The three leads are set in a love triangle which also opposes two sets of morality and the dichotomy of the individual versus the group. Set in 1957, a group of Canadian and American writers and film makers live in exile in London, England. Persecuted and driven from the U.S. by McCarthyism, they form a rigid insular society, separate even from the London society around them. As the title suggests, enemies are a choice and they as a group have chosen their enemies: anyone outside of their group. Norman Price is a former Professor turned novelist and screen writer. He also represents a moral stand considered out dated by some. He believes in "justice, dignity, love, and honor." The novel suggests Norman's ethical stand, whether or not sympathetic, is outdated, a "fossil of an earlier age" in Norman's own words. To elucidate, Norman's military courage is mocked by a party guest as "a form of ignorance", he is called "erratic ... selfish, thoughtless, and irresponsible" by a friend, he is unable, in a key scene, to have sex with Sally, climaxing prematurely then running away. Such ineffectuality suggests the ineffectuality of his moral point of view. When Norman is exiled from the ex-patriots, the leader, Winkleman tries to help him. "Look Norm," Winkleman says, "in this world you've got to make a choice of enemies or you just can't live." Norman has chosen to defend Ernst, an ex-Nazi Youth, and so has angered his group. The choice given Norm is to accept the group values (including its choice of enemies) or becoming an outcast. I.c conformity or non-conformity. In rejecting the group's dictates Norm becomes their enemy and is exiled and blacklisted by them as they were blacklisted and exiled from the U.S. As Norman says in a moment of revelation, "the argument was not one of principle but of power." Norman defends Ernst partly from his own principles -ironic since Ernst rejects any principle- and partly from a desire to impress Sally, the woman both he and Ernst love. The latter is an example of motive through self-interest that Ernst would understand and approve. Tellingly, the members of the exile community sneer at the concept of self, of the individual, rhetorically equating it with Nazism. Ernst, the second character in the triangle, rejects principle. Ernst saw the same people working as oppressors for the Communists in East Germany as had done the same job for the Nazis during the war. Ernst claims to not hate Jews but refuses to acknowledge the German Karp as a fellow German because Karp is Jewish. Ernst has no regrets about joining the Hitler Youth and even recalls the group fondly. Ernst sleeps with an American soldier for cigarettes, steals and kills when he feels he must. His sole motivation is survival. "There is no right and wrong." he says, "There are conditions, rewards, punishments, and sides, but that is all." Ernst is bitter, and frequently self-pitying. When his dark secret is discovered, he wavers between running and staying. Only is affection for Sally makes him waver. He declares angrily to Norman that "Hitler burned the Jews ... and Stalin murdered the Kulaks, so that there should be a better world for me." This absurd statement is certainly NOT true, but Ernst equates it with Norman's generation killing for ideals and principles. Ernst believes only in the individual acting in self interest. Sally is the third in this love triangle. In a few brilliant brief scenes when she ventures out alone "to fish for sexual experiences" she is developed nicely as a character. Otherwise she is under-visualized, existing solely as the fulcrum between Norman and Ernst and their opposing ethical views. She is largely portrayed only so far as she affects the male character's lives, with little existence of her own, but for those brief few scenes. Eventually Norman, influenced by Ernst and by events, reaches a third ethical system, placed part way between the previous two. Not entirely rejecting the group, he allows for more of the individual in one's moral system. As he puts it, "If there was a time to man the barricades, then there is also a time to weed one's private garden."
What do You think about A Choice Of Enemies (2002)?
