Chapter 4 Chapter 03 Tarrou's Notes

We can say this: The gatekeeper's death marks the end of a period of bewildering signs and the beginning of another, more difficult period.During this period, the original shock is gradually turning into panic.The townspeople never imagined before that our little town would become a haunted place where rats lay dead in broad daylight and janitors died of strange diseases.Now, they are starting to realize it.Their past thinking was wrong, and now they have to correct it.If things went so far, no doubt people would get used to it over time.But among the townspeople it was not only the janitors and the poor, but others who followed the path which Michel led.From this moment, people start to feel terror and start to think.

Before detailing the new events, the author considers it necessary to offer another eyewitness' view of the period just described.We mentioned at the beginning of this article that Jean Tarrou had settled in Oran a few weeks earlier and had been living since then in a large hotel in the center of the city.On the surface, he lived off his own income in a fairly comfortable way.Although the residents of the city gradually became familiar with him, none of them knew where he came from, nor did they understand the purpose of his coming here.You can bump into him in all public places.From early spring, people often see him swimming happily on the beach.The nice guy with the ever-smiling face seems to have an appetite for all things legitimate entertainment, without being obsessive.In fact, his only known habit was his frequent correspondence with the city's considerable number of Spanish dancers and musicians. The entries in his notebooks are, at any rate, part of this difficult period. kind of notes.But this account is peculiar, and seems to reflect a preoccupation with small things.At first glance, one might expect Tarrou to be a man of trivial details.In the midst of the great upheavals of the city, he was always devoted to the anecdotes of this history.People undoubtedly regretted his prejudice and expressed doubts about his hard-heartedness.But it is the notebooks that provide a great deal of significant secondary detail about the account of the period, and it is the eccentricity of these details that prevents premature judgment of this amusing character.

Jean Tarrou began writing these records from the time of his arrival in Oran.The record begins by saying that he was surprisingly satisfied to live in such an ugly city.A detailed depiction of the two bronze lions adorning the city hall.The lack of trees, the shabby houses, and the absurd layout of the city are all fine.Tarrou also intersperses in his description some conversations he heard on the tram and on the road, but without comment, except for a conversation about a man called "Kon" mentioned a little later.Tarrou once overheard a conversation between two tram conductors: "You know Kahn very well, right?" one of the conductors said.

"Kang? Is that the tall guy with the black beard?" "He's the one who used to turn the switches on the railway." "Yes, not bad at all." "But, he died." "Ah! When did you die?" "After the rat incident." "Yo! What's wrong with him?" "I don't know. He had a fever. However, his health was not good. There was an abscess under the armpit, which could not hold up." "But it seems that his health is no different from that of others!" "No, he's got weaker lungs, and he's in the city band, and he's playing the cornet all the time, and that stuff hurts."

"Ah!" said the other at last, "a sick man shouldn't play the cornet." After writing these links, Tarrou raised a question: Kang knew that participating in the city military band would be harmful to him, but why did he still participate?What esoteric reason made him risk his life to play in the Sunday parade? What followed was an account of what Tarrou had seen recurring on the balcony opposite the window, for which he seemed fond.It turned out that his room faced a small side street, where a few cats often slept under the shadow of the wall.Every day after lunch, when the whole city was dozing off in the hot weather, a short old man appeared on the balcony across the road. solemn.He called the cats with an unfriendly but soft "Mimi" sound.The cat opened sleepy eyes, but remained motionless.The man tore up small pieces of paper above the small street, and the scattered white paper butterflies attracted the beasts, and they walked to the middle of the street, hesitatingly stretching their paws towards the paper scraps that were still falling at the end.The little old man spat hard at the cat.If he catches one of them, he laughs.

In the end, Tarrou seemed to be attracted by the commercial charm of the city, where the appearance, prosperity, and even entertainment seemed to be dictated by the needs of business.This feature (so it is written in the notebook) was so admired by Tarrou that he even ended one of his passages with the exclamation: "It was a worthwhile trip!" In the notes, only these places seem to come from his own true feelings.But it is difficult to see the significance and seriousness of these notes.The same is true of another note, after describing how a hotel teller made a miscalculation when he found a dead rat, and Tarrou added these words more scribbled than usual: "Question: How about wasting time?" The answer: to experience it over a long period of time. How: to spend days in an uncomfortable chair in a dentist's waiting room; to spend a Sunday afternoon on one's balcony; to listen to Giving a report in a language I don't understand; traveling on the longest and most inconvenient railway line chosen, standing of course; queuing at the box office of a theater without getting a ticket, etc." But following closely After these rambling words and thoughts, the notebook began to describe the tram in the city in detail, saying that it looked like a sampan, its color was indistinct, and its carriage was always dirty. Yun's "really amazing" to end.

Now consider what Tarrou has to say about the rats: "Today, the little old man across the street lost his composure. The cats disappeared. Since a large number of dead mice were found in the street, the cats also disappeared. In my opinion, it is not that the cats went to eat dead mice. I remember Some of my cats just hate dead mice. Maybe they go down the cellar and run around, and the little old man doesn't know what to do. His hair is not so neatly combed, and he is not so energetic. It seems that he Something on his mind. He went in after a while. But before entering the room he spit aimlessly.

"A tram stopped in the city today because a dead rat was found in it, and I don't know how it got there. Two or three women got out of the car. The dead rat was thrown away, and the tram moved on again. "At the hotel, the night watchman--an honest man--told me that these rats were a harbinger of disaster. 'When the rats leave the ship...' I replied that, as far as ships are concerned, it is true, But no one in the city has ever confirmed such a premonition. Yet he was sure of it. I asked him what disaster, in his opinion, might happen. He could not say, because in his opinion, disaster is not Possibly predictable. He wouldn't be surprised if there was an earthquake anyway. I thought it was possible and he asked me if it would worry me.

"I said to him, 'I only think about one thing, and that is peace of mind.' "He understood exactly what I meant. "In the dining room of the hotel there was a very interesting family. The father was a tall, thin man in black with a stiff collar. On the left and right sides of his bald spot were two locks of gray hair. He had small round, hard eyes, shaved With a pointed nose and a wide beak, he looked like a tame owl. He was always the first to reach the door of the dining room, and then turned sideways to let his wife in. His wife was as small as a black mouse, followed by two Two children, a boy and a girl, dressed like two well-trained puppies. He walked to the dining table, waited for his wife to sit down, then sat himself down, and finally the two puppies climbed on the chair. He called his wife and The children all use the word 'you', but the words to the wife are often polite and harsh, and to the children the tone is authoritative: "'Nicole, you are such a nuisance! '

"The little girl was almost crying. It was inevitable. "The boy was so excited about the rat incident this morning that he wanted to talk about it at dinner. "'Don't talk about rats at dinner, Philip. I won't allow you to use that word again.' "'Your father is right,' said the little black mouse. "The two puppies buried their heads in the dog food tray. The owl nodded in gratitude, which was unnecessary. "Even with the old gentleman's admonitions, the town is still talking about its rats, and the papers are getting in on it. The city's news columns, which usually carry a variety of things, are now full of attacks on the municipality." Contents: 'Have our city officials noticed what these rotting dead rats can do?' The hotel manager is talking about the same thing because he's getting annoyed: found in the elevator of a decent hotel To him, the mouse seemed incredible. To comfort him, I said to him: 'But this happens to everyone!'

"'Because of this,' he answered me, 'we are now like everybody else.' "It was he who told me of the first cases of that strange high fever which is now beginning to cause concern. One of his housemaids has already been afflicted with it. "'But it is certain that it is not contagious,' he added hastily. "I told him it didn't matter to me. "'Oh, I know, sir, you are a fatalist like me.' 'I don't have such an opinion at all, and I'm not a fatalist anyway.I told him…… It was then that Tarrou's notebooks began to describe in more detail this inexplicable fever that everyone was already worried about.Tarrou noted how the little old man finally saw his cat again after the mice had ceased to appear, and how he patiently corrected the position where he spit.He then recorded that someone had been able to cite a dozen cases of such high fevers, most of which were incurable. Finally, Tarrou's characterization of Dr. Rieux can be reproduced as a source of information.As far as the author judges, he is quite realistically depicted: "Appears to be about thirty-five years old, with medium build, broad shoulders, almost oblong face, dark brown eyes, straight gaze, but protruding lower jaw. High and straight nose, His black hair is cropped very short, the corners of his mouth are slightly turned up, and his lips are thick and almost always closed. He has dark skin and black hair, and he always wears dark clothing, but it is suitable. His appearance is somewhat Like a Sicilian peasant. "He walked quickly. He didn't change his pace when he stepped off the sidewalk, but when he crossed the road and stepped on the opposite sidewalk, he mostly jumped lightly. He was driving a car, often absent-minded. He often didn't let go of the arrow indicating the direction, even if the car turned. It's the same with Wan. He never wears a hat on his head. He looks confident."