Personal Narrative: The Crossbow Leper

climbing a prison wall, an alarm sounded, and some shots were fired . There were several

Throughout the juvenile sentencing process, 70% of children fourteen years old or younger are sentenced to life imprisonment without parole (lecture). In fact, they are five times more likely to be sexually assault within the adult prisons we have put them in (lecture). Children are born to roam, to be curious, to be free. The way the justice systems shoves them into these facilities that are meant for adults, should be considered demonizing. We are destroying the future of our country this way, and blaming these children for their flaws as if they knew any better. A typical trial from Just Mercy serves justice as a prime example of these consequences. Fourteen-year-old, one hundred pound Charlie was arrested for shooting his mother’s boyfriend, a law enforcement officer, dead; simultaneously after his mother was bleeding on the kitchen floor (pg. 118-119). He was then arrested, tried as an adult, and was put into adult prison. When Stevenson meets Charlie, Charlie wouldn’t say a word, or even make eye contact. After Stevenson’s long efforts to connect with Charlie and allow him to open up, Charlie aguishly said, “There were three men who hurt me on the first night. They touched me and made me do things . . . they came back the next night and hurt me a lot” (pg. 123). Later on, after Stevenson gave a talk to his church about Charlie, an elderly couple, named Mr. and Mrs. Jennings, were eager to meet Charlie

For example, sixteen-year old Sarah Kruzan was sentenced to life without parole for murdering her pimp. However, she is now 29 years of age, and says how she “deserved the punishment and that it is not okay to take anyone’s life” (Serwer, 1).In the same way how Sara Kruzan understood the wrong in her actions, minors can do the same and change their behaviour, allowing them to be respected by society once again. Another teen killer, Jacob Ind murdered his parents while they were laying in bed. However, Jacob and his brother were physically and emotionally abused by their parents. Years later, Jacob told a local news station that he killed his parents, because he was too “weak to directly confront them and that it was of pure selfishness” (Serwer,

I recognized you at once!” (AMGHF). Then, even after each of the family member’s murders, the grandmother continues trying to save her own life by “…using the same perfidious devices that brought about her current situation” (Brandon). She continues lying by telling the Misfit things, such as, “I know you must come from nice people”, and “…I know you’re a good man. I can just look at you and tell” (AGMHF). It is ironic that she sends the last moments of her life being deceitful out of selfishness. The final irony of the story is the timing of the grandmother’s epiphany (Brandon). O’Connor reveals her epiphany right before the Misfit shoots her. “The grandmother’s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured… ‘You’re one of my own children!’ She reached out and touched him on the shoulder” (AGMHF). According the Brenda Brandon, “… the grandmother’s salvation did come, in her moment of clarity as her eyes were suddenly opened and she was forced to finally get honest with herself; yet for her, it was too late”. J.P. Steed states that looking into the man’s face, triggers the grandmother’s unarticulated recognition “…that the Misfit’s rigidity is the natural offspring of her own” (187). The subsequent events of the grandmother’s selfish and dishonest decisions, as well as her distorted perception of herself, lead to the murder of her and her

Children have a long standing history in crimes. Some are cold blooded killers and some have real mental issues we have no idea they have. Children have been in crime since the 1900s. Currently in the united states there are thousands of children coming into jail everyday for murder, homicide, or any other particular crime. One source states that, “Currently an estimated 250,000 youth are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year across the

The sniper reached into his pocket. He pulled out a knife. Small and silver but extremely sharp. He didn’t think. The sniper stabbed his mother, right into her back. Hearing his mother screaming and watching

Learning to fight for your life was easier than this. Though the life was difficult in itself nothing came close to the difficulty of watching someone you love walk away, it seemed to only get harder even if it was your fault in the end. Pushing people away was a specialty of his and when it actually worked it was earth shattering. The silence pointed out the flaws that he’d managed to go without noticing with her by his side but now they screamed at him yet again. He was back to the self-destructive, sacrificial, self-loathing creature he always was. Though he always knew his family was broken it wasn’t even close to this damaged. He wasn’t the only one that felt the loss, his brother had lost someone as well. It was a feeling in the air

The Grandmother was trying to appeal to the Misfits good nature, by saying "You're not a bit common!" (CITE). She was trying to explain to him that she believed that he was not an ordinary person, he must have come from good parents. The Misfit respond by simply saying "… I ain't a good man" (CITE). When face to face with the Misfit the Grandmother said "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" (CITE). This was her last attempted to save her life. In this last attempted she reached out and put her hand on the Misfits shoulder. As soon as she touched him he jumped back and shot her three times. It was this final act, to appeal to him for his soul, not her own that scared the Misfit into quickly shooting her. In the end, she had finally reached God, not to save herself, but for the benefit of someone else.

A murder is a murder, no matter what the age. Today, teenagers are committing crimes no one should be committing. They are stealing cars, lying, ruining property and killing. These juveniles all go into different categories. Some commit crimes for the thrill and do not regret it and some act on impulse and wish it never happened.

Death is an occurrence that brings out emotion in even the most rigid of people; It triggers memories and grief. Yet, for the Misfit, death just is an everyday circumstance that he himself initiates, weather it be for the twisted pleasure he gets from it, or simply because he feels he has no other option. After a family on a road trip takes a wrong turn, they come face to face with a man the Grandmother instantly recognizes from papers as the escaped criminal roaming about the country. Upon recognition, the Misfit recoils into the only form of defense he knows how: killing. He orders his helpers to take away the children, commenting that they make him uncomfortable, and the children’s parents as well, leaving him alone with the grandmother. Subsequently, his helpers go on to kill all four of the grandmothers family members just far enough into the woods to be out of eyeshot from where she and the Misfit stood. After one of the murders, the Misfit nonchalantly comments to one of his helpers “Take her off and throw her where you thrown the others,” (O’Connor) demonstrating his overwhelming insensitivity and overall indifference to life or death. In a last-ditch effort to save her own life after the lives of her entire family had been so brutally taken, the grandmother begs to the Misfit, “I

I don’t remember a time without them; they have always been there to watch us. All of them seem as if they could be their own beings with their own eye bulging from a conical shield of thin glass the color of dark midnight blue. I’ve never seen a road, park, or even a single room without a Capturer in one of its dismal corners. All of our city is monitored day and night. If anyone is doing anything abnormal, one of the ominous eyes is bound to see it. I had never seen someone Captured in person before today. The Capturers automatically broadcasted all of the footage live on all the ghostly holographic televisions, but I’d only learned about Captures during school.

The conference meet was upon us. I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. The tension between the runners soared as we lined up at the starting line. I took a few deep breaths, anticipating the gun. I had a nerve racking deep inside. Bang! The gun went off and I took off stumbling over people, shoving, fighting for space. I was breathing hard already, pushing up the first hill. There was a straight away after the hill. I was afraid to get passed, so I kept my pace with the first pack. Michael, who had tripped over the back of my shoe before the first hill, had caught back up. As the first mile came around, I heard determined coaches exclaiming our mile splits.

Regardless of age, a killer is a killer. A killer can be the daily customer you have at your job or the child you’re babysitting. “The Supreme Court justices would be wise as well as compassionate to strike a balance: Make juvenile offenders responsible for their actions but don't completely rob them of hope. And this should apply not only to the inmates who were 14 at the time of their crimes but to the remaining 2,497 who were 15 to 18 years old,” (Ellison 19). Kids make mistakes all the time, that doesn’t mean we should take their life away from them. With overlooking the listed factors in court when sentencing a juvenile, this will improve the number of children in prisons. Not all of these children partake in the act because of evil, but merely because of

Grinding grains is probably the easiest task anyone can do, it only took me an hour to grind them all. Since I am done for the day I go and help my other serfs do their tasks as well and by dinner time we accomplished all our jobs for the day. We all head back to our huts and eat dinner with our families. Tonight I had brown bread with cabbage and beans and it tasted delicious. The last thing of the day before I was to go to bed, I went to the church to pray for Percival. I finish up my praying for Percival and head back to my hut when I hear the vassal yelling my name in an angry fashion. My vassal had walked up to me and with his loud, angry voice he asked me why I

The victim's family, of course, won’t be comfortable around the offender especially if a loved one is hurt. Now, some crimes are truly so inhumane, people would be extremely afraid to know if one of them is with them. I dislike the idea of having those very kids, in the juvenile prisons where they don’t belong. The victim’s family may want them in the adult prison as well and so would others. There is only justification for violent crimes and not that, means what they did is right. While, yes, there are those under the age of eighteen unable to be help. Now, there are even fewer kids who never was ‘broken’ and was always like that. A crime so inhumane and not even a single remorse or regret. No one wants someone like that to be along themselves.