Thursday, February 23, 2006

THOUGHTS: Remains of the Day

In The Remains of the Day, Stevens serves as butler to Lord Darlington. Towards the end of the novel, Stevens seems to express a regret for his loyalty to Lord Darlington, and the latter's Nazi sympathies.

It's a question I ask myself from time to time: how does one remain loyal if the person you have bind yourself to behaves in a matter that contradicts your own principles?

In The Remains of the Day, we, the reader, have the advantage of hindsight. Most of us not gifted with wisdom and clairvoyance, make our choices with our usual half-blindness. And sometimes we try to keep faith with someone, even as we hope the other will keep faith with us.

But what if keeping faith - this binding loyalty, is nothing more than blind faith?

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