Relationships seem to be hard for Julius to form. He feels isolated because he is of mixed race and estranged from his family Beyond Julius' academic qualities he is cultured, inquisitive, a keen observer, sensitive to hints of individual experience and a quiet listener, .
Near the end of the book a childhood friend of Julius makes a horrendous accusation against our beloved protagonist, "she said that, in late 1989, when she was fifteen and I was a year younger, at a party her brother had hosted at their house in Ikoyi, I had forced myself on her. "(pg.244) Nothing before that statement would ever lead me to believe that he is capable of such a grotesque act. In a large portion of the book Julius is depicted as a charitable, insightful, hardworking and attentive character, but as soon as he is accused of rape his entire demeanor changes without it even being proven as factual information. This is the fourth encounter between the two of them, and it is the first time she has brought it up, that doesn't seem normal. The first time they encountered one another in America was in a grocery store, she was the first to initiate communication between the two, and he didn't even remember her. Why would a victim of rape engage her rapist and exchange pleasantries? It doesn't add up.
Julius as a qualified psychiatrist is trained to listen to people's problems, and search for the root causes of these issues. He analyzes situations as an outsider looking in, even when they involve him personally, so I did not find it strange whatsoever that he did not defend himself because it probably would not have changed anything. After the accusation was made Julius compared it to a double story told by Camus "I thought of how Camus tells a double story concerning Nietzsche and Gaius Mucius Cordus Scaevola, a Roman hero from the sixth century B.C.E. Scaevola had been captured while trying to kill the Etruscan king Porsenna, and, rather than give away his accomplices, he showed his fearlessness by putting his right hand in a fire and letting it burn.
