that must quickly adjust to the changes of being quarantined as the disease challenges the lives of some and the livelihood of others. Throughout the book, Camus uses several characters to portray the positives of existentialism. One of which, named Jean Tarrou, exemplifies Camus’ existential ideas. Like a true existentialist, Tarrou demonstrates three critical attributes; anguish, forlornness and despair. Because of Tarrou’s character and ideas, he can be identified as the ideal man of existentialism. When the narrator in the book The Plague first mentions Tarrou, he is introduced as an outsider who arrives in Oran on vacation who demonstrates anguish. As Tarrou finds himself in the midst the outbreak of the plague, he documents the series of events of the town as the situation digresses from bad to worse. When the first occurrences of plague are reported Tarrou remarkably, becomes “the man who involves himself and who realizes that he is not only the person he chooses to be, but also a lawmaker who is, at the same time, choosing all mankind as well as himself” (Sartre 1194). Tarrou actively becomes apart of the efforts to rid the town of plague by organizing sanitation squads and helping Rieux in whichever ways he can. Towards the end of the book Tarrou mentions that “each of us has the plague within him; no one, no one on earth is free from it. And I know, too, tat we must keep endless watch on ourselves lest in a careless moment we breathe in somebody’s face and fasten the infection on him” (Camus 253). In this,
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