It was not very easy to be good then

“It was not very easy to be good then” is Jutta’s halting acknowledgment that moral conduct during the war was difficult. Spoken while she asks Marie-Laure whether Werner took the object from her, the phrase holds judgment in suspense: Marie-Laure answers no, then recalls the three times Werner helped save her.

The Exchange

Jutta asks whether her brother took the object from Marie-Laure. Marie-Laure’s thoughts turn to the boy, the model, and the possibility that it has never been opened; she sets the house down suddenly, as if it is very hot. Jutta, watching her closely and seemingly apologetic, asks whether he took it. Marie-Laure says no. Jutta reaches the limits of her French as she explains that it had not been easy to be good then.

What Marie-Laure Remembers

The answer is followed by Marie-Laure’s effort to put the past in order. She thinks that events which first seem jumbled may grow more confusing or gradually settle into place. In that process of recollection, Werner’s actions become a three-part account of rescue: he did not expose Etienne when he should have; he took the sergeant major out of the way; and he helped Marie-Laure get out of the city.

Moral Significance

Jutta’s words do not erase the difficulty of judging what Werner did; they acknowledge the conditions under which goodness had to be chosen. The exchange brings a direct question about taking something into contact with Marie-Laure’s memory of being saved. Her answer is not a claim that the past was simple, but a refusal to cast Werner as having taken the object from her. The phrase gives moral weight to the circumstances without turning those circumstances into an excuse, while Marie-Laure’s recollection supplies the particular acts by which she understands his goodness.