Moral Compromise and Self-Interest Theme Analysis

After Andrew and Sarah have a traumatic meeting with Little Bee and Nkiruka in Nigeria, both Andrew and Sarah begin to question the manner in which modern society has led them to prioritize comfort over compassion, which ultimately leads them down very different paths; Andrew drowns in his guilt and eventually commits suicide because of it while Sarah reorients her life toward helping others. Andrew and Sarah’s struggles with their own moral compromises suggests modern society is tragically self-interested and adept at keeping problems out of sight and out of mind, and that every person must decide whether they will accept their own compromise or change their ways.

Andrew and Sarah’s initial idealism and society’s close attention to the war in Afghanistan suggests that both society and people start with virtuous notions of justice and sacrifice. Before his experience in Nigeria, Andrew writes political columns shaping public sentiment on the war in Afghanistan. The last column he writes before going to Nigeria with Sarah argues that “We are a self-interested society. How will our children learn to put others before themselves if we do not?” Andrew’s writing suggests that he claims a high-minded idealism and believes in self-sacrifice. Likewise, in the early days of her fashion magazine, Sarah dreams of using her magazine to teach women about current affairs in the world—“bring [readers] in with sex and then immerse them in the issues”—suggesting that like her and Andrew, many young people desire to raise awareness about critical issues and make the world a better place. Society’s awareness of the war in Afghanistan parallels Andrew and Sarah’s early idealism. Sarah notes that in the first months of the war, it is a “shock and demanded constant attention,” suggesting that society’s awareness of conflict in other people’s lives is initially high.

However, as time wears on, Andrew and Sarah settle into their own lives and dismiss foreign conflicts as other people’s problems, suggesting that both people and society grow complacent over time, willing to compromise their idealism for the sake of their own self-interest. While Andrew and Sarah are vacationing in Nigeria, they meet Little Bee and Nkiruka running for their lives, hunted by mercenaries who want to kill them because they witnessed a genocide and are thus liabilities for the government. Little Bee and Nkiruka beg the couple for protection, but neither Andrew or Sarah truly believe they are in danger until the mercenaries catch up to them. The leader states that he’ll spare both girls’ lives if Andrew chops off his middle finger with his machete. Andrew cannot bring himself to do it, claiming that this shouldn’t involve them and is “not our affair”—but his refusal condemns Nkiruka to death. Sarah, however, chops her own middle finger off, and the leader agrees to save Little Bee. Despite his idealism, Andrew’s unwillingness to sacrifice a single finger to save someone’s life suggests that any real altruism he may have had as a younger man has faded with age and comfort.

Although Sarah gives her middle finger to save Little Bee on the beach, Sarah participates in her own moral compromises, such as her magazine’s transition from talking about serious issues to only running articles about orgasms because sex sells. Little Bee’s arrival at Sarah’s house two years later tests Sarah’s former idealism—she has to decide how much she’ll risk to help an illegal immigrant—and Sarah sadly reflects that it’s withered with age: “You get a little bit older […] you realize that some of the world’s badness is inside you, maybe you’re a part of it. And then you get a little bit older still, and a bit more comfortable, and you start wondering whether that badness you’ve seen in yourself is really that bad at all.” Sarah’s recognition of her own compromise suggests that as an individual grows older and more comfortable, they tend to shed idealism in favor of convenience and compromise their own morals. The novel highlights how, over time, society’s treatment of the war in Afghanistan changes—they pay less attention to it, only noticing it when it’s particularly inconvenient. In a similar vein, while Little Bee watches Sarah put gasoline in her car, she realizes that the oil companies slaughtered her family and her village so that they could sell gasoline to countries like England: “The gasoline flowing through the pump made a high-pitched sound, as if the screaming of my family was dissolved in it.” Dimming awareness of the war and Little Bee’s observation suggests that society, driven by self-interest and convenience, makes its own moral compromises as well, such as buying consumer goods that cost the lives of people elsewhere in the world.

Andrew despairs at his own moral weakness while Sarah elects to make a change, suggesting that when one realizes the depths of their own moral compromise and gross self-interest, they can either respond with despair and cynicism, or decide to live a more purposeful, altruistic life. For the two years after Andrew fails to sacrifice his finger to save Nkiruka, he sinks into a guilt-ridden depression which finally ends in suicide. The last sentence he writes for his column says, “Certain attitudes which have been adopted by this society have left this commentator a little lost.” Sarah notes that the sentence’s passive voice reflects the passive manner in which they’ve slowly compromised their own morality, which leaves Andrew with a grim view of himself and the world. His suicide suggests that an individual facing their own moral weakness may drown themselves in despair. By contrast, Sarah’s relationship with Little Bee drives her to change herself and end her compromises. Sarah quits her job and follows Little Bee back to Nigeria after she is deported, hoping to report the stories of people like her and protect Little Bee’s life while risking her own. While Andrew gives into despair, Sarah’s life change suggests that that an individual can also take steps to reclaim their former enthusiasm for helping others and lay aside self-interest, though this will neither be the safest or most comfortable option.