The Inevitable Scythe: 'The Plague,' the Pandemic, and Reality of Death Pedro Tauil 12th Grade

From Neanderthal ceremonial burials 50,000 years ago to today's race for the vaccine, humanity's relationship with death is a matter as old as the first human to become conscient of their undeniable fate. In Albert Camus's 1947 book "The Plague," death is a theme present throughout the entirety of the text. While the citizens of Oran fight the Plague, the glooming presence of death is used by Camus to show the most absurd aspect of human existence, and how humanity deals with death in its most destructive manifestations. Likewise, in the pandemic of the current times, most of the population is being forced to confront for the first time an event that causes thousands of deaths each day, and to live with the fear of dying arbitrarily. Considering this, it is possible to question the relationship between Camus' portrayal of death in "The Plague" and society's current behavior while facing the worst pandemic in fifty years.

In the first part of the work, Camus discusses the negation of death by humanity. That negation is expressed through different aspects during Part I, mainly through underestimation, negligence, and rationalization of the Plague as it is establishing in Oran. As the Plague arrives, its first victims are the...