Should John have been honest about his amnesia?

Use this forum to discuss the November 2021 Book of the month, "The Freedom Building" by Martin Kendall
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Rosemary Owolabi
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Re: Should John have been honest about his amnesia?

Post by Rosemary Owolabi »

I feel in real life, doctors are usually the ones to tell patients and their loved ones about amnesia through some test,. to let them know how they could help such patients adjust to their new lifestyle.
John is therefore not under compulsion to divulge such sensitive information to anyone, he would have automatically gone into protecting his self-interest state. Nobody would want to hire an amnesia patient as a worker in their company, for example, he might have acted stupid at first by hiding it but he must have felt he was handling things intelligently at the time.
I will excuse him for this because people who suffer from amnesia are not in their right frame of mind.
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Post by Elena Nechita »

Of course it's always better to be honest, and honesty would have helped him, but then again, how would the story look like, had he been honest? It would probably be a whole lot more boring in my opinion.
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Melissa VanCleave Plant
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Post by Melissa VanCleave Plant »

I believe if John had been honest about his amnesia, there would have been no novel to write. There isn't a story without the amnesia.
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Post by Shivansh_007 »

I think he should've told atleast someone about it cause after that he would have saved him from a lot of troubles, but then again he had a serious reason not to do that, and if he had done that then we wouldn't have got such an interesting story.
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Post by Unique Ego »

Hyacinth Bella wrote: 01 Nov 2021, 08:18 I agree that he should have told someone, but then again, how does a person with amnesia know they're suffering from amnesia? How do they identify that they're suffering from it and how do they diagnose themselves with it? That confuses me still because a normal person suffering from amnesia would ask questions and therefore doctors would be able to help them. That's my takeaway.
This is what I had in mind as well. Amnesia needs to be diagnosed and established by an external element, not the victim of the amnesia. Having said that, it is John's business to tell people or to keep it to himself. However, if keeping silent will have some kind of direct or indirect averse impact on others, then you owe it to them to tell them what's going on. I guess the answer to this question can only be given on a case-by-case basis.
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Post by kdstrack »

I think John should have admitted to his amnesia. People would have been able to help him fill in the gaps he had in his memory. I wonder if his partner would have been more forthcoming about the designs and might have felt guilty about taking advantage of his partner's medical condition. John's denial (secrecy?) led to many negative consequences in his life.
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Post by jide_76 »

The question would probably be, in whom should he confide? Maybe his wife or daughter, if their relationship were not strained.
Another angle to this is, how does a man explain a memory loss when he realized that he was the brain behind a world renown building after recovering from a three and half year - coma?
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Post by Gabriella H »

Definitely, if he were honest, he would have saved himself from a lot of unnecessary trouble and stress. But, the plot of the book would've been greatly altered. I still don't get how he was able to hide such a serious condition.
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Post by Joe Candle »

I think that it is true that John would have prevented a major fraction of what he had to face in the novel if he would have been honest. The novel would have been different too though.
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Post by Rishi_reviews »

Although it's considered that honesty is the best policy, it most certainly is not in some situations. If you tell the person the whole truth then they are gonna freak out and it'll cause more trouble in your life than solve some. John did what he thought was best suited for the situation, and if he had not done that we wouldn't have got such an incredible piece of art.
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Post by J Edwards »

Well, from a moral standpoint, I think he should at least talked to someone about his amnesia. But considering that that was the basis of this story, plus I liked John better while he had the condition, he should expose this secret at all. So, as for my final answer, he should keep this a secret.
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Post by Uchechukwu Okereke »

I believe John was subject to a snowball effect. I mean, look at his life before the incident. it might not seem that way to a lot of people but he seemed to be certainly under a lot of pressure to maintain that level of work and output. I just think the pressure caught up to him eventually. I mean, sure, he had a great supporting system around him in his partner and daughter but anyone who knows what I am talking about knows how difficult it is, to be the one who feels like he/she is dragging everyone back with something that they feel, in their opinion, is quite minor. And in the end, it just ended up spiraling out of control quickly. Could he have been more honest especially to his family, though? Of course, he could have! But imagine how the story would've ended if he was.
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Post by Damis Seres Rodriguez »

Morally speaking, yes. I do believe it would have been the best way to go. However we have to accept that not all choices can be based on on morals. Memory loss can be terrifying to say the least, and I wouldn't be surprised if feelings such as shame or fear prevented him from revealing his condition. I think given the circumstances, his choice to keep it for himself was just as respectable.
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Post by Mody C »

I wonder if someone with amnesia can actually know that he is in amnesia. I don't know. Telling people "I have amnesia" is just does not make sense to me. Therefore, I like the original storyline.
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Post by William Kariuki »

For the sake of the storyline, it was good that john wasn't honest because it would have lost taste. In my opinion I think that being honest would have been better. But again, how does someone suffering from amnesia know that he's I'll? That was the question that was left ringing in my mind.
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