The Plague

In The Plague, Camus maintains that: The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness or true love without the utmost clear-sightedness (131). This quotation from The Plague is the inspiration for the final research paper. You may rely on your own angle of approach, and provide your interpretation of the passage, as you understand it through your own lens. Formulate the thesis, and then elaborate it into a 5 page essay. Requirements 5pages by one student or 8+pages by two students, not including the following + One ‘Cover page’ with names, course title, date, AND THE TITLE OF YOUR ESSAY. + One ‘Works Cited Page’ (with 3 academic sources by one student or 5 academic sources by two students) Double-spaced, Times New Roman-12 font. Format .docx. Normal margin. The objectives of this project are: • To write and format a research essay • To understand one symbolic meaning of the Plague through one specific lens chosen by individual student/s • To set up a thesis and defend in with argumentative techniques Suggestion: I. Introduction 1. Introduce the specific field where you plan to test the claim seen in the quote. 2. Give some background information about the field for a large audience. 3. Give a Thesis statement: what are you going to prove? 4. Present the main points that readers can expect in the Body. II. Body 1. Explain your Thesis in more detail. 2. Provide the grounds for the debate. Bring out the finding from research articles you have read. Paraphrase the analysis or reasoning. Explain the types of evidence. 3. Comment on the strength or weakness of the research by backing it up with the reasoning from the quote. By using the quote in The Plague as reasoning tool to strengthen your thesis, you are shining lights on the deep meaning of The Plague. 4. Do not forget to acknowledge opposing point of view to your argument. 5. Add emotional appeals, or justification to strengthen your argument. 6. Do not forget transitional sentences between paragraphs for coherence of composition and fluidity of writing style. III. Conclusion 1. Rephrase the thesis differently in the Conclusion compared to the Introduction. 2. Summarize the main points. 3. Stress how the quote from The Plague shines new lights on your argument, or how your argument can give a different meaning to the ‘plague’ metaphor. 4. Proofread and pay attention the writing mechanics, especially grammar and punctuation. Have a different set of eyes to proofread after you.