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Brody is far from perfect and is secretly betraying his brother, yet he remains the moral center of the book. How is that possible? What qualities does he possess that make him admirable despite his flaws?
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Brody Dern’s heart had been “scarred by wounds far worse than any love could deliver.” He had felt worthless in his father’s eyes. In the war, he saw senseless destruction by people who paid no attention to laws. When Connie offered him the job of deputy, Brody felt that maybe with a badge he could make a difference. But Brody understood that the life he lived was nothing but a “rickety framework of lies.” One of which is a created girlfriend to cover up his relationship with his brother’s wife. He felt uncomfortable in his brother’s presence because of guilt. Tom told Brody that their father gave Brody a hard time, but Brody was always his own man and their father respected that. Brody “always went headlong into everything.” Unknown to Brody, Tom had been told by their father to be more like Brody, to “live a little, be willing to take chances.” Because of his own past actions in the war, Brody realizes that everyone is broken and does the best he/she can. Brody is kind and understanding to Felix Klein whose emotional wounds have never healed. Angie and Charlie both see Brody as “Holden Caulfield out there in that rye field protecting the innocent.” Once he told his story to Angie, her compassion could allow Brody to begin to heal and to forgive his image of himself as a coward and a murderer.
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Brody has never forgiven himself for suffocating his friend Mac even though it was the only way to save his own life. Mac’s delirious ravings were about to reveal their position to the enemy soldiers. Brody responds to his guilt and shame with sensitivity to others, a capacity to see them and their struggles and a determination to see justice prevail in Jewel even when that means destroying evidence. His inability to forgive himself is transformed into respect for others and an unrelenting focus on decency and fairness.
In many ways, he reminds me of Armand Gamache (not the part about the extramarital affair with his sister-in-law) and of Cork O’Connor, another small town sheriff. In all of these men, I see a moral compass in their pursuit of fairness and decency.
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Well said, Nancy and Jane. I agree with all your points. I suppose that Brody has never forgiven himself for what happened during the war and also for his ongoing relationship with Garnet. These two things, most of all, prevent his heart from healing. To me, his self-awareness of his faults and his recognition that he needs to unburden himself by sharing his past with someone and exit his relationship with Garnet help make him admirable because he ends up taking action to fix his life. Noah, Connie, and his mother can all see he’s unhappy. Even Garnet, who is selfish, can see he’s unhappy. Despite his personal misery, Brody works hard to protect others in his job.
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Good points, everyone! I, too, found Brody to be an admirable character in almost every way. I can’t say that I admired his affair with Garnet, but it just shows that he wasn’t superhuman, and could succumb to temptation, at least temporarily. What redeems him in that situation is that he DID resist, finally, and that takes a lot of courage and fortitude. And in a way, he paid for that sin when he died saving his brother’s life (though I would have much rather he lived)! He was an honorable man, and introspective, and tried to do the best he could. He was brave, kind, had little ego, and had a strong sense of duty and a desire to help people and make the world a better place. He’d had a lot of hurt, fear, and pain in his life, yet he hadn’t let that ruin him or fallen into self-pity; he kept on moving ahead, living his life, trying to make a difference. He was heroic in a very human way, and I appreciated that.
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