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Identify a passage or scene that demonstrates an insight into human nature in The Madness of Crowds. Discuss the quote or scene and what it means to you or how it has impacted you.
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“I’m so afraid.” … “That I won’t love her enough, that I won’t be a good father. That I’m not up to this.” Jean-Guy finally confesses his deepest fears about his Down Syndrome daughter, Idola. He is ashamed that he feels at times they should have aborted her. He fears he will not be the father she will need him to be. He fears for his son Honore who will be responsible for Idola when her parents no longer are living. Abigail’s theory (plan) to save Canada brings all these emotions boiling to the surface for Jean-Guy. At the end of the book Jean-Guy proves what kind of man he is, what kind of father he is and will continue to be, by the decision he makes under very stressful circumstances. I can’t imagine a society that would allow their government to make eugenics and mandatory euthanasia of the elderly policy. What in the world have we become if we permit that to happen?
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Jean-Guy’s anguished account of his ambivalence is surely the most poignant scene. I think one of the most insightful things Jean-Guy says is that a part of him agrees with Abigail Robinson, not because he supports eugenics or wishes to not have Idola as a daughter, but because that would have taken an incredibly painful decision out of his and Annie’s hands.
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“It’s not that you did no harm,” said Armand. “It’s that you did nothing.” So ends Armand’s confrontation of Vincent Gilbert with the video of Gilbert at Robinson’s speech. Surely it is human nature to disengage; each of us has a limited capacity to step up or step into addressing every issue that we confront. And, I am unlikely to find myself the one with the opportunity to prevent a violent event. Still, the challenge is to consider where in my life and our body politic, I have the opportunity and maybe even responsibility to affirmatively act.
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Ruth speaking to Armand: “My mother took me to him (Ewen Cameron). To fix me. She thought that I was broken.” She tried to smile but could not. “She wanted to leave me there, but he didn’t have any beds. By the time one had freed up, I’d changed.” . . . “I’d learned what she wanted me to be. I learned to pretend. So I wouldn’t be sent to that place. I learned what it would take for my mother to love me.” This is so sad and makes Ruth more understandable in her walled defensive behavior toward others. The one who should have understood and loved her didn’t. That would be a bitter pill to swallow for anyone.
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This broke my heart when I read it. So much of Ruth is rooted in the sad relationship she had with her mom.
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