Lara's English Class Blog

       As I was reading through  The Plague , I noticed that many of the characters had very different philosophies and I wonder how Camus being an atheist affected the ideologies throughout the book. As an atheist, Camus thought that life, death, and pain had no profound and rational meaning. But, I think he believed that people could still give meaning to their lives, especially through one principal way: choosing to fight against suffering.      When the plague first began, people disregarded it because unless they had been personally affected, they did not see protecting others as important. When they finally realized months later that the plague was still there, they made the effort to stay home, effectively fighting against death. This act of joining together in that effort painted them as heroes because Camus believed this gave meaning to their lives.     In addition, Rieux and Tarrou (along with the rest of their colleagues) are ...

     When I read the final line of The Sun Also Rises I immediately understood it as Jake dismissing Brett's comment on their possible relationship. Without realizing it as I was reading through the first time, as I looked back through the last few pages of the book, I think there were multiple hints that lead me to draw that conclusion instead of regarding his words in a different tone.      The first hint I came across was that Jake was visibly annoyed that Brett called him to Madrid and he said "Well, that meant San Sebastian all shot to hell". This was a reaction we hadn't previously seen from Jake. Any other time when Brett had asked for his help, he had always assisted her with no hesitation and no angry feelings. This time, he was less excited to drop everything to help Brett. It's really telling that he wasn't so wrapped around her finger anymore and even though he still went, this was the first step to eventually not giving in to her every wis...