Night Flight (Saint Exupery)

            I remember my first encounter with this book; a short story it seemed, and I picked it up without hesitation. But the story was much more complex than my expectations, and there were analogies and rhetoric beyond the understanding of a 14-year-old. But now, after six years past, I finally had the chance to read it again.

            The story unfolds by juxtaposing two incompatible values, which is represented by Rivière and Fabien. Riviere, with a stern and austere nature, exacts punctuality from his workers which would promise the success of the night flight business. He thrusted away the gentler joys of life including love and friendship and used all his energies for work. While pitying his deprivation of humanity he also acknowledges that he is “responsible for all the sky,” and such weakness of his cannot be tolerated. On the other hand, Fabien is lost in the sky, steering the plane through the murk of darkness. Although being newly married, the storm thronging around him makes it seemingly impossible to escape and return. After hours of desperate struggle through the darkness, he notices a small flash of starlight through the crack in the eddies, and as if possessed, drove the machine towards it, knowing so well there is no coming back.

            Throughout the book, I was not only fascinated by the Fabien’s wretched journey in search of light but was also shocked by the strict discipline of Riviere to push not just himself, but his workers and pilots beyond their limits. It was a beautiful yet sorrowful sight to see how one sacrifices everything for the perfection of the job. Quotes of his, including “man’s happiness lies not in freedom but in his acceptance of duty” and “the men are happy because they like their work, and they like it because I am hard” feel somewhat frightening at first sight. It seems as he enforces cold utilitarianism that justifies sacrifice for the greater good. However, we can notice that Riviere is not actually one of those emotionless, calculating characters but is only wearing a mask of it. For instance, quotes like “I am like the father of a sick child walking in the crowd, taking short steps, who carries in his breast the hushed silence of his house” and “love the men under your orders – but do not let them know it” reveal the hidden compassion and warmth beneath the stern mask. Discarding his humanness for the perfection of the whole – within that forlorn and solitary mission underlies indescribable sublimity and greatness.

            The central theme of the story is ‘sacrificing personal values for what one believes in.’ This is definitely a difficulty one could face while serving an organization. Especially as one moves to the top of the pyramid and takes more responsibility. This book is admirable not merely because of its literary merits but for its reflection of reality, as it imposes a question to every reader who picks it up.

            “In the shoes of Riviere, what would you do? Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for something you believe in?”

[ Quotes ]

"Love the man under your orders - but do not let them know it" 

"I am like the father of a sick child walking in the crowd, taking short steps, who carries in his breast the hushed silence of his house" 

"Life is so full of contradictions. But to endure, to create, to barter this vile body..." 

"I am saving him from fear. I was not attacking him but, across him, that stubborn inertia which paralyzes men who face the unknown.  

 "The strong are strengthened by the reverses; the trouble is that the true meaning of events scores next to nothing in the match we play with men. Appearances decide our gains or losses and the points are trumpery. And a mere semblance of defeat may hopelessly checkmate us."  

 "For action and individual happiness have no truck with each other; they are eternally at war." 

"And yet, even though human life may be the most precious thing on earth, we always behave as if there were something of higher value than human life...But what thing?" 

"No destiny attacks us from outside. But within him, man bears his fate and there comes a moment when he knows himself vulnerable; and then, as in a vertigo, blunder upon blunder lures him."