In the novel The Plauge by Camus, the ordinary town of Oran is not only physically stuck in the city by the quarantine, but they are also trapped emotionally, wishing to escape the present time. As the days go by, more citizens die from the epidemic and the town goes into panic because they realize that humanity has no control over their fate towards death. They are challenged in leading a significant life because they feel trapped by the fate of death and realize that the fight against death is a never-ending defeat. At the beginning, the citizens try to blind themselves from the reality of the plague. When one’s reality is to difficult to face, there is a “tensional problem of facing a terrible present while man’s nature prompts him to flee…show more content… The rest of society did not see the plague as their duty to fight it. Rieux says, “In spite of such unusual signs of townsfolk apparently found it hard to grasp what was happening to them…Nobody has yet had really acknowledged to himself what the disease connoted” (71 Camus). There was a lack of acknowledgment of reality and a sense of denial and empathy for those who were suffering. It was hard for the citizens of Oran to see their responsibility of fighting the plague. Unlike the rest of the citizens who dreamed of freedom from the plague, Rieux knew that “no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences” (35 Camus). Freedom could only be earned if the city tried to fight against this plague and did not try to avoid it. Instead on acting trapped and hopeless in their fate towards death, the citizens decided to make the choice to join the anti-plague effort which allowed them find significance in life instead of surrendering to the destiny of death. Even though in the fight against death no one is capable of winning, this can not be the way of judging the actions value. The action itself is a heroic deed and “it helps men to rise above themselves” (115