Journey to the End of the Night

Bardamu presents Robinson as a fellow traveler on the journey into the night. Their first meeting establishes their similarities: Amid the chaos and violence of World War I, they find each other in the night and embark on a shared journey to have themselves captured by the enemy. Together, they reject the expectations of patriotism and duty. Together, they act against what is expected of them. Together, they fail miserably and are forced back to their posts. When Bardamu does finally get medically dismissed from the military, he decides to escape from his duties by traveling to the French colonies in Africa. Robinson is already a step ahead of him, motivated by the same desires. Robinson is in the process of abandoning his post, as Bardamu does a short time later. Their shared experiences drive them to the same conclusions, so much so that Bardamu soon expects to see Robinson everywhere he goes. Their fates are bound together because they are so similar. When Robinson appears in America or in Paris, he is seemingly inevitable. To Bardamu, he is an external manifestation of the symbolic journey into the night.

Notably, however, Robinson is always a step ahead of Bardamu in this journey. Robinson is the first to suggest that they desert the army. He is already at the trading post—and already in the process of running away—when Bardamu arrives. Back in Paris, Bardamu tries to follow his original plan to become a doctor, but Robinson embarks on a much more harebrained scheme. He rejects any kind of morality, deciding that the best way to secure a pension is to blow up an old woman. Bardamu is an immoral man, but he does not countenance murder at any time. As such, Robinson gradually begins to move further ahead of Bardamu in the journey. They remain bound together, largely because Bardamu is one of the few people who is sympathetic to Robinson. No matter what crimes Robinson may be planning, Bardamu understands his companion. Their friendship—to the extent that it can be labeled a friendship—is built on this mutual rejection of conventional morality. The journey itself is an attempt to escape trauma, rejecting morality and social expectations in favor of survival at any cost. Bardamu alone understands Robinson’s hedonism and amorality, allowing Robinson to indulge himself even further. For Bardamu, Robinson’s journey functions as a cautionary tale, helping Bardamu to understand what might happen to him if he pursues the same path. Robison fails and then succeeds in killing Grandma Henrouille, taking the life of an innocent older woman because she annoyed him and because he wanted to take over her business. This act dooms Robinson. He not only crosses a moral threshold that Bardamu never crosses, but he also sets in place the forces that will lead to his ultimate demise.

In killing Grandma Henrouille, Robinson binds himself to Madelon. She is no longer just another woman who has been forced to endure his lies; she is now a co-conspirator in murder, who possesses the legal power to have Robinson thrown in prison. This threat of legal mutually assured destruction hangs over Robinson. He runs away from Madelon, just as he and Bardamu have run away from everything else.

For once, Robinson cannot outrun Madelon. She loves him, she says, and she is bound to him. Bardamu cannot help Robinson. He can only watch as Robinson tries and fails to squirm his way out of his relationship with Madelon. The more he tries, the deeper he becomes embroiled in her clutches. She will not let him go, and his attempts to drive her away only infuriate her. Madelon kills Robinson, a suitably symbolic and definitive end to Robinson’s journey into the nihilistic night. Her action is a consequence of Robinson’s lies, forcing him to deal with the effect of his own actions. He cannot run away from, lie to, or ignore Madelon. She is his reckoning, and in this way, she is analogous to the Furies—goddesses of vengeance who pursue transgressors in Greek mythology. Robinson’s death is the end of Bardamu’s own journey. Robinson, always one step ahead of Bardamu, provides a worrying example of what might happen if Bardamu does not change his ways. As such, Robinson’s legacy is to provide an example of how not to live.

Grandma Henrouille is an elderly woman who goes on a journey of her own. When she is first introduced to Bardamu, she is deemed a shut-in. In a physical sense, she is suffering from the same isolation and alienation that Bardamu himself feels. She is severed from her community and cut off from social interaction. Bardamu sympathizes with the old woman, especially when he learns that her son and daughter-in-law want him to have her committed to a mental health facility. They are not concerned about her health or wellbeing; they simply want to collect her pension and alleviate their workload. They are acting purely out of self-interest. Bardamu, someone who feels alienated from conventional morality, is faced with a choice. He can get paid by doing as he is asked but, in doing so, he will be condemning this elderly woman to even greater alienation. Even though he is desperate for money, Bardamu refuses to do as he is asked.

Bardamu’s decision not to declare Grandma Henrouille senile provides her with a new lease on life. Having learned what her son and her daughter-in-law had planned, she ventures out of her home. At first, she goes out to challenge people like Bardamu and reprimand them for any thoughts that they might have harbored against her. Once out, however, she is filled with a renewed desire to live. She becomes much more sociable, reviving her desire for life. Bardamu is impressed and envious. Not only does he admire the way in which she has overcome the alienation that was imposed on her, but he also admires her motivation. Grandma Henrouille decides to live to spite her son. Her sudden vivacity is vindictive rather than joyous. This cynical rebuke of her son and her daughter-in-law appeals to Bardamu much more than someone who is simply optimistic or happy.

Grandma Henrouille’s rediscovered life is almost immediately placed in danger by the reappearance of Robinson, who tries to kill her in Paris and then succeeds in killing her in Toulouse. By this time, Grandma Henrouille’s son has died, and she is not particularly interested in mourning him. She still harbors resentment toward him, and her success working in the crypts in Toulouse is her way of rebuking her son and her daughter-in-law. Ironically, she goes to Toulouse with the man her son hired to kill her. There, Robinson kills her for an entirely different reason. While her son and daughter-in-law wanted Grandma Henrouille dead for financial reasons, Robinson’s murderous intent is largely personal. He resents the old woman, whose survival reminds him of his own painful failure. Her success and her vivacity become intolerable to Robinson. He pushes her down the stairs and then fails to benefit at all from her death. The renewed life of Grandma Henrouille ends with tragedy, a cynical end to one of the few characters who manages to overcome their own alienation.