Part 5: Chapter 5 Summary

Dr. Rieux confesses that he, himself, is the narrator, and all the questions about whose eyes we were seeing the story through are resolved. He declares that it is an objective account. He has only recounted what he has seen; he has not attempted to tell what anyone was thinking or feeling although he often shared in and sympathized with those feelings His desire was to speak for all.

On his way to visit Grand and Cottard, Rieux is stopped by a police cordon, which will not let him through, telling him that there is a man with a gun shooting at people. Grand appears, coming toward the doctor. He does not know what's happening except that the shots are coming from his own building. Shots ring out from the house across the street from Grand's building, shattering a shutter at...