Damned If You Do

I found Morgan's summary the other day of Volcano Cowboys and the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation that they were in to be very interesting. It reminds me of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The main character, Valjean, skips parole and turns a new leaf. He moves to a new town and becomes an honest, God fearing, successful business man and the mayor of the town. Many years later, Javert, and ambitious policeman, moves to the town. Althought Javert was a guard at the prison Valjean was in, he does not recognize the mayor, but instead identifies another as the man who broke parole and is therefore sentenced to life in prison.

Valjean is placed in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't predicament. If he stays silent and doesn't correct Javert's mistake, then an innocent man will go to prison in his place. However, if he does identify himself, he will go to prison. If he does go to prison, the factory he owns will be shut down, and all of his employees (a significant majority of the population) will be out of work. The town's economy is already struggling, and if the factory shuts down the entire town will shut down, too.

The unabridged novel has a wonderful, several-page passage with Valjean pacing in a hallway in the courthouse, debating in his mind what he should do. Most abridged versions unfortunately cut this scene down to a paragraph, or one page at most, and they cut out most of the intriguing ethical and moral questions that Valjean is faced with. The musical, however, summarizes the problem adequately in one song, and Valjean comes to the conclusion, "If I speak, I am condemned. If I stay silent, I am damned."

Dr. Stockmann is in the same position as Valjean. If he speaks out about the water, he is condemned, but if he keeps quiet about it he is damned. However, Stockmann and Valjean have two different motives and handle their respective situations in two very different ways. While Valjean's motivation to speak is God and righteousness, Stockmann's motivation is his own conceit. Stockmann wants the people to know that he is the one who saves the town, and he wants the community to listen to what he has to say, not to what he has to say. When he is completely turned out by the town, he stays in his house to spite the community. Valjean, on the other hand, leaves the town and moves to Paris, where he can once again live under an alias and help the lowest class there. He determines to do good for his community, wherever that may be, rather than spite the people who shun him.