Understand with Ryland

     Rambert is a character that has annoyed me for a variety of reasons but he is also the character who has kept me engaged while reading. Since the lockdown, he has put himself first and pestered all the officials into seeing how they could help him out. He believes that he is special because he does not actually live in the town of Oran and he was only there coincidentally when the plague broke out. He does not seem to grasp that he is not the only person that is trapped in the town nor that the lockdown is supposed to protect the rest of the world from the plague. This is just our introduction to the character, already painting as this somewhat self interested individual.      With that introduction, you may be able to empathize with him but he has been painted as an annoying character in the novel. Despite this, his story has arguably been the most interesting portions of this book. Since he decided to escape, he has been at the center of the best par...

     During these first few chapters of the Plague , one character has stood out to me: the old asthmatic Spaniard who sits in his room moving dried peas around. Dr. Rieux visits the old Spaniard a couple times in these chapters as he is one of his regular patients. In these scenes, we get some strange moments with the character that make him stand out from the rest of the cast thus far. In the first scene, we get the first inklings that the rats may be a widespread problem, but not in a presentation that the reader may expect.      The wealthier people who live downtown and the newspaper reporters do not catch on to the rat problem as quickly as those living on the outskirts of town. The rats are what everyone is gossiping about in the outskirts. What attracts Dr. Rieux’s attention to the problem is the old Spaniard evidently quite pleased with the increase in rat appearances, saying, “‘They're coming out’” multiple times with a grin. This is certainly a d...