William Faulkner uses his short stories to tell a tale of corruption, especially through the acceptance of white culture, and “A Justice” is no different. He writes his protagonist, Doom, as growing increasingly evil at the same time as his Eurocentric growth, irrevocably connecting the two in the mind of the reader. Faulkner then gives materialism both a negative and a European connotation, showing that it leads to narcissism and should be avoided in order to keep a functional, just society. Finally, he does the same with power, showing that Doom’s exploitation of leadership leads to a corrupt, unjust community. In “A Justice,” William Faulkner shows how the adoption of white man’s customs, particularly materialism and abuse of power, leads …show more content…
By showing the reader how Doom cheats and murders to assume leadership and then delivers false, rigged justice when in charge of his tribe, he proves that true justice cannot coexist with the European culture perpetuating the attainment of power at any cost. First, Doom rises to power dishonestly: “When the Willow-Bearer went to fetch the Man's son to be the Man, they found that he had acted strange and then died too. ‘Now Sometimes-Wakeup will have to be the Man,’ pappy said… ‘Sometimes-Wakeup does not want to be the Man,’ the Willow-Bearer said” (Faulkner 4). Rather than get a leadership role in a fair, just manner, Doom murders and intimidates the heirs to the chief so he can come into power instead; this tyrannical, oppressive behavior accentuates the skewed sense of justice, if any, this man possesses. On the topic of the the illegality of Doom’s ascent to chiefdom, Johnson adds, “The poisonous white powder that he procured during his sojourn in New Orleans is the true source of his uncontested dominance” (Johnson 30). His power comes through intimidation, not respect or merit; a meritocratic government would be fair and just, but this tyrannical, almost Macbeth-like action threatens to undermine any justice left in this community after the materialistic scourge. As the Man, one of Doom’s first tasks involves settling a dispute between Craw-ford and a black man over a Negress, and Doom decides to slant the odds in the black man’s favor in a cockfight: “‘This cock belongs to Ikkemotubbe,’ pappy said. ‘It is his,’ the People told pappy. ‘Ikkemotubbe gave it to him with all to witness’” (Faulkner 7). Doom, in the position of judge and dealer of justice, chooses to corrupt justice by interfering with it and helping the black man rather than settling the dispute fairly. Furthermore, Johnson writes, “Doom
Michelle Alexander in her eye-opener novel, The New Jim Crow, makes a dauntless premise that the racial caste system that was supposedly ended in America during the Civil Rights Movement still exists today and is completely redesigned in the sense that colored men are the target of an intentional “War on Drugs.” Alexander claims that the criminal justice system is used as a mean to racially control millions of colored people and the same system is used to demote them to a second-class citizen status. Alexander employs a great deal of rhetoric in her novel to appeal to the reader’s emotions and values, so that she is able to alter the ethos of the readers and ultimately reveal the blindness present in the United States Justice System. Alexander
In the book, The New Jim Crow, Alexander (2010) discusses the battle society is currently facing against a racial caste system that was set in place by the criminal justice system. This new caste system, erected under the cover of providing security to the public from criminals, has divided the American society in to an us versus them culture. The us, being representative of the majority, and the them, representing minorities, especially African American men. The system put in place has accomplished this by manipulating the public view of African American men. Portrayed as common criminals, drug addicts, and abusers the media has convinced the public that black men are a danger to society. In this way, a strong association with criminal activity
Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and a professor at New York University Law School, brilliantly captures the stories of Walter McMillian and many others who have suffered from the corruption and racism of the criminal justice system in his novel Just Mercy. He exposes the abuse of laws by government officials to inflict severe sentences on the poor and suffering people of this nation. He wants his readers to feel the agony and helplessness of these people who have been forgotten and left to the hands of a cruel and unrelenting organization. Just Mercy argues that government officials prey on the poor and condemn them in an unjust way.
In Kevin Boyle’s Arc of Justice: A saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, the author creates a way to describe the discrimination and horrible racial treatment inflicted on the African American community following the civil war and continuing into the 1900’s by following a black doctor’s life and his controversy in equality. The author sets the scene in the booming city of Detroit, a place many blacks ventured to when trying to escape the cruelty Jim Crow Laws forced upon many African Americans. The great migration of blacks fleeing to Detroit in search of a new life brought an increase of over seventy thousand people in just the short span of fifteen years. This sudden unwanted abundance of people, still disliked even in the North, lead to a city full of racial prejudices and unjust discrimination.
“...Jim Crow”, states Michelle Alexander, “appears to die but is then reborn in new form, tailored to the needs and constraints of the time” (page 16). Indeed, as Alexander argues throughout her book, the new Jim Crow of our modern time is ever-present and thriving in the country that is claimed to cater “for all”. This time, mass incarceration is the answer to the country’s troubles. Alexander’s thesis explains that racism is still alive in America through the new Jim Crow despite the progression of the black and brown man. The book focuses on how black men are still subject to the same racism that plagued their ancestors years ago. They are being trapped in a cycle formed by the criminal system which
In The New Jim Crow, Alexander addresses our lack of comprehension of our rights as an important factor in why targeted groups by police may sometimes run into legal troubles despite being avoidable issues. Johnson’s Privilege, Power, and Difference addresses our naivete towards our individual privileges in society as an important factor that solely contributes to why the system of privilege has been able to continue in the United States and other nations. Meanwhile, Omi and Winant’s Racial Formations addresses the fact that race is a construct created as a method of separating those who were free and who were enslaved, not as a mere name that established our origins in a manner that pertained to individuals. As a
In The Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy accurately shows how the misuse of power and idealistic beliefs of acceptance can be catastrophic and even deadly. “My entrance to this marsh-haunted city is always filled with troubled meditations on both my education and my solitude during a four- year residence at the Institute. The city of Charleston, in the green feathery modesty of its palms, in the certitude of its style, in the economy and stringency of its lines, and the serenity of its mansions South of Broad Street, is a feast for the human eyes. But to me, Charleston is a dark city, a melancholy city, whose severe covenants and secrets are a powerful and beguiling as its elegance, whose demons dance their alley dances and compose their malign hymns to the side of the moon I cannot see. I studied those demons closely once, and they helped Kill off the boy in me”, (Conroy, 1). The Lords of Discipline is a well written story about Will McLean idealistic journey from a naive boy to the eye opening harsh reality of evil that was occurring in Charleston, South
A chapter on Harper Lee's now-classic To Kill a Mockingbird deiûy analyzes the novel's ideological contradictions, showing that Lee's insistent locaLIsm at once acknowledged the continuing impact of the Scottsboro Narrative and undermined its significance as a register to the injustices of the American legal system. In a trenchant epILogue. (Foley 768)
Its prestige stems from the topic it pertains to: racism and the treatment of African Americans. The novel narrates the tale of how a young girl’s father is appointed to the trial Tom Robinson, an African American man who has been falsely accused of raping a white lady, Mayella Ewell. Despite the conclusive evidence, the verdict of the trial favored Ewell, inevitably sending Robinson to prison. The heavily deluded mindset of both the judge and jury opened the eyes of Harper Lee’s readers to the grating truth.
Lee grew up in the south in the early nineteen-hundreds. The people around her felt blacks were beneath whites and gave them many difficulties to put up with. This injustice was especially prominent in court cases, like the one Lee depicts in her novel. Though Harper Lee accepts that there is racism in the community, she reminds us all her own thoughts by giving advice to Scout that all the readers can take something away from: “‘As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it— whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash’”(Lee 224). Clearly, dealing with the injustices of trials at home inspired Lee to write her book and point out the problems we are turning a blind eye to in our own country. Using her personal background in the oppression of the south, Harper Lee shed light on the issue by depicting the issue in her remarkably well-written
It's anything but a mystery that numerous essayists think about profound quality as a standout amongst the most huge issues in human culture. They talk about profound quality in their short stories, books and lyrics. William Faulkner is one of those essayists who give careful consideration to the conventional thoughts of good and bad. In his short story Barn Burning, William Faulkner causes perusers to comprehend the contrast between unwaveringness to the law and faithfulness to the family. The principle character of the short story Barn Burning, a little kid of ten years of age experiences the issue of decision between these two ideas. He needs to pick reliability to the law because of his good and moral standards and to disregard his dad's
The birth of the modernist movement in American literature was the result of the post-World War I social breakdown. Writers adopted a disjointed fragmented style of writing that rebelled against traditional literature. One such writer is William Faulkner, whose individual style is characterized by his use of “stream of consciousness” and writing from multiple points of view.
In the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn went to a cemetery with a dead cat in hopes to cure their warts. While in the cemetery, they see Joe, Dr. Robinson, and Muff Potter robbing graves. The three guys got into an argument and Dr. Robinson knocked out Muff Potter, to then have Joe stab and kill him. After, Joe put the knife into Potter’s hand and woke him up and told him that he had killed Dr. Robinson. Joe was questioned by the police and said that Potter was the killer and Potter was sent to jail. After Tom and Huck witnessed the murder, they ran to a nearby barn and made a blood oath to never tell a soul and if they do, that they drop dead and rot in their tracks. Tom has been having some nightmares and was wondering if he should tell or not. Tom should tell to police. If he does it would put justice to the whole situation. Also, it would stop Joe from hurting anyone else in the future. And finally, Joe would not hurt them for telling like they think he would.
How Justice Works In the novel, The Known World by Edward P. Jones, right and wrong is determined in a way that is much like ours. Society determines between right or wrong and those people in society are mostly white people who own land or slaves. Lawmakers control what people in society can and cannot do, but sometimes laws aren’t enough to stop people from doing as they please. Some exceptions are made such as Augustus being allowed to stay in Virginia after 12 months and being able to claim his family members as part of what he owns.
Marlow examines many kinds of corruption of power by other whites, just because they have a weapon advantage. When the manager severely beat a young black boy for the burnt shed, Marlow denounces it. However, when he sees the unfair treatment and abuse, he doesn’t try to be the mediator,