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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 do people find out about the plague death rate?

2. Why don't all sufferers have hospital treatment?

3. What is Rieux worried about?

4. To whom does Rieux disclose that the apris serum is not ideally effective?

5. What is the focus in the questioning of Cottard?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Jean Tarrou important in the story?

2. What does M. Grand reveal in Part 2 Chapter 4?

3. How does the relationship between Dr. Rieux and M. Grand develop?

4. What does Tarrou record about M. Othon?

5. What do you think is interesting about Grand?

6. As described in Chapter 7, what are the first steps taken to deal with the crisis?

7. In what way do you think Tarrou and Rieux are of like mind?

8. What is one result of the sudden closing of the city gates?

9. How does the heatwave further discourage the citizens of Oran?

10. What does Dr. Rieux muse about in Part 1 Chapter 5?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The blurb on the cover of the Penguin Edition of The Plague (c. 1969) says that the novel 'expresses most clearly the author's basic humanitarianism'. In a detailed essay, account for this point of view.

Essay Topic 2

After the death of M. Othon's little boy, the men who have tried to save him are devastated and undergo a change. Choose two of the characters present at the boy's death. Describe the way the characters react at the time. In what ways are they different for the rest of the novel?

Essay Topic 3

The Plague depicts people coping with a terrible crisis. It is concerned with separation and loss. Choose three characters from the novel and discuss the way each of them deals with separation and loss.

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