Zachary's 20th Century Blog

Through The Plague we see characters employ a dazzling array of internal and external narrative techniques as an excuse for their inability to take “the plague” seriously and lead to the mass death of innocent people. At the center of these techniques are Paneloux’s sermons, centered upon the fact that the effects of the plague are inevitable, and nothing can or really should be done to try to mitigate its effects. Disregard the religious nature of his argument, and consider its empirical effects on people. People kind of like this argument, for secular reasons, because they feel less guilty about their failures to prevent the spread of the epidemic themselves. There’s a reason why people eat this crap up, and it isn’t necessarily because people share the exact religious views of Paneloux, but because they love how he assuages their guilt. And in my opinion, it’s this exact mindset that drives the plague to become as devastating as it got. When Paneloux describes the suffering that the...

 One of the things I find most interesting about The Sun Also Rises is the question of whether Jake’s relationship with Brett a positive or negative thing is overall, and whether he should keep it in his life. Does the total sum of the positives Brett gives him, a very intimate and solid friendship, outweigh all the net negatives, his pain and suffering caused by his desperate hope for her romantic affection? And this does not even include the sexual attraction he feels towards her, which he feels is somewhat reciprocated, which he will never be able to fill because of his injury. He even claimed to the reader that he would be fine with his injury if he didn’t have to be around her; it’s not the lack of sexual relations altogether that really pains Jake, it’s not being able to have sexual relations with Brett. Jake seems nearly subservient to her throughout the novel and caters to her every need, always there for her when she needs it. And the question is, what does he get back in...