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dr bernard rieux . I finished reading the plague yesterday and am now taking a small break from camus by rereading orwell (definitely not because of iop...), but let me talk about this book for a sec because this is another one I won’t be over for a while; massive spoilers ahead . That was a hell of an emotional journey, holy fuck, I could taste the philosophy and (almost) context it’s too good. It’s so much longer compared to the stranger but good god both of them hit me right in the feels—Meursault was with that final monologue yelling at the chaplain and here sanitary squad and co with just... everything. Lemme just talk a bit about the doctor and Tarrou because 1) my favorite characters and 2) caption word limit which I’ll definitely reach. Dr Rieux—hats off (ha!)—I gotta say you did an amazing job trying to help everyone and just doing your duty as doctor. Rieux along with Tarrou were my favorites; they were both so real in their own ways (Rambert too but on the human feelings side of things, stubborn little journalist); I think Rieux was also a very nice representation of the absurd man when faced with the absurd, though he was definitely different to the stranger’s Meursault when it comes to this—I love both of these men anyways. Rieux as the narrator wasn’t surprising—I sort of guessed at the him and Tarrou going swimming part because it was either one or the other (otherwise no one else know of this event) but when Tarrou died I knew it could only be the doctor. Though I will argue that in a way they were both the narrator because Tarrou’s diary was referenced constantly as a source of information, but that’s probably just me. Tarrou, oh my goodness Jean Tarrou, you are my hero of the book; rest in peace. I still have yet to mull over the question whether he did achieve his goal of becoming a saint without believing in god. Either way, he was a brilliant character. In my opinion he had to die, because he was honestly too good of a character to be allowed to live; he just had to go (like 1984’s Syme... he was just too intelligent, rip) otherwise it wouldn’t be a Camus novel.

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