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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. What is Cottard's reaction to the officials?

2. The plague is changing in two ways. What is the first way?

3. How is food distributed to the people in the camp?

4. What becomes the last resort for disposal of corpses?

5. What is taking place in the town?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the situation in the camps for people in quarantine?

2. Comment on the 'reality' behind the phenomenon of the Oran people, now free of the plague, walking the streets.

3. Explain the nature of the irony in the beginning of Part 5 Chapter 3.

4. What drastic developments are depicted in Part 3 Chapter 1?

5. What is the reason for Rambert's decision?

6. What do you think has led Dr. Rieux to unburden himself to Grand?

7. Explain the poignancy of Dr. Rieux's walk through the streets.

8. Account for the difference tenor and content of Fr Paneloux's new sermon, compared with that he gave at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer.

9. Which characters now volunteer as plague workers?

10. In what ways do Tarrou's plague symptoms first appear?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Usually in a novel there is a network of conflict between characters. While some of this happens in The Plague (think of Rambert's efforts to escape the city), it is minimal. What is the source of conflict in The Plague? Is it internal, external or a combination? How does this conflict arise and how is it worked out?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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