Principle or Love – What brings you to the revolution?
Spoilers for The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Dear friends and readers,
I just recently returned from a five day trip to rural Zambales, and my body is still readjusting to Metro Manila. I find that my breathing back in the city is more shallow, and I find I’m more agitated. Could this be my body’s way of saying it likes the province more than the city? I’ve lived in cities my whole life, but never have I had such a strong reaction to returning. Perhaps it’s because as an adult I now get to seriously consider a life in the province: simple, slow, and surrounded by nature.
I feel like as soon as I returned to Manila, the niggling sensation of needing to achieve something returned with vengeance. All of a sudden, it wasn’t enough to just be a human anymore; there was so much to be done, firstly the writing, and then organizing, and I haven’t even edited this… on and on.
Botolan, Zambales, is beautiful. It’s hugged by both the ocean and the mountains, with wide fields of farmland stretching in between. It had pine trees with the softest pinecones, tiny frogs that come out in the rain, and the brightest sunsets that make the perfect backdrop for surfing. (Never mind that I got sick – it was my own fault; I chose to bike during a storm) I need to remember the peace I felt in Botolan and maintain it, even here.
What I want to share with you is a piece of reflection prompted from a book I read while recovering from said sickness. The book is called The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. The book follows two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, during WWII France, and how their stories diverge and return together. Isabelle seeks out the communist Resistance to fight the Nazis while Vianne stays hidden, a schoolteacher waiting for her husband to return from the front.
Isabelle is everyone’s instant favorite. Not just because we love a rebel, but because we love a wiry underdog heroine who defies anyone that tries to put her in a box. Isabelle is brave. She is constantly told that she’s impetuous, but she is above all brave. Meanwhile, her sister Vianne is a lot more conservative. Obedient. Protective of her children, yes, but also incredibly naïve. Vianne is the sister who gives the names of the town Jews – which includes her best friend – to the German captain occupying her house because he told her it was “just clerical.” Despite their differences and their frustration with each other, there is real love between the two sisters.
Isabelle becomes the Nightingale, leading downed Allied airmen through the Pyrenees mountains into Spain where they can return home. As you can expect, she is on the Nazis’ most wanted list. One night, Isabelle was near Carriveau where Vianne lives and witnessed an Allied pilot crash. Trying to save him, Isabelle brought him to the barn behind Vianne’s home. But remember the German captain? Yes, the Nazis are looking for the downed pilot and the Captain living with Vianne suspects he’s hiding in the barn. Captain goes to look, but Vianne knows Isabelle is there, so Vianne is faced with a choice: let her sister get caught or stop the Captain.
This is the turning point of the story. Personally, I wasn’t sure what Vianne would do since she’s been lukewarm against the Nazis and was angry with Isabelle for endangering Vianne and her daughter. When the Captain was about to open the hatch in the barn however, it was instinct for Vianne to swing a shovel at his head and kill him, saving Isabelle.
It was through this act that Vianne realized how much she cared for her sister. She had always loved her sister, but it was a love without risk or sacrifice. By killing the German captain, however, she had put a target on her back. She endangered herself to save Isabelle. Vianne could’ve stopped there and returned to her life of hiding, but our choices have a way of narrowing the road for us. After killing a German captain, it wasn’t so hard to decide to hide Jewish children. Vianne effectively joined the Resistance after saving Isabelle by making fake papers for Jewish children and hiding them away, saving them from the horrors of concentration camps.
Isabelle joined the Resistance out of principle. Vianne joined the Resistance out of love. I say this because although Isabelle certainly loved France, she wasn’t fighting to protect anyone in particular. She fought out of principle – it’s the right thing to do, the only thing to do. Isabelle also had no close relationships with her family; she had nothing to lose. Live or die, Isabelle only had what she believed in. Vianne, however, had everything to lose. She was a mother and a wife. Since her husband was off at war, if she died, her daughter would be alone. There was no way she could risk her life for a greater cause; as a mother, what greater cause is there but your children? Vianne ultimately joined the Resistance out of love for her sister, and then out of love for the children of France.
Love can be what holds us back from the revolution or it can be what pushes us to join. If we have loved ones, we have people to lose. But we also have people to fight for. I invite you to reflect: which sister are you more like? Do you, like Isabelle, have less to lose and thus are prepared to fight for what you believe in? Or are you more like Vianne, hesitant to fight because you have people to protect?
If you’re more like Isabelle, what is it you believe in? Hone it, hold it between your teeth so you’ll never forget what it is. If you’re more like Vianne, who do you love? And, what would you do to protect them? In The Nightingale, Vianne was forced to risk herself for Isabelle because of an impossible situation. Not all of us will be put in a life-or-death situation such as that, but I invite us to consider what’s more urgent: the slow death from oppression or the quick death from a bullet? In a way, Vianne was lucky to have been forced to choose between saving Isabelle or the Nazi captain because otherwise, Vianne would have continued doing nothing, living in fear but with more comfort than most, not in cohorts with the oppressor but not in resistance either.
Supposing there are only two sides – for or against the oppressor – what would it take for you to pick a side, if you haven’t already? And if you could be more like one sister, which one would you choose to emulate?
I'm more of fighting out of principle! Love this! Thanks for sharing. Hope you're now fully okay from sickness.