Chapter 19 Chapter 18 Burial Procedures

Thus the people imprisoned by the plague struggled throughout the week.Among them are some people like Rambert, who obviously still have the illusion that they are still free people who can make their own choices.But in fact, it can be said that by the middle of August, the shadow of the plague god has covered everything.Individual destiny no longer exists, what is there is only collective experience, with the plague on one side and the common feelings of everyone on the other.The harshest of all feelings is the sense of separation and exile, with the accompanying emotions of fear and rebellion.At this time when both the heat wave and the epidemic are at their peak, the author thinks it is necessary to describe the general situation and give some specific examples to talk about the violent actions of the living, the burial process of the dead, and the pain of lovers missing each other.

That year, just after June, the wind blew up, and the wind blew over the infected city for several days.Residents of Oran have always been particularly afraid of the wind, because the city is built on a plateau without natural barriers, so the strong wind can drive straight people for a long time, sweeping the streets and alleys with undiminished power.For several months, the city hadn’t rained a single drop of rain, and there was a layer of gray coat everywhere, which was blown off by the wind and fell off one after another. Dust and waste paper flew together, constantly hitting the legs of fewer and fewer walkers.These people can often be seen covering their mouths with handkerchiefs or hands, leaning over and walking quickly on the street.In the past, at night, people always gathered in groups and tried their best to prolong the day as long as possible, because everyone knew that every day might be their own doomsday. Pedestrians who are busy going home or going to a cafe.In the past few days, dusk has come earlier, and there are no pedestrians on the street, only the constant and shrill wind can be heard.A smell of salt and seaweed wafted up from the sea, white-capped and invisible from the city.This deserted city is full of dust, the smell of sea water is pungent, and the sound of howling winds is endless, like a lonely island whining in a low voice.

Deaths from the plague have so far been far greater in the overcrowded and poorer outlying areas than in the central areas.But it seems to have suddenly approached the city center, encroaching on the business district.Residents blamed the high winds for blowing the germs in. "It complicates things," said the hospital director.In any case, when the residents of the Central District heard the increasingly frequent sound of ambulance bells passing by their windows in the night, and the somber and merciless call of the plague god, they knew their time had come. In the city, certain districts where the plague was particularly rampant were isolated from other districts, and no one was allowed to leave except when absolutely necessary for work.The inhabitants of these ghettos must of course consider this measure designed to embarrass them, but in any case they regard the people of the other ghettos as free people by comparison.The latter, on the other hand, find some consolation in difficult moments when they think that others are less free than they are: "There are others more imprisoned than themselves!" There is hope.

Around this time, there was an increase in the number of fires, especially in the entertainment center area at the West Gate.According to investigations, some people who returned home after quarantine were insane due to the sudden disaster and the death of their relatives, and set fire to their houses, fantasizing about burning the plague god to death.Efforts were made to prevent this practice, for the continual occurrence of such arson, aided by high winds, puts certain districts in constant danger.Evidence was presented that house sanitization measures taken by the authorities were sufficient to eliminate the risk of infection, but they were ineffective, and extremely severe criminal laws had to be enacted against innocent arsonists.However, there can be no doubt that it is not the sentence itself that daunts these unfortunates, but the fact that there is not a single member of the population who does not know that a sentence of imprisonment is equivalent to a sentence of death, on the grounds that, according to statistics, the death rate in the municipal prisons is very high.This idea was certainly not unfounded, for the obvious reason that the plague gods seemed to strike hardest against those who had traditionally lived in communal ways: soldiers, monks, and prisoners.In the prison, even though some detainees are in solitary confinement, they are still a collective living unit. The obvious evidence is that in the city prison, both guards and prisoners have their lives taken away by the plague god.In the arrogant eyes of the God of Plague, everyone, from the warden to the humblest prisoner, was sentenced.The entire supervisor is absolutely fair, and this may be the first time.

In the face of all kinds of equalization of status, the authorities tried to implement a hierarchical system and conceived a way to award medals to guards who died in the line of duty, but it still couldn't solve the problem.Given that the martial law has been promulgated, from a certain point of view, the prison guards can be regarded as soldiers who have been mobilized into the army, so these dead personnel will be awarded military medals.Of course the prisoners made no protest against this, but the military circles disagreed, and pointed out with good reason that such a course of action might unfortunately confuse the public mind.Their request was agreed, and everyone believed that the easiest way was to reissue the anti-epidemic medals to the dead guards.However, the guards who died before have been wrongly awarded military medals, so they can no longer get them back, but the military still maintains their original views on this; on the other hand, the anti-epidemic medal has its weaknesses and cannot The spiritual effect of the military medal, for in a time of epidemics it is not surprising to receive a medal of this nature.The result is that everyone is not satisfied.

In addition, the management of prisons cannot be managed like a monastery, much less like an army.The monks in the only two monasteries in the city have temporarily dispersed to live in the homes of devout believers.Similarly, whenever circumstances permitted, companies of soldiers left their barracks to quarter schools or public buildings.Thus, while the disease apparently forced citizens into a state of solidarity among the besieged, it at the same time tore apart traditional groups and reintroduced their members into isolation, all of which created panic. Under such circumstances, coupled with the strong wind blowing, it is conceivable that it will inevitably cause a raging fire in some people's hearts.In the middle of the night, the city gate was attacked several times, but this time it was a group armed with weapons.The two sides shot at each other, wounded a few, and fled the city.The guards were strengthened, and the unrest soon subsided, but it was enough to cause a storm of riots in the city, and there were some violent scenes.Some houses that had been burned or sealed off for epidemic prevention reasons were looted.Of course, it is difficult to determine whether these actions were premeditated.In most cases, it is a sudden opportunity which prompts some normally respectable persons to do something reprehensible, and others immediately follow suit.For example: a house is on fire, and some crazy guys will rush into the house where the raging fire is still burning in front of the owner who is in a daze in pain.Seeing the lack of response from the homeowner, many onlookers will follow suit.So on the dark street illuminated red by the fire, I saw many black shadows running around. Under the light of the fire that was about to go out, these shadows carried various objects and furniture on their shoulders, and each of them became strange.As a result of such incidents, the authorities were compelled to treat the state of plague as a state of siege, and to adopt all laws connected with it.Two burglars were shot, but it is doubtful whether this had any effect in the minds of the people. The dead were so commonplace that the execution of two men was but a drop in the ocean, unnoticed.Truth be told, such scenes of looting are often repeated, and the authorities seem to turn a blind eye.The only measure that can shake the population as a whole is a curfew.From eleven o'clock onwards, the whole city was pitch black and became a lifeless stone city.

Under the moonlight, its gray-white walls and straight streets are neatly arranged, without any shadows of trees in between, and no sound of pedestrians' footsteps or barking of dogs can be heard.In this case, the vast silent city is only a collection of dead, thick, square buildings, and between its ranks stand silent figures, forgotten men of good. , or the greatness of the past, now enclosed in bronze.Only the simulated human faces of these stone or metal statues still try to remind people that there have been humans here, although the image has faded.Under the gloomy sky, at the deathly silent cross-streets, these mediocre idols, rough and unfeeling sculptures, put on a majestic aura, symbolizing that we have entered the nether kingdom under the nine springs, at least It symbolizes the kingdom's final commandment, directing the people to the catacombs where the plague god, the heavy stones and the long night will silence all sound.

The long night had also hung over the hearts and minds, and the townspeople grew uneasy after hearing the legendary reports of the burial.The circumstances of the burial had to be told, and I am very sorry for that.He also knew that it was inevitable that he would be accused by people. The only reason he could justify himself was that there were many buried things during the whole period, and from a certain point of view, the author and everyone in the same city Also had to worry about burials.This does not in any case mean that he was interested in such rituals, on the contrary, he was more interested in the society of living people, for example, in bathing places.But the bathing beaches have been sealed off, and the society of the living is terrified of having to make concessions to the world of the dead, that is an obvious fact.Of course, people can try their best not to see this fact, cover their eyes, and refuse to admit it, but the obvious fact has a thunderous force and will eventually sweep everything.One day, when your relatives need to be buried, how can you refuse to let them go?

From the beginning, funerals have had one thing in common: fast!All procedures will be simplified and funeral ceremonies will be cancelled.Relatives were not around when the patient died, and the etiquette of guarding the corpse was prohibited, so those who died at night could only spend the night alone, and those who died during the day were buried immediately.Of course, the family members of the deceased were notified, but in the vast majority of cases, the family members cannot come, because if they have stayed with the patient, they are now undergoing quarantine. You can only come at the prescribed time. The so-called prescribed time is the time to leave for the cemetery. At that time, the corpse has already been scrubbed clean and put into the coffin.

Let us assume that this process took place in the auxiliary hospital headed by Dr. Rieux.There is an exit behind the main building of the school-turned-hospital.In a large room that is usually piled with sundries leading to the aisle, many coffins are parked.In the aisle, the family members of the deceased can see a coffin, which has been covered.So immediately proceed to the most important procedure: ask the parents to sign the document.The coffin was then carried into a car, either a real hearse or a modified ambulance.The family of the deceased got into a taxi—taxis were still allowed at that time—and drove along the roads in the outskirts to the cemetery at lightning speed.At the city gates the guards stopped the convoy, stamped the official pass--without which there was no access to the catacombs that the townspeople called "the place of final rest"--then stepped aside, out of the way, The vehicle drove to the edge of a cemetery, where there were many graves waiting to be filled.A priest waited there because religious memorial services in churches had been cancelled.The coffin was lifted out of the car amid the sound of prayers, tied up with ropes, dragged over, slid down the cave, touched the bottom of the cave, and the priest just waved the holy water sprinkler a few times, and the first shovel of soil was already thrown on the coffin lid , soil debris in disorder.The ambulance had already left for some time to spray disinfectant.When the sound of shovels of soil being thrown on the coffin became more and more low, the family members of the deceased had already got into the taxi and returned home fifteen minutes later.

In this way, the whole process is indeed completed with the greatest speed and the risk is also reduced to a minimum.No doubt, at least initially, this practice clearly made the families feel bad, but during the plague this was out of the question: everything had to be sacrificed for efficiency.At first, the above-mentioned measures were a certain shock to the spirits of the inhabitants, for the desire for a funeral to be solemn and dignified was more common than one would imagine.Fortunately, the food supply problem soon became intractable, and the residents' attention was diverted to more pressing problems.If you want to eat, you have to line up, negotiate, and go through formalities. After being busy with this matter, you have no time to care about the circumstances under which people around you died, and how you will leave the world one day.So these material difficulties, which should have been a bad thing, turned out to be a good thing.As we have seen, things would not have been so bad if the plague had stopped spreading. As the number of coffins gradually decreased, the cloth used to wrap the body and the acupuncture points in the cemetery were not enough, so we had to use our brains.It seems that the easiest way, and still from the perspective of efficiency, is to carry out the burial ceremony in groups, and if necessary, the ambulance will drive a few more round trips between the hospital and the cemetery.In the hospital where Rieux worked, only five coffins survive.As soon as it is full, the ambulance will come and take it away.When we arrived at the cemetery, we took out the iron-blue corpse from the coffin, put it on a stretcher and waited in a special shed.After the coffin is doused with a sterilizing solvent, it is returned to the hospital; the same operation is repeated as many times as necessary.The work was well organized, and the prefect was quite pleased with it, and he even told Rieux that on the whole it was better than the black corpse wagons described in the historical records of the plague. "That's right," Rieux said. "The burial is the same, but we still make registration cards. This progress cannot be erased." Despite this achievement, the current formalities are unpleasant, so the provincial government has had to ban relatives and friends of the deceased from approaching the scene, only allowing them to go to the cemetery gate, and this is not yet publicly permitted, because the last burial The ritual has changed.At the end of the cemetery, two large pits were dug in an open space with nothing but frankincense and pistachio trees, one for burying male corpses and the other for female corpses.From this point of view, the authorities still respected etiquette, and it was only after a long time, due to the situation, that even the last bit of shame was lost: men and women were piled up in a mess, regardless of decency.Happily, this later confusion came at a time when the plague was drawing to a close.What we are reporting now is still the situation during the period when men and women were separated, and the provincial government still attached great importance to this point at that time.At the bottom of the two pits was a thick layer of quicklime, boiling and steaming.Quicklime piled up like a hill on the side of the pit, and countless bubbles burst in the circulating air.After the ambulance was transported, stretchers were lined up and brought over, leaving the naked.The slightly bent corpses slid to the bottom of the pit, and they were roughly lined up one after the other.At this time, cover with a layer of lime first, and then cover the soil.The soil is only covered up to a certain height, so as to leave room for "new guests".The next day, the family is called to sign the register, which marks the difference between people and other animals, such as dogs: this can be verified later. It will take hands to do all this work, and it seems that there will always be a shortage of hands.Many of these nurses and morticians, first publicly employed and later improvised, also died of the plague: no matter how strict the immunization measures were, they would one day be contagious.But when you think about it, the most surprising thing is that throughout the whole period of the plague, there was no shortage of people in this trade.The most critical period was the days shortly before the peak of the epidemic, when Dr. Rieux really had to worry, because both the clerical staff and what he called menial laborers felt a shortage of manpower.But when the plague really swept through the city, the excessive harm brought convenience, because the plague destroyed all economic activities and caused a large number of unemployed.Under normal circumstances, it is impossible to recruit clerks from these people, but there is no need to worry about the men doing rough work.From then on, the power of poverty outweighed terror, especially because the reward of labor was proportional to the degree of danger.The health institution has a series of lists of applicants on hand. Once there is a vacancy, the first few people on the list will be notified immediately. These people will never turn up unless they themselves become vacant during the waiting period. .The premier has long been hesitant to use inmates with time or life sentences for the job.But now, there is no need to adopt this extreme method, so as long as the unemployed continue to continue, he agrees to continue to use the current method, and we will talk about it later. Until August, the citizens were finally able to make do with being taken to their final destination, if not necessarily in order, at least not in disorder, and the administration felt at ease because it had done its duty.Now, however, we must advance the latter part of the incident in order to report the final steps taken.Since August, the epidemic has entered a relatively stable period, and the number of dead has greatly exceeded the number that the small cemetery can accommodate.Part of the wall of the cemetery had been knocked down to give the dead a breach into the adjacent land, but to no avail, and something else had to be hastened.First, it was decided that the burials would be carried out at night, and certain rituals could be dispensed with at once: the dead bodies could pile up in the ambulance.Deviant nightcrawlers who stay in the outskirts after curfew (or go there for work) often come across the long white ambulances, galloping like flies, in the dark The tinkling of the bells echoed in the empty streets late at night.The corpses were hurriedly thrown into the pits, before the shaking stopped, shovelfuls of lime were pressed onto their faces, and then they were buried with their names as soon as the loess covered them, and the pits dug more and more. It's getting deeper. Before long, people had to make another plan and expand the site.An official document from the provincial government requisitioned the permanently leased cemetery and sent all the exhumed corpses to the crematorium for incineration.Soon the bodies of those who died of the plague had to be sent to be burned.For this reason, the old crematorium in the eastern suburbs outside the city had to be used again.The guard line on guard was moved further out, and a city clerk made a suggestion to use the trams that used to run along the road next to the beach cliffs to transport the bodies-these trams had been put aside and stopped running.This greatly facilitates the work of the administration.So all the locomotives and seats in the trailers were removed from the tram, and the route was diverted to the crematorium, so that the crematorium became the terminus of the tram line. At the end of summer and during the continuous autumn rains, at midnight every day, you can see these strange trams with no passengers wobbling along the beach cliffs.Residents finally figured out what was going on.Although patrols kept people from approaching the steep slopes, there were occasional splinters among the rocks overlooking the beach, dropping flowers into trailer cars as the tram passed.On summer nights, the sound of these vehicles carrying flowers and dead bodies can always be heard bumping. In the first few days, when dawn first appeared, a thick, foul-smelling smoke filled the sky over the Eastern District.According to the judgment of all physicians, the fumes which emanate, though unpleasant, are harmless to no one.However, the residents in the area firmly believed that the plague would fall from the sky, and they all threatened to leave the residential area. Therefore, the authorities were forced to design a set of complicated pipes to redirect the smoke, and the residents began to settle down.It was only on windy days, when an indescribable smell blew from the east, that one remembered that the surroundings were different, and that the flames of the plague devoured its victims every night. This is the most serious consequence of the plague.Fortunately, the epidemic did not become more serious later, because people began to doubt whether the creativity of the government, the methods of the provincial government, and even the capacity of the crematorium could no longer cope with the situation.Rieux learned that the authorities had considered some desperate solutions, such as throwing the dead bodies into the sea, and he naturally conjured up a picture of terrible wreckage floating on the blue sea.He also knew what would happen if the statistics continued to rise: when even the most efficient organizations could do nothing; places where the dying can be seen clinging to the living with an entirely understandable hatred and senseless hopes. In short, it is these obvious facts and fears that keep our citizens constantly exiled and separated.In this regard, the author deeply regrets that there is nothing really remarkable to report, such as some inspiring hero or some earth-shattering feat, as is so often the case in old stories.This is because there is nothing less dramatic than a catastrophe, and great catastrophes, by virtue of their protracted delay, are often very monotonous.According to the recollections of those who lived through it, the terrible days of the plague were not like an inexhaustible savage fire, but like a never-ending trampling, in which everything was crushed to pieces. . No, the plague had nothing in common with the terrifying images that haunted Dr. Rieux's mind at the beginning of the plague.In the beginning, the plague manifested itself through a set of discreet, efficient, and irreproachable administrative measures.By the way: The author tries his best to be objective in order not to distort any facts or violate his personal opinion.He doesn't like to make anything untrue through artistic manipulation, except when absolutely necessary to give some coherence to the story.It is precisely out of objective requirements that he said: the most common and deepest pain during this period is certainly separation, and it is absolutely necessary to re-describe the situation of this stage of the plague realistically, but it must also be admitted The pain itself has lost its pathos. Can the townspeople, or, to put it mildly, those most haunted by lovesickness adjust to their situation?To say that they can adapt is probably not entirely true.Perhaps it is more accurate to say that they are experiencing the pain of "soul ecstasy" in both mental and physical aspects.When the plague began, they recalled the lost ones vividly, and they missed them bitterly.However, although they can still remember the other person's voice and smile, and even though they can't forget the happy and joyful day of their sweetheart, they can't imagine what the person in the distance is doing at the moment they miss.In short, there is more memory than imagination.By the second phase of the plague, even memory had faded.It's not that they forgot the face of their sweetheart, but—in fact, the result is similar—they lost their sweetheart's body, and they couldn't feel the presence of their sweetheart inside their own bodies.In the first few weeks, what made them resent was that the person they held in their arms was just a shadow, and the next feeling was that this shadow became less and less flesh and blood, and even a trace of color in memory had faded away. .After being separated for a long time, they can no longer imagine the intimate life they experienced in the past, and even the fact that there was a person who lived together and could be touched at any time in the past became incredible. From this point of view, they have entered the realm of the plague, and the more ordinary this realm is, the more it will affect them.No one has any lofty emotions, and everyone's emotions are equally ordinary and monotonous. "It's time for the end," said the townspeople.The reason for saying this, on the one hand, is that it is normal to hope that the common suffering will end soon when the epidemic is rampant, and on the other hand, it is actually what they really hope for.But when I said this sentence, the initial impulse and resentment were gone, but my mind was still clear, but it was weak and weak.The wild urges of the first few weeks had been replaced by a feeling of depression, a state that would not be considered resignation, but certainly not a temporary acknowledgment. Our citizens are no longer defiant, they have adapted, as they say, because there is nothing else to do.Of course they took a look of pain and misfortune, but they could no longer feel its torment.Others, like Dr. Rieux, think that this is the real misfortune, and that getting used to a desperate situation is worse than the desperate situation itself.There was not a real misfortune in the parting souls, and there was a ray of light in their suffering, and now even this ray of light has disappeared.They stay on road corners, in cafés, or at friends' houses, quiet and absent-minded, with such a bored look in their eyes that the whole city is like a waiting room with such a crowd.The working man goes about his work with the same gait as the plague: cautious and discreet.Everyone has become neither arrogant nor impetuous.For the first time, when the parting man talked about the person who was not in front of him, he was no longer unhappy.They speak the same language and treat their parting the same way they treat statistics about the epidemic.Before that, they had never agreed to confuse their distress with the common misfortune of the whole city, and now they accepted it.With no memory of the past and no hope for the future, they have been placed in the present reality.To tell the truth, from their point of view, everything has become a matter of sight.It must be said that the plague has taken love and even friendship from us, because love must have some future meaning, but at this time, for us, there is nothing but the present moment. Of course, all of this is not absolute. Although all parting people will indeed go on this road, it will be sooner or later, and even if it reaches this point, there will still be instant old dreams, short memories, and instant memories. Awakening brings more pain and sensitivity to the relapse of old wounds for these lovesick people.There were moments when, for leisure, they planned for life after the plague.Sometimes they are touched by the situation, and they will be stabbed unexpectedly by an inexplicable jealousy.Others experience a sudden lift from their insensitivity on certain days of the week, such as Sunday or Saturday afternoon, because those are the days when they are used to doing certain activities when their loved ones are around.Sometimes in the evening a pang of melancholy seizes the soul, foretelling that the past is about to resurface in their minds—which is not always the case, of course.It was a time of introspection for the religious, but it was a difficult time for the prisoner and the exile, who had nothing to reflect on but a sense of emptiness.At this moment, they only felt that their hearts were empty, but after a while, they returned to the state of mental paralysis, and they were once again placed in the prison of the plague. They have learned that, in this state, they have to give up more personal matters.This is different from when the plague first appeared: At that time, personal trifles lingered in their minds, and they could not let go of a single bit. The life and death of others had nothing to do with them, and their life experience was limited to their own; now, they also began to worry about others. What's urgent is that you and I are no longer separated. What appears in their minds is the same idea as everyone else, and their love has become the most abstract concept.They were completely at the mercy of the plague god, and even if they sometimes wished for something, it was only in their dreams, even when the thought came to their heads: "These abdominal lymph things, let's go quickly!" , they themselves would be surprised.In fact they were all asleep, and the whole period was nothing but a dream.The residents of the city are daydreamers, and there are only a few times in the middle of the night when the seemingly healed wounds suddenly open, and then they are truly awake.After waking up, I dazedly touched the edge of the itchy and painful wound, and the old wound suddenly relapsed with a new force, followed by the sad face of my lover.In the morning, they face disaster again, that is to say, return to mechanical life. What, one might ask, did these departed ones look like?It's very simple, they are nothing like, or it can be said that they are like all people, and they look like everyone.They share the silence and childish tumult of the city.They lost the habit of talking about right and wrong, and put on a calm expression.For example, some of the smartest among them pretended to read newspapers and listen to the radio like others, looking for some evidence to explain that the plague was about to pass, and seemed to have some unrealistic hopes, or read some boring A yawning journalist picked up a review at his fingertips, and there was an unfounded panic.Those who remained were drinking beer, tending to the sick, listless or exhausted, filing cards or listening to records, and all of them were each other.In other words, they no longer pick and choose.The plague wiped out the ability to distinguish good from bad.This can be clearly seen: no one cares about the quality when buying clothes and food, and everything is accepted. Finally, it may be said that those who have been separated from their kin have lost the strange privilege which protected them in times of plague, and that the selfishness of love has vanished, and with it the benefits derived from it.At least now it seems that the situation is clear and the epidemic has become a matter of concern to everyone.The sound of gunfire at the gate of the city, and the stamps on the lower cover rhythmically knocked out our life and death, fire after fire, file cards one by one, a terrifying atmosphere, and various etiquette procedures accompanied by registration. The unseemly death, the horrible smoke, the ruthless ringing of the ambulance bell: we live in this din, gnaw on the prison food of the exiles, and wait in our hearts for the common reunion that will shake the whole city and days of mutual peace of mind.Our love still exists, no doubt, but it does not work, becomes heavy and lifeless, as inaction as a crime and a sentence.Love has become an endless patience, an obstinate expectation.In this regard, the attitude of some citizens is reminiscent of the long queues that line the food shops here and there.The same tenacity, the same resignation, no hope of success, no illusions.But such a state of mind would have to be a thousand times stronger to be true of a man separated from his loved ones, another kind of hunger that swallows everything up. In any event, to have a proper idea of ​​the minds of those separated from their loved ones in the city, it is necessary to look back once more to that eternal evening, full of light and dust, which fell upon this deserted city. In a small town with few shade trees, men and women come out and flock to the streets.At this time, what can be heard from the terrace bathed in the sunset is no longer the usual noise in the city, composed of the sound of cars and machines, but the chaotic and low footsteps Voices and voices, the howl of plague in the sweltering sky timed the painfully moving footsteps of thousands of people, the endless, dreary wandering of the streets gradually filled the city , night after night, that voice more somberly and more faithfully embodies a blind obstinate emotion which at last takes the place of love in our hearts.