Similarities Between Oran's Reaction and Ours
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 Plague, and became extremely cautious and wary of everyone around them. In our case, this is when everyone was very adamant about mask safety, whereas we have mostly relaxed now, despite it getting worse.
Next is the extremely similar part, where, since both diseases weren't getting better, or mostly in our case we stopped worry and it then started to hit us, we fall into this state of apathy. In the Plague, it is obvious to see, since Dr. Rieux directly points it out to us, about how everyone slowly became apathetic and stopped really caring. They were still following the rules, but they just accepted their fate and slowly became depressed. This is a similar situation to us with Covid-19. Our only problem is we stopped caring right before it got really bad. This meant went it got really bad, as it still is now, everyone became depressed and felt consigned to their fate.
We once again diverge, though this time because our pandemic hasn't gotten nearly as far as the Plague in The Plague. We see the end of the Plague where there is a sudden end to the disease, as all of the countermeasures that before were ineffective seemed to suddenly start working. I cannot say whether the same thing will happen with Covid-19, but we can only hope that it doesn't keep growing.
I think a difference between our situation and Oran's is that covid is a world-wide problem and the plague is an isolated problem for Oran (which you mentioned briefly above). So when the first signs and cases of the plague were happening, that was all in Oran. Covid wasn't an immediate problem for the US as it could still be seen as a problem happening to other countries. And so while we were worried as it became apparent that covid was going to be a problem, it wasn't on the same level of hundreds of dead rats appearing all over Oran and the start of some illness which turns out to be the plague. The people of Oran still try to conjure other explanations for the problems that are happening even as it becomes more clear that it is the plague, but even with other explanations, it's still that much more worrisome for them because whatever is happening is something that's happening to them (instead of it being a situation that only has potential to affect them).
ReplyDeleteThe you've described the reactions to the epidemic from the Plague and the COVID-19 pandemic makes me think of them occurring in "stages," almost like the stages of grief (denial --> panic / caution --> apathy). This is a really interesting thought and I wonder if the "stages" have been similar for other crises like this throughout history.
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