Reply To: The Searcher: exploration of morality
I agree with Cal’s definitions of etiquette and manners. He says that morality is the stuff that doesn’t change and then defines it as “just doing right by people” and telling Trey that “you gotta come up with your own code.” So, it seems that morality is fluid in this book, depending if the situation keeps the status quo. Trey brings cookies, cupcakes, pie, etc. when she comes to work with Cal who “is pretty sure where this stuff comes from, and he feels a mild twinge of guilt about eating it anyway, but he figures things will be more peaceful if he doesn’t get into that. For the locals, it doesn’t seem that there is right or wrong; they buy silence or cooperation with threats, coercion or beatings. At one point, Cal thinks of telling Trey a story of what happened to her brother (which he has been told to do), but he doesn’t know whether he should. “This seems like the kind of thing he should know instantly, on instinct, but he has no idea whether it would be right or wrong. This unsettles him right down to the bottom of his guts. It implies that somewhere along the way, he got out of practice doing the right thing, to the point where he doesn’t even know it when he sees it.” He has lost his moral compass. Fortunately, Trey’s and his beating puts him back on searching for the truth. When he finds that truth, he knows that it is his duty to take what he has learned about Brendan and drugs to Officer Dennis, but he knows that he can’t in order to protect Trey.
