Was Oliver right to hide Nan's paternity?
Created: 07/11/18
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No. All of his decisions were cloaked in good intentions, but he had a medical responsibility to foreclose what he knew. If we were talking about the present. But he was a doctor in a place and time where women weren’t regarded as equals in so many aspects.
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He only knows it was either George Wilson or Juke Jesup -- they both had the same blood type. He trusts his intuition -- but he also knows what it means for Nan to feel she is no longer fatherless, to enjoy her new relationship with the man she understands to be her father, compared to the horror of realizing she had been raped by her own father. He does the kind thing. In this case, it is the right thing; he can't claim to know the truth for certain, and he puts her feelings first.
This also allows Sterling to be true to his best self, by regaining a family. He too would be devastated by knowing the likely (not certain) truth.
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In a college lit class many eons ago, we discussed the concept of “the saving lie” and I think in this case it is a lie of omission which Oliver chose in order to bring peace to Nan and Sterling. The truth would have been devastating for an already very fragile situation.
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