I like our discussion today, especially how we focused on whether V was justified in what he did to Evey because it was something I wrestled with while reading. I'm still not sure if he was, just due to personal morals and the horror she went through but at the same time, she was stronger afterwards. As Lena said, she was kind of annoying at the beginning. There's the quote, "Ask not why the bell tolls, it tolls for thee" well, she did at lot of asking and protesting a bit too much. I think I'm more convinced now that he was in fact justified in doing what he did based on our discussion.
As for Rosemary, I hadn't before seen V as manipulating her actions just because I felt that the men in her life who died were "bad guys" anyway and she just had bad luck. But with V's access to Fate and his impressive planning skills, it's makes sense that he would have gently bumped her in the direction she took. She got fed up enough that she was able to find the strength to kill the Leader when V needed her to.
I also liked our discussion of whether everyone is guilty. A knee-jerk reaction would be that no, not everyone is guilty and should be punished but the party members and certainly the ones in charge would be guilty. I'd have to side with V's levels of guilt but then again, I'm not inclined to look favorably on those who stood by and did nothing during the Nazi regime so why should I in this case? For practicality's sake we can't punish everyone because then we become them, and it's sort of hard to do numbers-wise. It is a matter of responsibility, as V says. If they take responsibility, and sort of repent I guess, then maybe we can let them off. Those who see nothing wrong with all of it certainly should have their heads examined or something. The winners/majority enforcing their beliefs over the minority again, which of course never goes wrong. Interesting, perplexing questions, all of it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
For another class of mine I actually had to watch the movie Judgment at Nuremberg and read the play Albert Speer...both look at the issue of who is to be held responsible for what happened in WW II. And both the movie and the play raised issues concerning guilt and responsibility and how can people do such horrible things, or let them happen. It makes you really realize how easily people can be manipulated and to what extent people can be delusional and hypocritical and point their finger at others but refuse to accept any blame.
Post a Comment