Running head: SOLIDARITY AND SOLITUDE IN CAMUS’S PLAGUE
Solidarity and Solitude in Camus’s Plague
SOLIDARITY AND SOLITUDE IN CAMUS’S PLAGUE
The togetherness of individuals based on the unities of interests, standards, objectives,
and sympathies is solidarity. They are the ties in the society that unite people thus; solidarity
differs from one community to the other (Shahhoseini, 2017). In modern philosophy, solidarity is
a rising concept. On the other hand, solitude is isolation state that is a failure of contact with
individuals. In this way, it may encompass poor relationships, deliberate decisions, loss of loved
ones, diseases and disorders, or employment circumstances. This paper discusses the relationship
between solitude and solidarity in Albert Camus’s plague.
There are various instances of solitude in the book. There is a separation of Rieux from
his wife, Camus from his wife during the allied North Africa invasion in Oran, and Rambert
from his lover. In this way, the lovers started appreciating the minor things they used to assume.
The individuals, who do not live in bitterness nor try to run away from freedom or anxiety,
invent solidarity during plague resistance even though their efforts failed (Camus, Mahasela, &
Laredo, 2012). In the book, Camus reverses what it is to be a hero. Dr. Rieux, the hidden
narrator, asserts that if his account had a hero, he would give a 50-year-old, Clerk Joseph,
temporary municipal assistant, who he treats. Dr. Rieux treats Joseph against aorta constriction,
which resulted when his grand’s wife left him. The grand help without any reward or recognition
need. Camus claims that one cannot offer solidarity as a gift without self-conscious regarding a
hero. He also says that solidari...