View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In what country is the story set?

2. The narrator tells us that the city is:

3. What weather conditions set in after the sermon?

4. Where do notices about the disease appear?

5. What is the Spaniard's medical condition?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Dr. Rieux worried about in Chapter 2?

2. What is the problem about the announcements being made about the disease?

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

4. What does Tarrou record about M. Othon?

5. What do you think is interesting about Grand?

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

7. What is the situation with plague serum?

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

9. Why is news of the plague kept from the people?

10. In what era is the story set?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the sub-plots in The Plague. These concern the stories of certain characters. In an essay, show how the stories of characters compel us to be interested in the main plot--the struggle against the antagonist, which is the plague itself.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the characters of Rambert and Rieux. In what ways do these characters develop during the course of the novel?

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 642 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample