Analysis Of Jean Baptiste Clamence's Fall

Throughout The Fall, by Albert Camus, Jean Baptiste Clamence stresses the notion of his fall. What he means by this is the fall he has within himself; the fall from his cultured bourgeois lifestyle to the mysterious one of a “judge-penitent”. Jean Baptiste Clamence explains how he was the perfect man; he was admirable, generous, successful; he was at his peak. However, after and to an extent, during his “fall” he self analyzes and realizes that these things were all done in vain; he is a hypocrite. But what exactly causes a man of such superiority to decline in such a way? Memories; the burden of memories, and in Clamence’s case, recollection of memories. “I had always been aided by an extraordinary ability to forget. I used to forget everything, …show more content…
However, one conclusion is that Europe has dealt with the horrific instances of the past superficially; though they have not been dealt with in a manner that is appropriate to the intensity of the crimes. For example, in terms of the Holocaust, Germany has made economic retributions to victims, paying a total of six hundred and forty nine million dollars to survivors who were affected and eligible. (“More Victims Eligible”, 2011). That being said, Germany should not be the only country offering compensation to survivors because of the seemingly indifferent attitude of Europeans during World War II, which is ultimately equally morally wrong. In psychology, this is called the bystander effect. It is defined as a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The countries within close proximity to WWII could have done something to stop the acts, however, it is important to mention that the countries who were involved with the war felt as if they were victims as well. Food shortages being a prime example; in the case of Britain and Germany, civilians and soldiers starved, and rationing of food had to be implemented (Collingham, 2011). Another way the bystander effect was represented throughout Europe is by the voluntary ignorance that infected each individual. The main notion being, if an …show more content…
The Syrian Refugee Crisis. Millions of Syrians are fleeing their country from internal conflict. This issue is strikingly similar to when Jews were fleeing Germany. Andrei Cornea, an author, explains that just as there is opposition to letting Syrian refugees into countries, there was also extreme opposition to letting Jews into them as well. (Cornea, 2015) “What’s your attitude towards allowing German, Austrian & other political refugees to come into the U.S.?” Fortune asked its survey audience. Over two-thirds of respondents answered in the negative. Shulman’s tweet went viral, igniting a spirited debate about whether opposition to welcoming Syrian refugees is morally or situationally equivalent to American indifference in the 1930s toward Jewish victims of the Nazi state.” (Zeitz, 2015). The opposition to the Syrian refugees from civilians in certain European countries is very similar to the anti-semitic message that was clear in the 1930’s. The opposition may be caused by many things such as racism, or the feelings of national identity being threatened. In this case, Europe is only confronting their past because of political reasons, not because of memories that are being resurfaced as a result of these issues. Nonetheless, there is still not a genuine desire to finally admit their moral