When I think about Adam, I think about how unsure he is about the decisions he makes. My impression of his personality is that he has very low self-confidence, and often changes his mind. He has struggled a lot with understanding what it means to live within the truth. From the beginning when he thinks about his wife and how he cannot wait for her to return to him but then changes his mind and when she comes home he does not care too much to be with her, to the time that he has to choose whether to go to the movies with his child or meet his mistress, it is obvious that Adam struggles with the abilitiy to make decisions and stick to what he believes in. I respect the fact that he does not agree with the death penalty, but there are so many other values that he holds which I feel he does not always stick to. For example, having a mistress. At the beginning it seems as if Adam is fine with his family and his home life, yet he takes a mistress and knows that it isn't what he should be doing. The part where he talks about wanting to live within the truth when he goes to the movies with his child instead of meeting his mistress shows that he wants to be a good person and the person he is supposed to be, but it's too hard for him to fully live within the truth.
Although I don't really like how Adam has abandoned some of his values, I don't judge him for it. I think he has suffered a lot in his life, and the fact that he has struggled with his values but not completely abandoned all of them shows his character. I feel bad for him for having to make a decision whether to end a man's life when he so strongly believes that the death penalty is wrong. I cannot imagine ever having to make that decision, and this novel has given me a lot more respect for all judges and juries who have to make decisions like this. I think that he is probably my favorite character out of the three main characters we have experienced in this course. (Of course, everyone is better than Ludvik.) I mainly feel sorry for Adam, and I respect him for trying to do the right thing and for trying and wishing to live within the truth.
