Summary
Cristian and Luca visit fields for mandatory "volunteer" work, helping gather crops. Though Cristian avoids Luca for weeks, suspecting he is the informer, he confronts his friend on the walk over. When the two boys arrive at the field, Cristian is shocked that it is barren, unlike the propaganda footage of bountiful crops he sees on television. Infuriated and afraid, he punches Luca in the face, bruising him and ending their friendship.
In school, Cristian is pulled aside to report his findings about Dan Van Dorn. Mimicking what he reads in spy novels, Cristian is elusive and vague, mentally cataloging details about the agent, such as his lack of a wedding ring and penchant for Bulgarian cigarettes. The agent forces Cristian to write and sign a statement about his findings and encourages Cristian to accompany Dan to the American library. Though Cristian leaves the interview believing he effectively duped the agent, a typed report reveals that the agent knows Cristian is withholding information.
Winter descends on Bucharest, and with it, fear, as families cannot reliably access heating and electricity. Liliana invites Cristian into her empty apartment under the pretense of getting food for the neighborhood dog. Cristian shares his chocolate, and he and Liliana enjoy a private, romantic moment holding each other. Ironically, Cristian is thankful for how "the darkness of communism" facilitates his special, secret moment.
The next day before school, Cristian waits outside in the freezing weather for hours to collect food for his family. One of his grandfather's friends approaches him and asks Cristian to pass on the message that "the coffee's not as tasty" as he thought. Though he does not understand the message, Cristian agrees.
Cristian visits Dan again and is invited to join him in the library on Saturday. Dan shows Cristian a video his friends sent him from America, and Cristian is shocked by the excess of food in the kitchen, particularly the bunches of bananas. When he walks his mother home, Cristian questions her about wanting better things for her family and criticizes her for allowing the Romanian government to control her. She slaps Cristian and forbids him from walking her home again. Cryptically, she warns him not to express his thoughts because he might end up like his grandfather.
In school, a student is overcome with guilt and anxiety and admits that he is an informer. Cristian realizes that nearly everyone in the school, including faculty, is likely an informer. Back home, Cristian talks with his grandfather, whose health is improving. Banu reveals that he knows Cristian is an informer. Then, Cristian and Liliana sit in the hall together, discussing what their lives would be like if they lived somewhere other than Romania; Liliana reveals that she would like to be a librarian, and Cristian, a writer. They nearly kiss but are interrupted when Cristian's mother, scared by a noise in the dark stairwell, screams and drops her ration of oil.
On Saturday, Cristian visits the Van Dorn family to accompany Dan to the library. Covertly, Mr. Van Dorn suggests that Cristian read the newest edition of TIME magazine, which details Hungary's new independence. Cristian's world shifts as he realizes that Nicolae Ceaușescu maintains a false image of Romania with the rest of the world and enjoys privileges like taking his family to Disneyworld. When Cristian returns home, a Harvard researcher asks for his help bringing her luggage upstairs, as she has returned home to visit her dying mother. In the apartment, Cici gives Cristian a note from Liliana, in which Liliana calls him a "liar" because she believes he informed on her. Cristian cannot convince Liliana that his relationship with her is genuine, as the police know about their secret moments, like sharing a Coca-Cola.
Analysis
I Must Betray You uses irony and contradiction to demonstrate the dehumanizing and disillusioning conditions in Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu and the extent of the regime's deception. For example, Cristian and Luca are forced to work during the harvest as part of a "mandatory volunteering" program. This paradoxical statement demonstrates how, under Ceaușescu, the Romanian people were exploited though they were told they were liberated. Cristian experiences an ironic disillusionment when he sees the barren fields; the one truth he accepted from Ceaușescu's propaganda was Romania's extensive natural resources and abundant crops. Cristian cites Romania's natural beauty as a source of pride. When this deception is revealed, Cristian is disillusioned, depressed, and furious. Cristian takes out his anger on Luca, considering him a representative of the regime's control. However, Luca did not report on Cristian, and his rage is thus misplaced, directed by the Secu's deception, adding another layer of complexity to the irony.
Darkness is a symbol used throughout the text to explore Romania's isolation and ignorance during Ceaușescu's tenure. Darkness creates fear and mistrust. The city of Bucharest suffers literal darkness, as electricity is strictly controlled and often unavailable during the winter months, suffering real and imagined dangers. For example, Cristian's mother has to walk up a dark staircase herself and screams in fear, dropping her groceries, though no actual threat exists. Similarly, the people of Bucharest are conditioned to fear imagined threats as the Secu breeds mistrust in relationships, and the government withholds critical information. On occasions when Cristian gains a new understanding of his world, weak light is often present, symbolizing his fight against the "darkness" of ignorance. For example, Cristian lights a candle in his darkened closet to write, expressing his discontent and reflecting on his philosophical beliefs.
However, the darkness of ignorance also connotes positive feelings throughout the text. Darkened spaces also represent willful ignorance and forgetting. For example, Cristian and Liliana embrace in the darkness of her apartment. Since they are constantly watched and monitored, the darkness gives them space to authentically experience their relationship, as no prying eyes can see them. In this darkness, Cristian chooses to ignore his doubts about Liliana and his suspicions that she is an informer. He reflects that "the shadows weren't gloomy. They were private."
Cristian attempts to morally justify his position as an informer by collecting information about Agent Paddle Hands and using psychological tricks to gain the upper hand in their relationship. However, Cristian's is naive and doesn't understand the danger he is in; his attempt to undermine the Secu is shaped by the fictional media he consumes, primarily Romanian spy novels. To accentuate Cristian's inexperience, the text invokes familiar spy novel tropes and writing styles. For example, Cristian lists his observations about Agent Paddle Hands in a clipped, short list. Cristian notes that Agent Paddle Hands "didn't smoke Carpați, Romanian cigarettes. He smoked BTs, Bulgarian cigarettes. He wore no wedding ring. His fingernails were meticulously clean and buffed. Odd on such enormous, knuckled hands." As Cristian begins to understand the reality and danger of his position, he begins to express himself more eloquently rather than mimicking other writers' voices. This stylistic shift demonstrates how Cristian finds his own voice and values through his resistance.
Food, particularly fruit, symbolizes hope and luxury in the text. The text recognizes that in most developed countries, access to fruit is standard. However, because Bucharest under Ceaușescu is so deprived, Cristian has never seen a banana; he maintains the simple dream of one day eating one. In an example of the motif "Poor Imitation," Cristian's mother buys him a bottle of banana-scented shampoo, which he drinks. When Dan shows Cristian a video his friends from America sent him, Cristian is appalled and hurt to see the friends casually sitting beside a bowl full of bananas. Using the banana as a constant image, the text contrasts the over-indulgence of America and the oppression of the Soviet Union, criticizing both.
