Courage: The Nightingale

I've been thinking about The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah a lot lately, even though I read it in 2015 (the same year it was published). It was easily the best book I read that year, and it is the first book that comes to mind when people ask me for recommendations.

The Nightingale is about two sisters living in France during World War II. Each is a member of the Resistance, and each is courageous in her own way.

The younger sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious teenager who becomes famous for smuggling Allied soldiers out of France. Her risks are great, she saves many lives, and her bravery is obvious and admirable.

However, it is her older sister's story that resonated more with me. Vivanne is a wife, a mother, and a school teacher. Her life quickly falls apart when her husband is sent away to war, she loses her job, her Jewish neighbor is "deported," she agrees to raise her neighbor's son as her own, and a German soldier moves into her home. The things she must do to protect the children are absolutely heart-breaking and demonstrate that courage comes in many forms.

The personal conflict between Isabelle and Vivianne is complicated, but is illustrated succinctly when Vivianne finds out Isabelle is secretly dating a communist:

Isabelle had always been impetuous, a force of nature, really, a girl who liked to break rules. Countless nuns and teachers had learned that she could be neither controlled nor contained. But this. This was not kissing a boy on the dance floor or running away to see the circus or refusing to wear a girdle and stockings. This was wartime in an occupied country. How could Isabelle still believe that her choices had no consequences?

Hannah is a talented writer and captivated me from the very first page. She really made me wonder what kind of person I would be in this same situation. Would I ignore my convictions and work with the Nazis in order to protect my family? Would I be the quiet resistor like Vivianne, doing what I must for my family? Or would I be Isabelle, willing to risk everything to do what I think is right?

I would love to say that I'm an Isabelle. Don't we all want to be Isabelle? Growing up, whenever I would read about the Civil Rights Movement or the Holocaust or slavery, I always believed that I would have done "the right thing." It's easy to think so when you've never actually been tested. The truth is, the majority of people who lived through these times were mostly concerned will self-preservation, and refused to get involved in struggles that didn't directly affect them.

In Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans, Eric A. Johnson argues that it took the entire German citizenry to allow the Holocaust to happen: "The government looked the other way when petty crimes were being committed. Ordinary Germans looked the other way when Jews were being rounded up and murdered; they abetted one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century not through active collaboration but through passivity, denial and indifference."

One thing I do know is that now that I am a mom, I would do anything to protect my kids. I cannot imagine knowing that all I have to do is feed some soldiers information in order to feed my starving children. I also cannot imagine knowing that I could save the life of the neighbor boy, but at the risk of my own child's life. Maybe none of us can say for sure who we would be in that situation until it is thrust upon us.

So I may not know the extent of my courage right now, but I would like to make this pledge: I will not look away when I see injustice. I will speak up when something is not right. I will hold my leaders accountable for their actions. If we all try to be guided by our conscience and not our fears, perhaps good will prevail.