“People are incapable of telling the truth about themselves.”
(page 24)
“…he explained to me that real strength is doing good
against hatred and misunderstanding.” (page 14)
Both of these quotes really have to do with Havel’s Power of
the Powerless. The first quote really has to do with living in the lie. It is
very easy for people to delude themselves into believing their own lies or to
be unaware that they aren’t being true to themselves. While Adam is
specifically talking about Honza being humiliated by his father, this statement
is true no matter what the situation. It is a statement that transcends the
situation of the characters in the book and even the book itself. It is just
true, and realizing this is a first step to living in the truth. The second
quote is what living in the truth is. It is the foundation of the dissident movement.
They tried to do good to help themselves and their people in the face of hatred
and misunderstanding. Real strength is not to fight violence with violence, but
to set the example of goodness in the face of violence, to hopefully inspire
others to do the same.
Those are some really good quotes to pull from Judge on Trial. I really like what you said about the second quote, about living within the truth. I think it is very true, that having real strength comes from doing good and being a good person. I think what Havel is trying to get across in The Power of the Powerless is that to live in the truth we have to be true to ourselves, but by doing that we must be good people. The words "truth" and "good" go completely hand in hand as does "lie" and "bad", so it makes a lot of sense that this quote from Judge on Trial would be related to Havel's idea of living within the truth.
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