Three Colours: Red (1994) [Trailer]

MOZART Symphony No 40 in G minor KV550 LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Ravel - Bolero by Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra

Review: The Plague

The Plague by Albert Camus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"So all a man could win in the conflict between plague and life was knowledge and memories. But Tarrou, perhaps, would have called that winning the match"

In one of the chapters Rieux, the protagonist, and Tarrou visit an old asthma patient, somehow they end up at the terrace of the patient's house and Tarrou opens up about his past life. According to Tarrou, he has been afflicted by a plague since very long. It started from the day he went to witness a trial with his father. Those owl eyes of the one being prosecuted and turgid prosecution by his father. He left his comfortable life, his house and ended up joining the resistance movements. These movements or ideologies had their own share of violence and he had the chance to witness a firing squad. The hole in the heart of the victim, pierced by the rain of bullets, put the bad taste in Tarrou's mouth again.

Since then, (Tarrou has realized that) he is a victim of plague of Life. Which side to take: the oppressed or the oppressor. Which ideology to support. How to achieve peace or become a saint. Rational murderer or innocent murderer. The restlessness, confusion and weariness which comes when a person is encountered with such a decision. Each one of us has this plague within ourselves, no one is free from it. For me personally, this chapter is a symbol of Camus' excellence. To express something essential in such a distinctive style.

"All the rest - heath, integrity, purity (if you like) - is a product of the human will, of a vigilance that must never falter"

Apart from a conventional existentialist perspective of life, this book also signifies Camus' views on the prevailing political atmosphere at the time of writing. While his contemporaries were picking their sides with capitalism or communism(more popular in those days), Camus did not justify violence in any form whatever the reason. No better or hopeful end can justify a violent mean.

"a war may well be 'too stupid', that doesn't prevent its lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped in ourselves."

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