Values & Ethics

Can our virtues destroy us when circumstances change?

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Can our virtues destroy us when circumstances change?

“It does not matter whether I want to be changed, because I am changed.”

― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Notes on Grief 

When I was 11 years old, I was told my dad had throat cancer. 

This year, our children (11 and 8 years old) were told their dad had throat cancer. Although August has begun to breathe life and energy back into our family, we have been changed.

I need to fetch a piece of myself from when everything changed. Come with me back to April when I was exploring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. Here we are taken deep into the political and social complexities of a nation and its people during the brutal transition of civil war.

Literature One-Liner

In Half of a Yellow Sun, it is in this story that we find how our strengths of yesterday can become our struggles of today.

Leadership one-liner

Leadership circumstances are always shifting —what once made a leader strong can later undo them when the world demands a different way of living.

when circumstances change

When the cancer diagnosis came in April, I had been re-reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s memoir Notes on Grief. It is a beautiful memoir of the grief that accompanied the death of her father. It was published in April 2021, and holds my hand as I go through the April anniversary of my father’s passing. Death, a serious illness, divorce, loss of a job – all of these transitions can be momentous and force us to look more deeply at our own lives.

How Literature can help

A good book can be like drifting on a current – you start at one place and when you look around a little later, things have changed. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s writing has always had the effect of changing me. I love to re-read books as I go through different phases of my life, and in April I was focused on the novel Half of a Yellow Sun. As my circumstances were suddenly looking very different from the path I had expected for our family, and it cast a new light on the story I was reading.

discomfort is the first sign

The circumstances we live with have been crafted both by the stories we have created around us, and the stories of powerful people. Leaders, cults, tyrants, communities, parents, teachers, friends, family, sales people, the media – humans use storytelling to create meaning, purpose, and unity, as well as to control, direct and hold power over others. If we fit with the story, our lives flow. However, if the circumstance around us change, we can realise that what has previously been our strength can become our weakness.

the first lesson: the truth is optional

The truth is optional in leadership. A compelling and persuasive story depends on emotional resonance more than facts to hook the attention of the masses. In Half of a Yellow Sun, the vision of a few results in the death of a million and the changed lives of many millions more. It shows us from the safety of our own world how an ideology can turns the story of an entire nation can fall into starvation, death and violence.

The Second lesson: the facts lie in Discomfort

The machinations of the world we live in may be far-reaching and out of our control, and the competing stories presenting us with partial truths. It can be overwhelming to listen to the stories around us, however the greatest responsibility we have is to view ourselves and the stories around us with a critical and unflinching assessment.

The third lesson: our identity is separate from our circumstances

It is easy to enmeshed our identity with our circumstances, and to feel we belong. When this occurs, many of our choices and actions can become rooted in fear, sacrificing our own instincts to stay in this circle. We work towards KPIs and forming a sense of meaning in our work, but if asked Why? enough times, the answer will likely come down to fear of the loss of our jobs, fear of failure, and fear of financial loss. Until a new leader comes in or the circumstances change, and then we either align with the new and exciting vision, or we are pushed out of the circle.

Half of a Yellow sun

The novel Half of a Yellow Sun sets out a compelling story of emotional investment and experiences during the birth and death of a new nation. As the circumstances move from visionary and hopeful to broken and destructive, the emotional investment in the vision of a Biafran nation affects the strengths and weaknesses of the characters.

“You can’t write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.”

– Kainene to her boyfriend, Richard (Chapter 14)

society provides a script, we choose how to act on it

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi sets out for us a story that many of us will never experience in our lives – the vision, building and destruction of a nation. In Half of a Yellow Sun, despite the development of civil war, life continues – with sexual relationships, interpersonal conflicts and hubris mixed in with survival, starvation and violence.

Does an inciting event like the civil war cause a change in behaviour in people? Or does it bring our strengths and weaknesses to the surface, challenging our ability to adapt while remaining true to our values?

“When I lost my whole family, every single one, it was as if I had been born all over again […] I was a new person because I no longer had family to remind me of what I had been.”

– Inatimi to Richard, changing his dislike to reverence (Chapter 27)

new circumstances create new fears

The first time I read Half of a Yellow Sun I paid attention to the war and the chaos of circumstance. There was an element of being safe and removed from the story. During the second reading, I experienced our own circumstances being turned upside down, and became hooked by the thought that our fears make us vulnerable, which in turn influences our behaviour.

It can be as evident as fearing death. Or as deeply imprinted in us by societal rules to avoid judgement and rejection at the cost of our own desires or needs.

how does the story play out for our characters?

In Half of a Yellow Sun there are several narratives to offer. One of the key narratives that target how our strengths and weakness are impacted by our circumstances, is that of Olanna and her twin, Kainene.

Kainene is described to us as one of life’s cynical observers, pitied by her twin for being side-lined socially yet perceived to fail to adapt and help herself. Olanna is the character we are primed to like and pay attention to expected to form a bond with – an intelligent woman of privileged background, a person who is described as beautiful and kind, open and inclusive.

When war intrudes however, Kainene’s perceived coldness is contrasted with Olanna’s self-described warmth. The weakness of Kainene’s stand-offish nature allows her the freedom to act with agency, while Olanna’s protects her image for kindness and unity, ultimately setting her on a path of dependency.

Olanna’s kindness and need for closeness are considered virtues and Half of a Yellow Sun quietly criticises our bias towards pleasant and nice. Initially I felt pity and compassion for Olanna. This time however, I saw her imprisoned by her desire to be kind and need to belong, self-presenting her dependency on others as a virtue of kindness and connectivity. Instead of seeing her as being a victim of fate, I wondered if she was merely bleeding the resources of her wealth and privilege into the dust.

In contrast, Kainene’s pragmatism and distance to others emerges as a deep sense of her own identity and the reality around her. Living the same story as Olanna, she has the same values and virtues deep inside her. The difference is that she sees the stories with clarity. Kainene’s decisions take her on different paths, deeply rooted in her need for independence and truth.

It does not make her less vulnerable, yet at the end of it all I would say that Kainene stands in the face of the storm, while Olanna is swept away, at least for a time.

We understand our world through stories

Despite the differences in their personalities, Olanna and Kainene share several critical advantages – wealthy parents, education and social privilege. Money and power go hand-in-hand, offering protection and an easy escape. The other side of that reality is the narrative of Ugwu, a young village boy.

Ugwu is introduced to us early, having just moved from his village to start as a houseboy for Olanna’s boyfriend, Odenigbo. He experiences three different stories around him – the beliefs and customs of his village, Odenigbo’s charismatic ideologies for a new nation, and Olanna’s vulnerability which stirs a need for him to protect her. Initially Ugwu can allow all of these stories to co-exist within himself, allowing himself to hold onto parts of village life, adopting Odenigbo’s narrative, and unwavering loyalty to Olanna.

As the protective circle of his employers shrinks during the devastation and violence of the Biafran War, Ugwu is affected by the reality of these stories. He sees village people killed and starved, displaced from their home as a result of the ideologies Odenigbo expresses. His loyalty to Odenigbo is challenged by the impact of his ideologies on Olanna. And his protectiveness of Olanna is challenged by his emerging independence and the impact that creates on his developing identity.

“He was not living his life; life was living him.”

– Ugwu, fearful of death and feeling pressured to participate in sexual assault (Chapter 29)

the truth will eventually catch up

Leadership theory writes that the truth is optional – it is more important to create an emotional connection to guide behaviour and chang. Regardless of the persuasiveness of a story, there must be facts to support the continuation of the story. Odenigbo is a narrative that shows us an identity woven so tightly with an identity that would rather risk death than admission of a new truth. Odenigbo is Olanna’s boyfriend and Ugwu’s employer. He is a charismatic and out-spoken man who enjoys gathering intellectuals around him for fine dinners and passionate debates in the safety of his living room.

“There are two answers to the things they will teach you about our land: The real answer and the answer you give in school to pass.”

– Odenigbo telling Ugwu to develop external compliance and internal objectivity (Chapter 1)

Odenigbo may claim to recognise the difference between “the real answer and the answer you give in school to pass”, but as stories of war, survival and betrayal unravel his life and the lives of those who love him, he refuses to change his narrative. Passionate and forceful idealism become selfish actions to maintain the storyline he has committed himself and others into, instead of being channelled into meaningful conviction and purpose.

WE will all be changed

Half of a Yellow Sun is an incredible and important story about lives lost. Beyond that the characters explore how we can all respond to stories differently, and how honest we are about the stories we tell ourselves.

The fictional lives of those we meet in Half of a Yellow Sun are forced by war to peel away the layers of the stories around us. Olanna must face how her dependence on others affects her agency and her ability to listen for the truth. Odenigbo must face the consequences of his emotional investment in a story that not longer exists. Ugwu is adrift, finally tethered to an understanding of himself by a traumatic experience. And Kainene is gradually revealed to us as the biased perception of her struggles become her strengths.

Hanging on to the pages of this story we can ask ourselves what story we are telling ourselves, and whether our fears and vulnerabilities influence our ability to hold uncomfortable truths. It is a call to confront our dependencies, to look at our perceived strengths and weaknesses with new eyes, and develop a story for ourselves that is rooted in agency and self-realisation.

“Why do you need so much outside of yourself? Why isn’t what you are enough?”

– Olanna’s emotional dependence is pointed out by a neighbour (Chapter 20)

everything comes to an end

Our stories are not guaranteed the ending we wish for them, and they can always be cut off before we are ready. Learn from Half of a Yellow Sun to question what we are telling ourselves, and being told.

“The reason we live as we do is because we do not remember that we will die. We will all die.”

– Odenigbo to Olanna, grieving a death he perceives as his failure and responsibility (Chapter 28) 

It does not matter whether we want to be changed. It matters how we clearly we see ourselves so we can respond to the changes that happen to us.

It is April May June July August September, and the cancer is in remission.

We have been changed.

What is next?

Are our choices our own or the will of another?

by

Are our choices our own or the will of another?

“It is horrifyingly easy to make people perform as you wish, if they think they are in control.”

the bone people, by Keri Hulme, is a story of three broken individuals isolated in a rugged coastline town in New Zealand. Bound by dependence as much as desire, the events reveal how control can masquerade as connection.

Literature One-liner

To control another is to rewrite their choices until they mistake your will for their own.

Leadership one-liner

T“It is horrifyingly easy to make people perform as you wish, if they think they are in control.” — a reminder that manipulation thrives where power hides behind empathy.

The illusion of control 

Calvin & Hobbes - life lessons of the best kind

Calvin & Hobbes – the best of life’s lessons

Let us take rain as an example of the illusion of control. In Denmark, the Viking progeny obstinately insist “there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”. A foreigner may be initially submissive to inclement weather, exclaiming “there’s no way I am going out in that” before miserably realising they are powerless and, in fact, do have to go out in that. 
Danes hold stubbornly to the illusion that the weather does not control their decisions or activities. Instead, the country collectively claims the weather is powerless when one owns 87 combinable layers of varied waterproofing and breathability. Reluctance to submit to or obey the controlling forces of powerful weather gods are very much a part of the Danish psyche. 
I can merely offer you this wisdom. If you see an umbrella floating past in a minor flood, you may need to brace yourself and persist with that outdoors barbecue (true story).
Control is not a main theme of the bone people. As it often is with control, the lessons in this book are more subtle. I can promise you however, that you will enter the first page with a certain view of life and will leave the last page conflicted.

It is (horrifyingly) easy to make people perform as you wish

I learnt early. You learnt early. During the first year of life, a baby develops the ability to “manipulate” in order to fulfil survival needs while dependent on others. You may understand this as a form of communication rather than the definition that the word manipulation brings to mind. To manipulate is to control or shape an outcome – we colour the word with our experience of manipulation occurring in deceitful or unfair ways.

Fine-tuning our strategies

Our communication shapeshifts into more advanced forms of power, control, influence and persuasion through our experiences, interactions with others, and the discovery of subtlety. Humans are motivated to fulfil needs and wants, and will test as far as we believe we have power or control.
In the bone people, Kerewin uses isolation and estrangement as a form of control over people’s expectations of her and her words as an influence to discourage the behaviour of others. Joe swings between the influences of love in response to Simon’s needs and the power of inflicting pain in order to control his foster-sons behaviour. With our small one in the story, Simon, like most children, is unconscious of his own power. Instead, Simon uses his behaviour to leverage what he can to fulfil the basic needs of belonging and safety, and to respond to his experiences.

The fight for our rights… and nefarious plans 

Manipulation and influence are skills available to all, regardless of how much or how little power and/or control an individual has. The “horrifying” aspect of manipulation grows from the roots of entitlement and privilege. When we sense an inability to fulfil our needs and wants, we may respond in what leadership theory calls destructive methods. Subterfuge and rebellion (Simon), pulling away or voicing our dissent (Kerewin), or finding ourselves in a chaos of compliance and frustration (Joe).
The bone people shows us that being in a state of survival can keep us distracted, reactive and increasingly unfulfilled, despite thinking we are in control.

We need the whole to -vive

We need to be part of a whole in order to survive as individuals; and at the same time we need to be individual in order to for the whole to thrive. It is about a constant search for balance with respect for our different heritages.
Togetherness, aligned behaviours, collective purpose – these are some of the goals of leadership. It is expected a leader will use influence, persuasion, power and control as tools to redirect beliefs, decisions and actions. Yet it is an illusion. The goal of leadership at the end of the day is to achieve a result.

“It is horrifyingly easy to make people perform as you wish, if they think they are in control.”

Chapter 10 – The Kaumatua and the Broken Man


It is here that some will pay attention to the word “horrifyingly” while others accept the sentence as “easy”. The use of acceptable control creates obedience, compliance and consent while avoiding resistance and dissent. When control becomes excessive, resistance and dissent rise, along with dangerous levels of obedience, passive compliance and conformity.

Life is Brutal for some, routine for others 

In the bone people we are offered people on the outside of the system. Kerewin chooses isolation from her community and estrangement from her family, preferring to live alone and undisturbed by the needs and wants of others. For Joe, it is his upbringing which has left a void between him and his heritage, a gap that merely widens and sets him adrift after the death of his wife and child. The third focal person of the story is Simon, a boy of between 7-9 years of age who occupies a silent space somewhere between a child’s understanding of the world and the consequences of the adult world. 

The forces you live with

There are forces of influence, persuasion, power and control in the bone people which are also reality for all of us outside the page of a book. There is the ongoing influence and persuasion for Kerewin to develop a more open and pleasant approach to people despite the personal discomfort it causes her; for Joe to have better self-control over his foster-son despite limited support; and for Simon to go to school and behave as a child is expected to, while the adults around him discriminate, neglect and are self-absorbed, providing gentle understanding one moment and angry rejection the next. 
Although influence and persuasion are preferred methods to change behaviour, forms of resistance or dissent is considered destructive by the person being controlled, regardless of the personal cost of that influence or persuasion. If the required change of behaviour is perceived as necessary, efforts will graduate into the use of power and control. This is considered fundamental and necessary in leadership. 

Well, if it gets the job done… 

Arguably an acceptable strategy if you are the one in control (and at peace with having that control). The kaumatua (elder) is not at peace with holding control over others, identifying it as horrifying. He recognises control is vulnerable to the whims of the individual, adding he learned manipulation early in his life from “someone who was far too wise”. Manipulation, control, power, influence and persuasion stem from what is perceived to be of value to the controlling person – whether that value is personal or collective gain, or creates productive or destructive experiences and results to the person being controlled.
Perhaps you are aware of control and able to see through the influence and persuasion. Or it could be that you choose to comply (fully or camouflaged), or believe you are manipulating or controlling the situation to your own benefit. 

“… if they think they are in control.” 

It is the illusion which drives behaviour change. As long as you do not perceive the control, you can be made to perform as another person wishes.
And vice versa.
Do you find that horrifying?

What lies beneath? 

Beneath the persuasion, the influence and the control. Beneath our perception of what we want, or what we think is ours. 
As you come to the end of the final page of the bone people, stop a moment. Consider the extent of power available to some individuals, the potential for abuse of that power, and the dependence created by power imbalance. As the bone people shows us, the illusion of control can mislead us into a false sense of autonomy.
Kerewin, Joe and Simon all had a sense of disconnect, unease, unhappiness, or felt unfulfilled. These are all signs the balance of power has shifted too far and it is time to pay more attention to what lies beneath your decisions and actions.

A book and the weather 

As with Danish weather, the bone people will evoke different reactions and occasional suffering. It is a controversial book, which draws me in. When literature polarises us it is a gift to understanding more about one another.
Rewritten and rejected, there are those who consider it a messy and uncomfortable story, and those who see the beauty of the tangled and ambiguous people.
A judge for the Booker Prize said the bone people would win over her dead body. It won (and the judge is still alive 40 years later – she may have overestimated her influence and power).  

The title divides US

In the book the phrase “e nga iwi o nga iwi” is explained as a play on words – the bones of the people or the people of the bones. The Māori word iwi is more commonly recognised as one meaning a tribe of people (or nation), with a lesser known secondary meaning of bones (or strength). 
In Danish the book is titled Marvfolket (marv meaning marrow). I fell down several rabbit holes before emerging with the conclusion that for early settlements in Denmark, marrow was a nutritious source of calories in the bleak winter months. No connection to e nga iwi o nga iwi.
There was one source of mythology referencing marrow – that of Loki using manipulative and persuasive words to convince a boy into eating the marrow of one of Thor’s goats. Aha! A connection to control.
I am relatively certain that was not the intended connection when the title was translated. Instead, I have been left with the belief that even from the title we are taken into the story with different understandings of the world.
It is understandable that it is experienced so differently.

it really has nothing to do with leadership

Instead the bone people is about isolation, violence, love, colonial legacy and Māori heritage. I would argue, however, that both leadership and literature are in agreement about one common factor: An individual who stands alone and resists compliance (as the characters in the bone people) take us to the precipice of change.
Leadership aims to create change through compliance, while literature breaks out the rebellious spirits to explore a new way of being. 

INCOMPLEtE & BROKEN

“I don’t know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart.”

Chapter 6 – Ka Tata Te Po (Night is Near)

Leadership prefers obedience and order, while the bone people peel back layers to show the complexity and disorder of lives we often ignore.  
There is no evident hero or villain. People are good while doing bad things. Joe is a loving and compassionate father who explodes into extreme domestic violence towards the very one he loves. Kerewin’s eloquence with words both wound and soothe. Simon is punished and corrected for childish misdeeds, while the adults turn a blind eye as he is subjected to abuse and neglect.
Through the pages we hold the complexity of violent love, cruel comfort and concerned neglect, while at the same time our brains try to rationalise and understand the decisions and actions of Kerewin, Joe and Simon. It reminds us to be kind.

“Heaven and hell, you never knew what people had in their past.”

Chapter 5 – Spring Tide, Neap Tide, Ebb Tide, Flood
The bones of MY people and the PEOPLE OF YOUR BONES

I can understand how some of the impact of the bone people may be missed or difficult to relate to. Colonial legacy and native heritage are a critical part of this book, the merging of different cultures into a whole while retaining an identity that strengthens us.
It was confronting and abrasive for me to read, invoking shame and then curiosity. Shame I have learnt a language from a country on the other side of the world, yet never learned a language of my birthplace. And shame I took so long to learn to balance out inherited bias with my own exploration.
However, in choosing curiosity, it helps to break the frame through which I view the world. It allows me to understand more than judge, to see more than assume. To understand how the bones of my people influence me, and how the people of your bones influence you.

“E nga iwi o nga iwi” 

Simon imagines Joe saying this sentence as he reflects on their need to be together and to create a home together. The phrase is a play on words, meaning both our ancestors and relations (the bones of the people), and the people at the beginning of all things (the people of the bones). While our legacy and heritage – not necessarily cultural, but also personal – are what brought all of us to this particular day, it is how we choose to take it into tomorrow that matters the most. 
We may accept we are constantly being manipulated by the legacy and heritage of previous generations, the power and control of others, and the influence and persuasion in our environment. In turn we exert control over others, finding ways to make them perform as we wish. We may accept that it is easy, and turn away from looking too carefully. We may blind ourselves to only see what we perceive as our control. 
Or we may remember it is only an illusion of control, a way to satisfy entitlements and wants. Or maybe the Danish people actually do have the right idea – focus on what you can control. And remember to be… waterproof?

how to read the bone people 

You could swallow a dictionary, battle through the prose, and try to rationalise mythology line by line. In books like this, I prefer to practice allowing the story to ebb and flow. This means a consistent rhythm of moving forward and taking it as I feel it should be. Whether that means a paragraph or several chapters, slowly paying attention or lightly reading, it results in constant movement.
The bone people starts with a small boy of indeterminate years found half-drowned on a beach. He has been washed up with the detritus of the sea as well as the dead bodies of a man and a woman. The blonde-haired and blue-eyed child is fostered with a Māori family and given the name of Simon (Haimona in Māori). Half-wild and fey, mute and stubborn, he is raised in the home of Joe, his foster-father. 
When Simon breaks into the home of Kerewin – an artist estranged from her family and self-isolated from the community – an unlooked for relationship begins to form between the three of them.
Love and violence are inextricably entwined, making the bone people a story that flays each layer slowly away to reveal the bleached and bare reality of lives we may not easily understand. This story will set a hook in your mind about the vulnerability and complexities of relationships, love and belonging. 
The bone people will not allow you to mirror yourself as many books try to do. Instead you will be led into a world you are unlikely to fully understand or recognise, and to live alongside people you will likely never encounter in your life. 

“But all together, they have become the heart and muscles and mind of something perilous and new, something strange and growing and great. Together, all together, they are the instruments of change.” 

Chapter 10 – The Kaumatua and the Broken Man

Te mutunga – ranai te take
The end – or the beginning

Could you make a decision that would leave a mark on your soul?

by

Could you make a decision that would leave a mark on your soul?

“It was simultaneously right and hideously wrong.”

We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jensen is a sweeping novel stretching across generations and exploring how duty, desire and survival evolve across generations. Each individual life is shaped by the sea, the tight-knit community of their hometown Marstal, and the micro-communities onboard ship.

Literature One-liner

To go to sea is to follow in the footsteps of those before you, yet each voyage introduces a challenge that depends on instincts rather than instructions.

Leadership one-liner

To lead others brings moral weight and consequences that outlive your command and shape lives.

Leadershitship 

A leader was once heard to say he that he did not care what happened to anyone in the organisation – unless that person’s results directly contributed to his bonus. The other leaders sat in silence, until another leader spoke up in admiration of the other leader’s honesty. Is this leadership?

Leadership is rare 

The phenomenon of leadership is one that occurs in the relationships between people. The balance between results and people is critical. When decisions are based on the bank account of a power holder, that is where leadershit happens. It is the ability of a leader to make a decision that is impartial and independent of emotion, while still being entirely connected through relationships.

Erm… what?

To put the quote into the perspective of leadership and expand on this point, we need to join Knud Erik as he sails through a sea of drowning men, and ignoring their pleas to save their lives.
There is a greater good, explains the leaders onshore. If a ship slows to rescue survivors of other sunk ships, the ship becomes a target for U-boats, and puts the lives of those on board at risk as well as the lives of those on land who depend on the ship’s cargo of essential war supplies. 
As captain, Knud Erik perceives these orders as being “simultaneously right and hideously wrong”.

As the leader executing the order, he sails through waters filled with blinking red distress lights on life vests and voices crying out for help. Knud Erik finds himself helplessly watching from the bridge of his ship as limbs are caught in their propellers and men implode from depth charges. The blinking red distress lights fade into the distance, each one signalling a man left to die of exposure. 

Decision to action 

It is a powerful and uncomfortable image. At the same time, it is a critical reflection on what we are willing to live with if we take on a leader role. Decision making skills can be taught, and are considered a key aspect of successful leadership. The ability to use a broad frame for decision-making while simultaneously simplifying the process results in fast and accurate decision-making and is considered a strong leadership skill. A leader is expected to respond to knowledge rather than emotions, yet at the same time use relationships and emotions to execute results. In We, the Drowned, deciding whether or not to follow the order results in Knud Erik feeling trapped by circumstance, and he takes a second and more personal decision. 

Leaders arise in times of difficulty 

A leadership conflict posed for us by reading We, the Drowned, is that we are bound to the changes in our world. Our lives and beliefs are defined on where we live and how we see life, yet we are pulled by tides and currents that are outside of our control. The world changes, and people find themselves reacting in unexpected ways. 

Good leadership is only partly good decision-making 

Knud Erik follows the premise of “good” leadership decision-making when he obeys the orders. He uses his knowledge and experience towards the greater good, at the cost of the drowning men around him. The human cost of the decision is what drives him to move from being a holder of a leader role to leadership.
Knud Erik takes a second decision to shoulder the consequences of this order alone. He takes the helm and sends his crew below deck. He does this to shield his crew from the responsibility of this impossible decision, and makes him the sole responsible for the execution of this order. Knud Erik’s leadership shields his crew from the mental pressure of following orders that sacrifice lives, while looking into the faces of the doomed men.

is leadership about Responsibility at the cost of self? 

Is that what makes the difference between a leader and a power holder? In We, The Drowned, Knud Erik mitigates the impact on the crew so they could function to keep the ship and convoy safe, sacrificing the price of his mental and physical health for emergency supplies. He watched men die so that others – some of them unseen along the logistics line – would survive.
If Knud Erik had directed others to follow the orders, he would have protected himself and exposed others to the horror, risking that another man would fail in the execution of the orders. Yet if Knud Erik took the full weight of the decision entirely on his own shoulders, his deteriorating physical and mental health also risks his ability to protect his crew and lead.

At what price? 

We, the Drowned offers an example of how the ever-changing nature of the world around us can put us into positions that challenge the core of who we are. Feeling trapped by circumstances has an impact on our perception of stress, and becomes a default factor in our decision-making and risk factor for subsequent mistakes. After all, we are only human and have our identities, values and conscience to live with long after the decision has been made.
Perhaps you are not at war or feeling alone at the helm as Knud Erik experiences, but we can all experience being at war with ourselves. Decision-making may very well depend on emotionless assessment – but the cost of that decision may not be acceptable to you or others. 

What is the book about? 

We, the Drowned is a complex weaving of lives encompassing nearly 200 years in a Danish sailing community. As we follow different characters, there are several themes that emerge. Community and conflict, the impact of change, transition from childhood to adulthood, and gaps between generations to name a few. 

The grasping of power 

A theme about the people who step forward to grasp power was also part of this novel. We, the Drowned demonstrates several characters who are motivated by personal desire, dark personality traits or personal bias. 

Read past the individual stories 

We, the Drowned covers a broad range of human behaviours and interpersonal interactions to reflect over. The storylines demonstrate over and over the passive inability to protect oneself or others when a destructive or malicious individual steps into power. When authority and power is wielded with cruelty and personal desire driving decision-making and actions there is an impact on each generation. The boys of the town always react to authority figures and respond to aggressive levels of control; however a learned helplessness develops that follows the boys as they move into adulthood and onboard ships. 

In change, we seek what remains stable 

Regardless of who holds power, the world is always changing. The young are being directed along a pathway changing with political instability and technological advancement, and each older generation finds themselves watching their way of life slipping away. There is an ongoing search for what is stable and underlying all of the separate experiences is a shared identity. 

Community and identity both divide and unite us  

Birth in Marstal comes with a predefined destiny and shared childish enemies. The micro-communities that exist onboard ship provides a fertile ground for cruelty and wielding of power, rather than leadership. Out of the eyes of the broader community, power imbalances emerge and the boys and men find values and identity challenged, often with deadly and meaningless consequences. 
Values may be merely shadows of words that shake their beliefs, however identity can be held deep within a person and guarded fiercely and secretly. In We, the Drowned, the characters take their identity as part of the Marstal community – generations of seafarers and adventurers – into the wider world. Here it becomes a tool to help them find one another amongst strangers and becomes an undefinable secret part of themselves.  

Women as wallpaper 

Male dominant narratives push the female perspective into the background of the story. Women are described as being left alone to raise families, and subsequently the female narrative becomes a mere shadow in the main thread. There is an implied helplessness to the independence of the men, and the women remain acting out generation after generation to a duty to children and the future independent men. 

The woman with unexpected decisions 

Only one woman who seeks security reaps the rewards of unexpected power. With the removal of responsibilities, she follows a similar narrative path as the men – into an attempt to control her future. Following a narrow frame of perspective tainted by her bias and fear, the resulting decision-making develop into a case of disruptive leadership, unchecked by the passive larger group of the community who underestimate her intentions and abilities.  

what happens after this quote?  

In order to ignore survivors, Knud Erik makes another leadership decision and the crew respond with a decision of their own. 
Knud Erik isolates himself, taking the full responsibility on himself and unable to connect, communicate or function with other people – both when at the helm and when at rest. Withdrawing into a lack of consciousness through alcohol, he feels he is operating out of himself. A state that is not sustainable and in leadership terms, risks future decision-making. In return, his crew uphold his isolation and keep their distance. Callous, I thought. 
However, the crew’s decision to respect his isolation is described as shielding Knud Erik as their captain. In acknowledgement of the personal cost of his decision, they decide that any sign of sympathy would cause him to break down and fail as a leader.  

“They shielded him so he could get on with the job of shielding them. They needed a captain and they gave him the chance to be that man.” 

Part IV – The End of the World

Knud Erik’s choice to take the consequences of the decision positively impacts the perception of his leadership amongst the crew, while simultaneously breaking down his mental and physical health.  
In terms of the quote that we have worked with – 

“It was simultaneously right and hideously wrong.” 

Part IV – The End of the World

You may have assumed that this line was from his decision-making to obey the rule to ignore survivors. However, this line is written at a point when Knud Erik eventually reaches breaking point and disobeys the rule. 
As the situation around him dissolves into chaos, he flings himself into a life-threatening position in an attempt to salvage his own sense of humanity, and to save at least one survivor. 

How to read this book 

It is an incredibly detailed story. Characters are developed and discarded along the way, and the progression through time beautifully encompasses the fleeting impact of people on one another’s lives. To hold so many personalities and events within the pages makes it a difficult read. The trick to reading this book is the hooks and baits he lays out in the overlapping narratives to generate curiosity.  
And like all books that make an impression on me, there were times that I just stopped to enjoy the words and the phrasing. The opening line, for example, captures my imagination:  

“Many years ago there lived a man called Laurids Madsen, who went up to heaven and came down again thanks to his boots.” 

Part I – The Boots

It is a book to pick up and read a few pages day by day – reflecting on each moment as a separate glimpse into a kaleidoscope of perspectives that comes together differently for us all.