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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Rieux break with policy?

2. How does Rieux find out about his wife's condition?

3. What important experience shaped Tarrou's view of capital punishment?

4. What is the choice Fr Paneloux talks about in his sermon?

5. How did Tarrou respond to his father's court performance?

Short Essay Questions

1. What drastic developments are depicted in Part 3 Chapter 1?

2. How can we tell that Tarrou is a force for good in the town?

3. How is it possible for Cottard to help Rambert?

4. Why is there a steady supply of workers taking care of burials?

5. What do you think has led Dr. Rieux to unburden himself to Grand?

6. What is the effect of the child's death upon the other characters?

7. Explain the nature of the irony in the beginning of Part 5 Chapter 3.

8. In Part 4 Chapter 3, what is the situation regarding the plague serum?

9. What is unusual about Tarrou's illness?

10. What is the situation in the camps for people in quarantine?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

'The Plague shows us the way people deal with adversity.' People's responses to adversity are affected by their strength of character, or the lack thereof, as well as their outlook on life. Examine the popular responses to the plague situation and compare these with Dr. Rieux's.

Essay Topic 2

Imagine that you are a member of a school board. Some of the board members wish to remove The Plague by Albert Camus from the school district's reading program as they claim it is too depressing for students and is, furthermore, anti-Christian. Compose the speech you will deliver to defend teaching the novel. What does it contain that is of value to American students?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, Dr. Rieux has had to deal with scarcely imaginable tragedy in the wider community. At the very end, when he reasonably expected to return to a normal life, he is hit with personal trady in the deaths of his friend Tarrou and then of his beloved wife. Why is Rieux able to survive all this? What ideas and attitudes does the character of Dr. Rieux symbolise? What does he show to us about the human spirit? Write a thoughtful, detailed essay drawing on the novel as a whole.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 928 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample