The Plague Of Existence

             Another aspect of these things is the massive, incomprehensible effect that they have. The plague and life are such large-scale concepts that it is virtually impossible to fully understand them- until we witness them for ourselves. It's like the typical father who faints at the birth of his first-born child. He knew it was coming, he had nine months to prepare, to imagine it, but when he actually witnesses the reality it cannot be what he had expected. Rieux feels similarly about the plague when it first becomes a possibility. He has witnessed a few deaths (from plague), he has spent years treating illnesses and facing deaths of individuals, he is knowledgeable about the plagues of history, yet he realizes that he cannot fully comprehend the destruction that is about to ensue. This realization occurs when he considers the effects of previously plagues, and attempts to imagine such devastation occurring in Oran. Rieux questions himself, .
             "But what are a hundred million deaths? When one has served in a war, one hardly knows what a dead man is, after a while. And since a dead man has no substance unless one has actually seen him dead, a hundred million corpses broadcast through history are no more than a puff of smoke in the imagination Yes, that was how it should be done. You should collect the people at the exits of five picture-houses, you should lead them to a city square and make them die in heaps if you wanted to get a clear notion of what it means. Then at least you could add some familiar faces to the anonymous mass. But naturally that was impossible to put into practice; moreover, what man knows ten thousand faces?" (38).
             This is the thought process of an extremely knowledgeable man trying to comprehend the plague. He determines that the only way to truly conceive of it is to witness it, to experience it. It is the same with life. Many people attempt to conclude on the meaning of life, the point of everything.