The Plague: Part Four

Part IV

1. In Part IV, the narrator gives some attention to various reactions to the plague. On page 194, he notes the development of indifference to the plague. On pages 195–197, he attends to Cottard, who appears to have an anomalous reaction to the plague.
   • What do you think are the reasons for these reactions to the plague?
2. Father Paneloux’s viewpoint shifts markedly in this section, after witnessing the death of one of the plague’s victims.
   • How does his viewpoint change?
   • What does he mean by the virtue of “All or Nothing”? (225)
3. Part IV also gives us more information on the character Tarrou, who describes himself as already having “had [the] plague.”
   • What does he mean by this? He ends his autobiographical description with a threefold division of the world into “pestilences,” “victims,” and “healers.”
   • What does he mean by these categories?

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