Humanity in the Plague

There are some really interesting things that happen in “A Journal of the Plague Year” as a result of Defoe’s journalistic tone. First, I think that his writing style, and the fact that he has clearly done research including personally seeking out certain events, gives Defoe a certain sense of authority. Not once do you question the things that he is reporting on. Secondly, Defoe’s attention to detail makes the piece both factual and engrossing. When he describes the horrors of the burial pit you get a real sense of the dread and hopeless resignation that can be felt there. Coming from someone that really has no frame of reference for such a catastrophe, it seems as though you really get at least a somewhat personal understanding of what it would have been like to have been there.

I think that one of the most successful aspects of “A Journal of the Plague Year” is the way that Defoe makes the story so personal and focuses on the humanity. Knowing Defoe’s penchant for detail and reporting, I expected the piece to be a lot of straight up facts. I was surprised at the humanity that Defoe was able to bring to the sections about the dead bodies and in particular to the closing section that relates his encounter with the poor man walking on the bank. As a reader, you do not simply get the man’s tale but also the complicated thoughts of the reporter as he processes it. I love the sentence where Defoe writes, “I turned a little way from the man, while these thoughts engaged me, for indeed, I could no more refrain from tears than he.” It is not often that you see reporting these days where the author gets so emotionally invested in the piece and it’s almost hard to avoid doing the same as a reader. Overall, I think that Defoe’s writing employs techniques that do an incredible job of placing the reader in the historical event.