The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Last night I finished the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo is such a gifted writer, but at times I got mired down in the details of the book. The theme of the book, at least what I took out of it, is that people and situations are often not what they seem. The priest, was a very pious but yet very sinister man. Quasimodo was very ugly on the outside, but loving, sincere and genuine on the inside. Esmaralda, the gypsy was beautiful, but had little substance and could not see past the exterior of others. Phoebus, the strong, good looking captain was worried about what others might think instead of just doing the right thing. After reading the book I sat in bed thinking about how often we (I) judge a situation in a social context, instead of a moral context.

This book emphasized to me again the importance of judging ideas on their merits instead of basing the judgment on who made the statement. I have found this to be more difficult than it seems. When we have a history with an individual, the question at hand is already slanted in one way or the other by our past experiences with the person. If our experiences are positive, we may tend to rubber-stamp the idea, if the experience was negative, we may be over critical and reject a really good idea.