ant. Vital living can be stifled by habits. Todd suggests that “It is at this point that one should revolt against his stultifying pattern of living. Recognition of bottomless death makes a habit-bound life even more absurd”(Todd 165). Considering that they are completely unaware of anything around them, it is easy to see that the disease captures the city completely by surprise; no one is prepared for it. Doctors gather to discuss the matter. They have trouble naming the disease at first, and refuse to accept it for what it is. This reflects the whole attitude of the town, as the citizens do they very same thing. Doctors in particular are the first attempt to combat the disease. The individual efforts are valiant but have a negligible effect. An epidemic is a problem, which belongs not to a person but to people. It becomes apparent, however that it cannot merely be “one” who must oppose the plague. No matter what the doctors do one their own, they cannot stop the dying. The number of victims lost to the plague climbs higher and higher. Sprintzen writes “The Plague does, beyond any possible discussion, represent the transition from an attitude of solitary revolt to the recognition of a community whose struggles must be shared”(Sprintzen 103). Yet slowly at first, people begin to die, and the citizens of Oran take notice. The residents of Oran do not need to worry about looking for society and its common welfare, as each of them is wrapped up in his own concerns. The citizen’s awareness of the plague, however, changes all of this. At the end of Part one, Plague is proclaimed.The second part of the book begins with the statement that “from now on, it can be said that plague was the concern of all of us.” Once the town gates are shut, the individual actions, emphasized in the first part of the book, give way to the more universal feelings of fear and separation shared...
