Rambert's Responsibilities

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 I found it interesting that Rambert was one of the few characters that acted (or at least, wanted to act) in his own self-interest over acting for the good of the community. I suppose that he could have been the outlier because he was not really a part of the communiuty at all compared to most of the other characters who lived there and had some sort of emotional tie to the wellbeing of the people there. But I was quite surprised that other characters (especially Rieux, who also has a wife outside of Oran), didn't really empathize with Rambert as much as I would have expected. I'd have thought, that in a life or death situation such as a plague, people would understand if someone would prioritize their own hapiness and life over other people's. 

Of course, there is much more at stake here than just the lives of the town's citizens, and Rambert risked getting the plague out and spreading the epidemic, I totally understand that - but I feel as if, being in the situation myself, I would be much harder to convince to stay and care about other people's lives than my own spouse and my own life. When facing a disease that could have a 75% death rate, I don't know if I would be able to think straight enough to prioritize others over myself. If there was any chance at all that I could avoid a high chance of death, I predict that I, and many others, especially those who didn't specifically sign up to be a plague doctor, would take it. 

And we saw this play out in real life, when people absolutely prioritized themselves over public safety - and I don't mean in kind of silly or stupid instances like partying or travelling for fun, I mean visiting elderly family members, working jobs that come into contact with many people, and other things where people weighed the consequences and made a decision that was beneficial to their own financial/mental/physical health, but increased the risk by some (small or large) amount to others and the public. 

Now, I don't have much of a strong point about Rambert here - I don't think that he was justified or not justified, like we tried to determine in some class dicusssions. I was just pretty surprised by his character and wanted to relate it to the behavior we saw play out during COVID. What do you guys think? Is his wanting to escape normal, or is he being injustifiably selfish by trying to do so?

Comments

  1. BiancaJanuary 6, 2021 at 5:38 PM

    I think Rambert's behavior is absolutely understandable, but still not entirely justified. Who wouldn't want to escape and go see their loved ones? However, in his single-minded focus on leaving, he fails to acknowledge that his situation isn't unique and that others have the exact same concerns as him, yet still stay put for the good of the community. I think Rambert's selfishness lies in his belief that he must be special as opposed to the thousands of others with the same problem.

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  2. ZoeyJanuary 7, 2021 at 10:51 AM

    I agree that Rambert's behavior is understandable and more realistic considering what people did during Covid. It seems likely that a lot or even most people tried to leave the city once they realized how serious the situation really was, but they just weren't as determined as Rambert to find other illegal methods once the city told them they couldn't. I think part of the reason Rieux didn't talk about leaving was that he didn't want to spread the disease to other places or potentially even his wife if he decided to go see her. He understood the spread of the disease better, and so could understand how many people he was endangering if he did leave.

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