Kiran's 20th Century English Novel Blog

 Oran's reaction to the Plague is similar to our reaction to Covid-19, and not just in the counteractive measures. While yes, both Oran and we have told everyone to quarantine in order to prevent the spread of the disease, the people's reaction to the disease is much more interesting and extremely similar. Oran's residents, after learning about the disease, go into a state of shock and panic. While not the same as us, since while we were worried, we were not nearly as scared as Oran's residents, there are a few things that can explain this. One is the fact that the Plague that hit Oran is a lot more deadly than Covid-19, and two is the fact that whereas the Plague appeared in Oran, for us Covid-19 started very far from us, and while we could be worried about it, we could not be nearly as worried as the residents of Oran.  After this is the state of "caution" as I'm calling it, where everyone got really worried about contracting Covid-19, or in Oran the Pla...

  Brett's relationship with Pedro starts with Jake taking the whole group to the bullfights, and the coincidence of both parties staying at the Montoya Hotel. Brett appears to fall in love at first sight, completely ignoring the feelings of both Cohn and Jake, although Jake appears to not care about the relationship, even willingly introducing the two. Brett proceeds to spend a lot of time with Pedro, with their relationship progressing fast, to the point of Pedro giving his "trophies" from the bulls to Brett. Just based on the two relationships of Brett's that start during the book, Brett seems to get into relationships extremely fast, with the only relationship she takes any amount of care with seeming to be Jake, although neither seems to think they can be together.  With both relationships mentioned earlier (Brett and Cohn, and Brett and Pedro), once getting somewhat far into the relationship Brett gets out as fast as she can, often asking Jake for some help. In t...