Also Read
A Journalist Trapped in Oran due to Plague : Raymond Rambert is a journalist who is visiting Oran to research a story on living conditions in the Arab quarter of the town. When the plague strikes, he finds himself trapped in a city with which he feels he has no connection. He misses his wife who is in Paris, and he uses all his ingenuity and resourcefulness to persuade the city bureaucracy to allow him to leave. When this fails, he contacts smugglers, who agree to help him to escape for a fee of ten thousand francs. But there is a hitch in the arrangements, and by the time another escape plan is arranged, Rambert has changed his mind. He decides to stay in the city and continue to help fight the plague, saying that he would feel ashamed of himself if he pursued a merely private happiness. He now feels that he belongs in Oran and that the plague is everyone's business, including his.
 |
| Raymond Rambert |
Determined and Quick-Tempered : Raymond Rambert is a determined, quick-tempered, young journalist who grows into a mature human being in the course of the novel. Employed by a Parisian newspaper, he is sent to Oran to report on the sanitary conditions of the Arabs. Before his story is written, the plague attacks the town, and Rambert finds himself imprisoned in Oran and separated from his wife. He does not accept his imprisonment easily and seeks to escape in any way possible. Dr. Bernard Rieux, who understands the young man's desire to return to Paris, does not try to stand in his way. The final ironic reversal and the acceptance of commitment occurs when Rambert realises he is needed in Oran and refuses his one chance of escape. He has grown up to realise that every human being must pull his weight in a human calamity. He is rewarded by escaping the plague and being reunited with his wife.