Chapter 16 Chapter 15 Tarrou's Conversation with the Doctor

The interview with Rieux had been requested by Tarrou, and it was recorded in his notebook.Rieux was waiting for him that evening in the dining room, his eyes fixed on his mother, who was sitting quietly in a chair in the corner of the dining room.Whenever the housework is over, she spends time here.She folded her hands on her knees now and waited.Rieux was not even sure that she was waiting for him.But when he appeared, the mother's face changed.The silent expression brought to her face by her hardworking life seemed to come alive at this moment.After a while, she fell silent again.That night, she looked at the deserted streets at that time, the street lamps had been reduced by two-thirds, and far away, a very weak street lamp slightly broke through some of the darkness of the city.

"Has the street lighting been reduced in this way throughout the plague?" asked the old lady Rieux. "Probably so." "Let's hope it doesn't drag on until winter, or it would be pretty dreary." "Yes," said Rieux. He saw his mother's eyes on his forehead.He knew it was the thinning of his face from the worries and exhaustion of these days. "Not so well today?" asked Madame Rieux. "Oh, as usual." Same as usual!That is to say, the new serum shipped from Paris seems to be less effective than the first batch, and the statistics are rising again.It was impossible to vaccinate anyone other than the patient's family; widespread vaccination would have to be mass-produced.Most groin lumps seem to have reached the season of induration, never ulcerate, and in such cases the patient is excruciatingly painful.Since the previous day, two more cases of a new type of plague, Yersinia pestis infecting the lungs, have been detected.At a meeting that day, exhausted doctors proposed to the overwhelmed prefect new measures to prevent the mouth-to-mouth transmission of pneumonic plague.The request was granted, but as usual, the results were in the dark.

He looked at his mother, her beautiful chestnut eyes reminding him of years of tenderness and affection. "Mother, are you afraid?" "There's nothing to be afraid of at my age." "The days are long enough, and I'm not here often." "As long as I know you're coming back, it doesn't matter if I wait for you. When you're not here, I wonder what you're doing. Any news from her?" "Yes, all is well, if I believe the last telegram. But I think she said it to reassure me." The doorbell rang, and the doctor smiled at his mother and went to open the door.Tarrou looked like a great bear in gray on the dark landing.Rieux invited the visitor to sit down at his desk and stood behind his easy chair.The only light in the room that was on on the desk stood between them.

"I think," said Tarrou straight to the point, "that I can speak to you directly." Rieux agreed without saying a word. "After fifteen days or a month, there's nothing you can do here, and the way things are going, you won't be able to cope." "True," said Rieux. "The health and epidemic prevention work is not well organized, you are short of manpower and time." Rieux again admitted that this was true. "As far as I understand, the provincial government is considering a mass service organization where all able-bodied men must participate in ambulance work."

"Your information is very good, but this incident has aroused strong dissatisfaction among the people, and the governor is hesitating." "Why don't you ask for volunteers?" "It was solicited, but the results were poor." "It's official and there's a lack of confidence. They don't have enough imagination, they've never kept up with what's going on, and what they've come up with for a cold is about the same. If we let them do it, they're going to die , we will finish with them." "It may be so," said Rieux. "I should tell you that they even consider using prisoners for so-called menial work."

"I think it's better to use someone who is free." "I thought so too, but why?" "I can't stand seeing those sentenced to death." Rieux looked at Tarrou and said: "Then what is to be done?" "I have a plan to organize a volunteer anti-epidemic team. Please allow me to do it, and put the government aside. Besides, they are too busy. I have friends almost everywhere who can form the first backbone, and of course I myself join." "Of course," said Rieux, "you must have guessed that I am willing to accept it. We need assistants, especially in this line of work. I am in charge of getting the idea accepted by the provincial government. Besides, they have no choice. But..."

Rieux thought for a moment and said: "But the job is potentially life-threatening, you know that. I must explain it to you anyway. Think carefully about whether or not you'll get it." Tarrou looked at him with his gray eyes and said: "What do you think of Paneloux's sermon, doctor?" The question was asked naturally, and Rieux answered naturally: "I've been in the hospital too long to accept the idea of ​​collective punishment. But, you know, the archbishops sometimes say that, but never really think it. They're actually more human than they are given." People have a good impression."

"Then you, like Paneloux, think that the plague has a good side, that it can open eyes, that it can force people to think!" The doctor shook his head impatiently. "The plague, like any other disease in the world, applies to the plague what is true of all diseases in the world. It may raise some minds, but seeing the misery it has brought us, only a lunatic, It takes the blind or the coward to bow the knee to the plague." No sooner had Rieux raised his voice than Tarrou made a gesture, as if to calm him down.He also smiled slightly. "Yes," said Rieux, shrugging his shoulders, "but you haven't answered my question, have you thought about it?"

Tarrou moved in the easy chair to make himself more comfortable and to expose his head to the light. "Do you believe in God, doctor?" The question was still natural, but this time Rieux hesitated. "I don't believe it, but what does that mean? I'm in the dark, and I'm trying to see in the dark. It's been a long time since I stopped feeling like it made any difference." "Isn't this the point of disagreement between you and Paneloux?" "I don't think so. Paneloux is a man of learning. He doesn't see many people's deaths, so he speaks for a truth. But any village priest of low status, as long as he If the churchgoers in the area have done the Holy Grace and heard the dying breath, he would have the same idea as me, he would first care for the suffering, and then he would try to prove that suffering is a good thing."

Rieux stood up, his face now in the shadows.He said: "Let's not talk about it, since you don't want to answer." Tarrou smiled slightly, but remained motionless in his chair. "Can I answer with a question?" This time it was the doctor's turn to smile slightly, and he said: "You like mystery, so please." "Well!" said Tarrou, "if you don't believe in God, why are you so self-sacrificing? Your answer may help me to answer your question." The doctor remained in the shadows, saying that he had already answered that if he believed that God was omnipotent, he would not go to see a doctor anymore and let God take care of it.But no one in the world would believe in such a God, yes, no one would, not even Paneloux, who thought he had such a belief, because no one would be so devoted to God .At least on this point, Rieux believed that he was on the path of truth: fighting against objective things.

"Ah!" said Tarrou, "is that how you view your profession?" "Almost so," said Rieux, returning to the light. Tarrou whistled softly, and the doctor looked at him. "Yes," said Rieux, "you will think that this is arrogance. Believe me, I am only as proud as I should be. I don't know what will happen, and I don't know what will happen after these things are over." What will happen in the future. There are patients in front of me, and their diseases should be cured. Let them think about the problem later, and I have to think about it myself. But the most important thing right now is to cure them. I will do my best to protect them, and then Nothing else." "Who are we going to deal with?" Rieux turned to the window, speculating about the sea in the distance under the black sky.All he felt was fatigue, and at the same time he was resisting a sudden and incomprehensible urge to speak his heart to this eccentric yet genial man. "I have no idea, Tarrou, I can swear I have no idea. When I started to practice medicine, I was a bit of a loser in it, because I needed to do it and because it was young people, like everything else. One of the most sought-after professions. Maybe also because it's a particularly difficult profession for a working man's son like me. Also, you have to watch people die a lot. You know people who just refuse to die? You Have you ever heard a woman cry "I don't want to die" when she is dying? But I saw and heard it. Facing this scene, I found myself unable to get used to it. I was young at the time, and I even hated the laws of nature Emotions. Since then, I have become more humble, just because I am not used to seeing people die, and I don't know anything else. But after all..." Rieux interrupted him and sat down again, feeling his tongue and lips burning. "After all what?" Tarrou asked slowly. "After all..." the doctor went on, but hesitating again, looking at Tarrou, "it's something a man like you can understand, isn't it? Since the law of nature dictates death in the end, perhaps God would rather that people Don't believe in him, and let people fight death as best they can, instead of looking at the sky where the voice of God cannot be heard." "Yes," agreed Tarrou, "I understand. But your victory is only temporary." Rieux's countenance darkened, and he said: "It's always temporary, and I get that. But that's not a reason to stop fighting." "No, that's not an excuse. But I'm wondering what this plague means to you." "Yes," said Rieux, "an endless series of failures." Tarrou gazed at the doctor for a moment, then got up and walked towards the door with heavy steps.Rieux followed suit.When he approached Tarrou, who seemed to be looking down at his feet, he said: "Who taught you all this, doctor?" His immediate answer was: "poor." Rieux opened the door of his study and told Tarrou in the passage that he was going downstairs too to see a patient in the suburbs.Tarrou suggested going with you.The doctor agreed.At the end of the passage they met the old lady Rieux.Rieux introduced Tarrou to him. "A friend," he said. "Oh!" said old lady Rieux, "I am very pleased to meet you." Tarrou turned to look at her as she moved away.On the landing, the doctor tried to turn on the light on the time switch, but it didn't work, and the stairs were dark.The doctor wondered if this was again the result of new thrift measures, but he had no way of confirming it.For some time the situation in the house and everything in the city has been chaotic.This may be due to the fact that factory watchers and us ordinary citizens no longer care about anything.But the doctor had no time to think any further, because Tarrou, behind him, said again: "One more thing, doctor, even if it sounds ridiculous to you: you are absolutely right." Rieux shrugged his shoulders to himself in the dark and said: "Honestly, I don't know anything. What do you think?" "Oh!" said the other quietly, "I don't have much to learn." The doctor stood still while Tarrou slipped on the steps behind him.He grabbed Rieux's shoulders and stood firm. "Do you think you know everything about life?" asked Rieux. The answer came from the darkness, the voice was as calm as before: "yes." When they got to the street, they found it was very late.I'm afraid it was already eleven o'clock. The city was quiet, only some slight rustling sounds were heard, and the clinking of ambulances came from a distant place.They got into the car and Rieux started the engine. He said: "Tomorrow you have to go to the hospital to get vaccinated. Before you start this job, the last sentence is: You have to think about it. You only have a one-third chance of surviving." "Such calculations are meaningless, doctor, and you know that as well as I do. A hundred years ago in a city in Persia the entire population died of the plague, and only one man who washed the corpses survived, and he He never stopped working." "It's just that he's kept his one-third chance," said Rieux in a voice that dropped suddenly, "but we really have to learn everything from the beginning on this one." By this time they had reached the suburbs, and street lamps illuminated the deserted streets.They parked the car.Standing in front of the car, Rieux asked Tarrou if he would go in, and he said yes.The reflection of the sky illuminated their faces.Rieux suddenly burst into a friendly laugh and said: "Tell me, Tarrou, what made you want to do this?" "I don't know. Maybe it's my morals." "What morality?" "understand." Tarrou turned and walked towards the house, and Rieux did not see Tarrou's face again until they entered the old asthmatic's house.