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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 Dr. Castel's work?

2. To what does Dr. Rieux confess?

3. How is Tarrou reminded of his mother?

4. What is different about Tarrou's journal at this point?

5. Why is M. Othon's release from camp delayed?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which characters now volunteer as plague workers?

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

3. Has Cottard really gained from his profiteering during the plague?

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

5. In Part 4 Chapter 3, what is the situation regarding the plague serum?

6. Why is there a steady supply of workers taking care of burials?

7. Why cannot jubilation be complete at this point (Part 5 Chapter 1)?

8. What is unusual about Tarrou's illness?

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

10. Account for Cottard's behavior in Part 5 Chapter 5.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Imagine that you are a member of a school board. Some of the board members wish to remove The Plague by Albert Camus from the school district's reading program as they claim it is too depressing for students and is, furthermore, anti-Christian. Compose the speech you will deliver to defend teaching the novel. What does it contain that is of value to American students?

Essay Topic 2

'The Plague shows us love, loyalty and heroic selflessness.' Discuss with close reference to three characters.

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.

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