- Published in France in 1947, 2 years after WWII, repercussions of occupations still prevalent in society

- Translated first in 2001, harboured in the French community for a while, did it take 50yrs for the French to be willing to spread their story or did it take 50yrs for people to actually care? Censorship? Embarrassed, guilty, ashamed?

- Camus one of the main leaders of the resistance

- Set in Oran, Algeria, colonised by French, Camus was born there, French people would always have a link to Algeria

- Allegory within the French mindset, but just out of Paris in order to make it accurate

- Had it been set in France, the book would have been burnt because it is accusing the French

-Algeria and France similar geographical features, mirroring

- Still modern embarrassment of the compliance of French government

- Never had rats, then the rats appeared over night and began dying

- "Living room", moving and conquering in order to obtain space for Germans to broaden German empire

- France was territorially ideal, access to France = access to England 

- Published not long after war, therefore Camus would have been writing the novel during the war, first hand recount

- Set in small town, parallel to France, tight knit community

- If one person experienced it, then everyone did (at the end, at the beginning people died in their house, in solitude)

- Where people went to die with the plague, parallels to concentration camp? Out of sight, out of mind

- Hysteria of communism and nuclear threat parallels to eventual hysteria of plague

- People did not realise the significance of the plague because initially it did not directly affect them, they did not see people die because they died in the isolation of their house, unless someone they loved or themselves became sick

- Rationing still prominent, rebuilding (mainly in the country side, entire towns levelled), lack of education, families grieving, tensions with the Jews, mass exodus of Jews into Israel

- Camus overtly critical of government

-Men fight the plague, men are considered dominant, strict gender roles, what Camus knew and knew no better

- Plague + Nazis were nondiscriminatory,

published 2 years after (1947)
so overtly critical - brave move

immediate effects

everything would still be prevalent in French society
still suffering through rationing
still rebuilding - more so in countryside (Paris didn't have much damage)
people still suffering from lack of employment and lack of education - young men who went to war and young women who went as nurses are a year or so behind in schooling
still a lot of tensions on Jewish community
homes taken, jobs taken, wealth taken, families killed

first translated in 2001

would have been really relevant to everyone in France at the time

50 before people started caring or 50 years before French were willing to share the story

ashamed and guilty and so didn't want to share it

censorship - embarrassed, guilty, ashamed

set in Oran (Algeria) drawing parallels to Nazis - Nazis were doing all they could to take power - living room - idea to move and conquer was about getting space for german people - why they occupied France

France was territorially ideal - access to France = access to England

effected everyone in different places

even Oran (some tiny little place) was affected

set in 40s strict Gender roles - representation of gender in the plague, masculine role - men who fight the plague, women are sent away, hidden or grieving, crying, weeping, a woman's place is at the side of her man, book follows male characters - not a conscious choice by Camus to make a social comment - just what he was brought up with. 

Plague was non-discriminatory - killed everyone - men, women, children, like Nazis, killed anyone and everyone - even babies. Plague takes anyone

everyone in town experienced plague and everyone in France was affected by the Nazi occupation

Camus was born in Algeria (where Oran is), the french colonised Oran

familiar place that he recognises but the french people will always have a link to -  French speaking place - positions context of allegory to make it comfortable but also so the French understand, still had the french connection, in French mindset

if he had set it in Paris - people would have been irate - burnt the book

also chose Oran because they are essentially trapped - can’t escape into the water

In France they were surrounded by Spain - Franco buddies with Fitler, - Italy - Mussolini - buddies with Hitler, Germany - Hitler, Austria - taken by Germany, water

just ignored rats when first saw them, “we don’t have rats here”

French govt. came Nazi’s half of Paris so they wouldn’t be bombed

people were/are so dark about that time

only affected you if you or someone you know had it - people had become used to the fact that hundreds were dying every day

the connection to the Nazi Occupation of France makes points a lot more relevant and able to be understood more easily 

P137 - talking about "bodies hastily thrown into pits", "cremation" and "old incinerating ovens" are possibly a reference to aspects of the concentration camps

also "isolation camps" sounds very similar to "concentration camps" and was where people were taken basically to die when they got the plague - lived in tents

 

Hitler wanted living room (space)- he took over land to create room.

France was a strategic place it gave an access to UK.

 

He chose France as it is a familiar place which French people will always have a line to it. The allegory is comfortable- complicit in the Nazi occupation (still French occupying idea)

 

Compliant nature of the French and Persian government essentially rolled over for the Germans in order not be bombed. Book would have not been accepted if directly set in France- accusing and pointing out the fact that France was lenient in giving their land up – government turned people into dark times.

 

In the book- they were trapped even if escape was tried- the sense of being trapped 

 

Spain, German, Austria, Italy- mirrors entrapment of the French. 

 

Reference to the fact that all the people in the town were affected by the plague

French were affected by the occupation. 

 

At first the victims of the plague were a minority- was not until a majority of the people had it or had been affected by some form was it a considerable problem. 

Once the hospital was full with plagued victims- they sent them to isolation camps

Similarity can be drawn to German concentration camps 

Plague was not ‘discriminatory’- it killed everyone

Nazi’s were ready to kill any German- even a young innocent baby (they did not care)

 

At the time- 

Rationing was prevalent from the Autumn of 1940 to Spring 1941, however, it did not fully end until 1949 (two years after the book was written).

 

Strict gender roles- Men were the ones who fought and helped, men helped fight the ‘problems’ and women were the grieving, weaker ones. This is what he experienced as he grew up

 

Housing and job shortage- over a million were unemployed

 

Masculine Role – fight the problems

Women – cry, sent away 

Educated into something that they know (not a conscious choice like believe) 

The Plague was non-discriminator (like Nazi’s killed) – they take anyone