Plague #4

The plague revealed itself, and the city of Oran was isolated. No interaction was allowed with any other cities. People react to the situation differently. Some paniced and some rather liked the isolation. Rambert planned on escaping the city to meet his wife. Dr.Rieux, who was in the similar siutation with Rambert, decided to stay in the city to do his duty as a doctor.
In the middle of confusion, Father Paneloux sermoned that the city was cursed with the plague because of the sin of the citizens.
I was surprised to see some of the characters' reactions to the situtation. The city is isolated and there are rumors that the government will nuke the city to wipe out the plague. People are dying out, hospitals are full of patients. I expected the characters to lose their minds. I thought the rules, moral standards and laws would vanish and slowly the citizens would turn into 'animals.' Yet, the life goes on in the city just like normal days. Although more people transgressed laws than usual, the citizens did not lose their rationality. Rather, they help each other to go through the catastrophe. I learned that men do not easily give up rationalities and moral judgements. The holocaust can be good example. Jews were in the situation where they were treated like animals, they did not give up their rationarities and moral principles. I heard that even in the concentration camp, there were rules and laws and the Jews lived accordingly. Overall, I think Camus tried to point out what makes men different from animals.