Beginning of Essay
In "The Plague", Albert Camus pits humanity against an unstoppable force of nature: the bubonic plague. He creates a variety of characters who all deal with the plague in their own way, but only Tarrou acts heroically. Rieux comes close to a hero, but he fights ....

Middle of Essay
.... by failing to record anything (109); a duty which Rieux and Tarrou fulfill. Grand produces two sentences and does nothing to fight the plague, which McCarthy interprets as a parody of Rieux's inability to explain the plague (109-10). Cottard wholeheartedly embraces the plague, revels in it, and attempts to profit from it. The rest of the people either waste their time, waiting for the end (the old man spitting on the cats, the bean-counter, etc.) or join the sanitation squad, under Tarrou. Nobody takes a stand and resists death except Rieux and Tarrou. Rieux and Tarrou do seem to show the same level of heroism. Both resist the plague, bot ....