I

ACT BRAVELY

To see people who will notice a need in the world and

do something about it.... Those are my heroes.

—FRED ROGERS

n Camus’s final novel, The Fall, his narrator, Clamence, is walking
alone on a street in Amsterdam when he hears what sounds like a
woman falling into the water. He’s not totally certain that’s what he
heard, but mostly, riding the high of a nice evening with his mistress,
he does not want to be bothered, and so he continues on.
A respected lawyer with a reputation as a person of great virtue in
his community, Clamence returns to his normal life the following day
and attempts to forget the sound he heard. He continues to represent
clients and entertain his friends with persuasive political arguments,
as he always has.
Yet he begins to feel off.
One day, after a triumphant appearance in court arguing for a
blind client, Clamence gets the feeling he is being mocked and
laughed at by a group of strangers he can’t quite locate. Later,
approaching a stalled motorist at an intersection, he is unexpectedly
insulted and then assaulted. These encounters are unrelated, but
they contribute to a weakening of the illusions he has long held about
himself.
It is not with an epiphany or from a blow to the head that the
monstrous truth of what he has done becomes clear. It is a slow,
creeping realization that comes to Clamence that suddenly and