Chapter 17 Chapter 16 The Epidemic Prevention Team and Grand's Sentence

From the next day Tarrou set to work, organizing the first detachment.Later, many teams were established one after another. The author does not intend to overemphasize the importance of these health and epidemic prevention organizations.Indeed, many in our town would today be inclined, if they were in the position of authors, to exaggerate their effects.But the author tends toward the view that exaggeration of noble deeds ends up as an indirect but powerful ode to vice, since it leads to the assumption that noble deeds are valuable only because they are rare , while viciousness and indifference are far more common motivators in human action, and this is where the author disagrees.The evil in the world is almost always caused by ignorance.Good intentions without insight can do as much damage as sin.There are always more good people than bad people, the actual problem is not here.But people have different levels of ignorance. This is the difference between virtue and evil, and the most incurable evil is this kind of ignorance: thinking that you know everything, so you think you have the right to kill.The soul of a murderer is blind, and without insight there can be no true goodness and sublime benevolence.

Because of this, the health and epidemic prevention organization established by Tarrou should be given a fully and objective evaluation.It is also for this reason that the author is reluctant to glorify good intentions, and only pays due attention to heroism.But he is still willing to play the role of a historical witness, recording the pain and urgency of all citizens caused by the plague at that time. Those who dedicate their lives to sanitation do not necessarily do much good, because they know that this is the only thing that must be done, and it is unthinkable not to make such a decision at this time.These organizations help people in our city to have a deeper understanding of the plague, and to a certain extent convince them that since the plague has occurred, the necessary struggle should be carried out.Since the fight against the epidemic has become the task of a few people, its essence is also in front of everyone, that is to say, it is everyone's business.

This is of course very good.But the teacher should be praised not because he taught that two and two make four, but perhaps because he has chosen this noble profession.We say that Tarrou and others are of course to be commended for choosing the path of proving that two plus two equals four, rather than the other way around, but we also say that they, like teachers, like all others, are as far as this good will is concerned. It's the same as teachers asking people who have this heart.This is the glory of mankind, for there are more of them than people think, or so the author believes.The author also sees very clearly that some people want to make a different opinion, saying that these people risk their lives.Yet there always comes a time in history when anyone who dares to say that two and two equals four is put to death.Teachers understand this too.But the problem is not to know whether the consequences of insisting on this truth are rewarded or punished, but to know whether two plus two equals four.For those in our city who were risking their lives at that time, it was up to them to determine whether they had been caught in the plague and whether they should be fighting it.

Many of the new ethicists in our town were saying at the time that it was useless to do anything, and that it was better to kneel and surrender.And Tarrou and Rieux and their friends may have answered in one way or another, but the conclusion was always what they saw clearly: a struggle of one kind or another must be fought rather than surrendered.The whole problem is to try to keep as many people as possible alive, as many people as possible not to say goodbye forever.There is only one way to do this: fight the plague.This truth is not worth writing about, it is just taken for granted. Because of this, it was only natural that Old Castel was full of confidence and exerted all his strength to make serum from local materials.Both Rieux and he hoped to develop a serum cultured from the bacteria that was rampant throughout the city, which might have a more direct curative effect than the serum shipped from other places, because the local bacteria had a slightly different form from the usually determined Yersinia pestis. .Castel expects to get his first batch of serum soon.

Because of this, it was only natural that Grand, who was by no means a hero, now took up the job of secretary of the health and epidemic prevention organization.Part of the health and epidemic prevention team organized by Tarrou specializes in preventive health care in densely populated areas.There they tried to take the necessary hygiene measures, counting the unsterilized gas towers and cellars.Another part of the health and anti-epidemic team followed the doctors on visits and was responsible for the transportation of plague patients. Sometimes, due to the lack of full-time personnel, they even acted as car drivers for transporting patients and corpses.All this must be registered and counted, and Grand has taken over this task.

From this point of view, the author thinks that Grand is more representative than Rieux or Tarrou. His virtue of working quietly with his head buried promotes the work of the entire health and epidemic prevention organization.He answered everything with "I do" without thinking, with his characteristic kindness.He only asked for a little effort in doing small things, and for other things, he was too old to be competent.He can contribute two hours from six to eight o'clock every night.When Rieux thanked him warmly, he was surprised: "This is not the most difficult thing. If you have the plague, you should defend yourself, that's obvious. Ah! If only everything were as simple as that." He played his old tune again.Some evenings, after work on the registration cards, Rieux chatted with Grand, and Tarrou eventually joined in.Grand poured out his thoughts to them both with more and more obvious joy, and they both followed with interest the patient and meticulous work that Grand continued to do during the plague, in which they themselves were at last at last involved. Find a sense of mental relaxation.

Tarrou used to ask: "What's the matter with the cavalier?" Grand always replied: "She's trotting, trotting," he said with a forced smile.Grand said one evening that he had decided not to use the adjective "valiant" but to use the word "slender" to describe his female knight ever since.He added: "This is more specific." On another occasion, he read to two of his listeners the first sentence, amended as follows: "On a beautiful morning in May, a slender cavalier , galloping on the flower paths of the Bois de Boulogne, astride a magnificent bay mare."

"That's better, isn't it?" Gemin said, "I think it's better to change it to 'one morning in May', because the word 'part' in 'May' stretches the trot rhythm too long." .” Secondly, he said that he was thinking about the adjective "rich".It seemed to him that the word was not expressive, and he was looking for words that would at one stroke describe the magnificent mare he had imagined. "Fat" is not good, although it is specific, it is somewhat derogatory. He had considered using the word "brilliant", but the rhyme was not harmonious enough.One evening he announced with great pomp and ceremony that he had found: "a black bay mare." Black, as he put it, implied beauty.

"It won't work," said Rieux. "why?" "The word jujube does not indicate the breed of the horse but refers to the coat color." "what colour?" "Well...it's not black anyway." Grand looked very embarrassed.He said: "Thank you for being here, but you see how difficult it is." "'Gorgeous,' what do you think?" said Tarrou.Grand watched him and said thoughtfully: "Yes, yes!" He gradually smiled. After a while, he admitted that the word "flower" troubled him.Since he had never been anywhere but Oran and Montélimar, he sometimes asked his friends about the flowers and plants in the Bois de Boulogne.To be honest, Rieux or Tarrou had never seen flowers in these paths, but the clerk's confidence shook them.He wondered at their doubts. "Only an artist knows how to observe." But the doctor was very excited to see him once, and he changed the word "flower path" to "a narrow road full of flowers".He rubbed his hands together and said, "So you can see and smell it. Hats off, gentlemen!" He read with joy: "On a beautiful morning in May, a slender female knight , galloping on a gorgeous bay mare through the narrow flowery lanes of the Bois de Boulogne." However, due to the reading aloud, the three consecutive "'s" at the end of the sentence sound strange. That's right, Grand sat down in a murmur, looking dejected.Then he bid farewell to the doctor, who needed to think again.

It was later learned that during that period he was absent-minded in his office, at a time when the city hall was short-staffed and busy, and this attitude aroused criticism, and his work was criticized. For this reason, the person in charge of the office severely criticized him, reminding him that he had to finish his work when he was paid, but he just didn't do it well.The person in charge said: "I heard that you are doing voluntary labor in the health and epidemic prevention organization in your spare time. I don't care about that, but what I want to take care of is your work; and at this difficult time, you have to contribute your own strength. Do your job well first. If you don’t, the rest is useless.”

"He's right," Grand said to Rieux. "Yes, he's right," agreed the doctor. "I'm really distracted, though, and I don't know how to fix the end of that sentence." He wanted to change the ending to "On a path in a wood full of flowers" and drop the word "Boulogne", thinking that it was known anyway.But in this way, the "full of flowers" is not necessarily a "path", it may also be a "forest". He also considered whether there is a possibility of changing it to "a forest path full of flowers". However, he arbitrarily It was a real pain in the ass for him to sandwich the word "forest" between "full of flowers" and "path."On some evenings he indeed seemed more fatigued than Rieux. It is true that this scrutiny consumed all his energies and exhausted him, but he continued to work on the cumulative and statistical data required by the sanitary organization.Every night he patiently sorted out the cards and added curves, slowly trying to illustrate the situation as precisely as possible.He often went to the hospital to see Rieux, asked the doctor to find him a desk in an office or infirmary, arranged his papers, and worked as if he were on a municipal desk.He waved the paper to dry the ink amid the strong smell of disinfectant and the smell of the disease itself that wafted through the hospital.He then solemnly stopped thinking about his knightess and concentrated on doing what he was supposed to do. It is true, if people really insist on having some example or example of what they call a hero, and if a hero must be erected in this story, the author must recommend this insignificant and relegated character.All this man has is a little kindness and an ideal that seems a little ridiculous.This would restore truth to what it was, would make two and two equal four, would place heroism in the background just after, never before, the high claim to happiness, and would give the story its character, which is Narrate with real emotion, and real emotion is neither outright evil nor affective impassioned like in a play. At least that was how Dr. Rieux felt when he read in the newspapers or heard on the radio the appeals and encouragements sent to the infected city.Supplies arrived by air and land, while sympathetic and admiring comments flooded our isolated city every night on the airwaves and in the newspapers.But the doctor grew impatient when he heard such praiseful tones or elegant speeches.He knew, of course, that such concern was not feigned, but it was expressed in a formula that people try to express the solidarity between people, which cannot be applied to, for example, the daily contribution of Grand. Even a small force cannot explain Grand's performance in the plague environment. Sometimes late at night, when the doctor was about to go to bed and start his very short sleep, when there were few people and no sound, he turned on the radio.From the ends of the earth thousands of miles away came a strange and friendly voice, clumsily trying to express the feeling that they are brothers all over the world.It is true, but at the same time it proves that no one can really share in the pain that he cannot see, and it is indeed terrible to be in such a powerless situation. "Olan! Oran!" The voice came from overseas in vain.Rieux, too, listened in vain.A moment later, the babbling began, which deepened the gulf of Grand's indifference to the speaker. "Oran? Oran!" "Stop shouting!" thought the doctor. "Love or die together, there is no other way. They are too far away."