During the course of Albert Camus' and Bertolt Brecht's books The Plague and Mother Courage and Her Children, the authors use certain minor characters to accentuate various characteristics of their respective books' main character. The minor characters are Kattrin from Mother Courage and Her Children, and Tarrou from The Plague. In Mother Courage and Her Children, Brecht uses Kattrin to accentuate characteristics of Mother Courage, and in The Plague, Camus uses Tarrou to accentuate Dr. Rieux. Camus and Brecht use Tarrou and Kattrin for the purpose of more clearly characterizing Dr. Rieux and Mother Courage.
Camus and Brecht use Tarrou and Kattrin's actions to magnify the actions of their respective major characters, Mother Courage and Dr. Rieux, thus giving the reader a clearer picture of Dr. Rieux and Mother Courage. The authors have both Tarrou and Kattrin display their bravery in order to accentuate the behavioral characteristics of their respective major characters, Dr.
A statue of Bertolt Brecht
Mother Courage and Her Children (album)
Gisela May as Mother Courage and director Manfred ...Rieux and Mother Courage. When Kattrin finds out that a nearby city is going to be attacked, she hops on a roof and starts beating a drum to warn the citizens. Even after Kattrin receives various direct and indirect threats such as when the lieutenant says, "We must set fire to the farm. Smoke her out"(Brecht 108) and when the lieutenant says directly to her "And now we're going to shoot you,"(Brecht 108), she continues to show her bravery by drumming. Brecht writes about Kattrin, "Kattrin goes on drumming"(Brecht 107), and after she receives the threats he writes, "During the drumming Kattrin has been listening again. Now she laughs"(Brecht 108). The display of bravery shown by Kattrin in this scene contrasts the cowardice of Mother Courage and provides a glimpse at how Brecht has given Mother Courage a strictly business attitude.
After Kattrin...