Defining justice seems simple. However, justice represents a complex issue because a person’s culture and circumstances change their perspective of justice. Therefore, the father makes a profound, philosophical statement when he tells his son that life “is a search for justice” in a novel by William Styron. The Oxford dictionary defines justice as the quality of being fair and reasonable. Agatha Christie, John Steinbeck, and Larry Watson all write about justice in their novellas, And Then There Were None, Of Mice and Men, and Montana 1948, respectively. The characters, Justice Wargrave, George, and Wesley Hayden exemplify the concept of the pursuit of justice in their lives.
Judge Wargrave in And Then There Were None attempted to achieve justice
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Lennie understands situations comparable to a child. His enormous strength and lack of intelligence cause Lennie to end up in trouble. Lennie has killed numerous mice, a puppy, and ultimately, Curley’s wife because he loves to pet soft objects. When Curley finds out about the death of his wife, George tries to defend Lennie. “The poor bastard’s nuts. Don’t shoot ‘im. He di’n’t know what he was doin,” insists George (Steinbeck 107). Curley wants to hunt George down and make him suffer. Lennie knows he did something wrong by killing Curley’s wife, even though he did not intentionally kill her. George realizes that he cannot stop Curley from killing Lennie after trying to appeal to Curley. Therefore, George kills Lennie in a humane manner. Lennie died thinking about living on a farm and taking care of rabbits. George tried to care for Lennie in a kind and reasonable manner. If George did not kill Lennie, Curley would have killed him in a cruel and unkind …show more content…
Frank, Wesley’s brother, has committed multiple crimes. Julian tells Wesley to stop prosecuting Frank, a request that Wesley cannot consent to. Wesley tells David his position on the law and justice. He explains to his son, “I believe in this world people must pay for their crimes. It doesn’t matter who you are or who your relations are” (Watson 150). Initially, Wesley wanted to disregard the crimes that his brother committed. However, as a lawyer and the town sheriff, he decided that justice should prevail through the criminal justice system and he must prosecute his brother. Wesley made a difficult decision to seek justice and go against his father’s
In “The Moral Ambivalence of Crime in an Unjust Society” by Jeffrey Reiman he offers a detailed explanation of many different ways to define justice and allows the reader to fully comprehend the meaning of it. Before he even began explaining justice he gave his own experience with crime as way to convey to the reader how his rights had been violated and he had been filled with anger at the criminals instead of the justice that failed him. This first hand encounter with crime allowed Reiman to prove to readers that justice is what is what protects us and it is the criminals who are the problem. To see that even a man who had thought and written about nothing but crime for thirty-five years could still become
As we journey through life, we must make difficult decisions, even when few options exist and the situation is grim. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the decision George faces after Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife is complicated, as none of his choices are good. The importance of his relationship with Lennie forces George to look at the big picture and act in Lennie’s best interests, even though the action he must finally take will result in a weight that he will carry forever.
This shows throughout the book with the many different mistakes Lennie makes. Lennie starts off by killing mice, then he kills a puppy and finally a woman! After Lennie kills Curley’s wife George responds by saying “I should of knew… I guess maybe way back of my head I did.”(Steinbeck 94). George knew it was gonna come to this and he probably also had a feeling Lennie was going to continue to kill more people or animals. Plus, when the character in the book; Candy asks who did it, George says “Ain’t you got anr idea?”(Steinbeck 94). That shows that George knew he was gonna have to do something about Lennie. George was going to have to do something about Lennie sometime, and after George killed a woman he knew there would be no other choice that to kill Lennie through non voluntary
That ain’t no good, George.’”(Steinbeck 97). Because Lennie killed Curley’s wife, he committed a felony. George wanted Lennie to be thrown in jail at first. He wanted Lennie to be arrested because he thought it was the best thing for Lennie but then Slim told him it would not be good for Lennie. It would be bad for Lennie because Lennie would not understand his rights because he’s mentally challenged and locking him up in a cage would just hurt Lennie. George then realized he needed to kill Lennie so nobody would mistreat him. George is protecting others from Lennie.”’Lennie-if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before…’”(Steinbeck 15). George has been with Lennie for many years and he knows how Lennie will never learn and he will keep committing bad stuff. George knew something was going to happen at the ranch because Lennie has always done something wrong. George tried to prevent something from going wrong but he couldn’t. As a result he had to put down Lennie so he would not hurt anyone ever again. George felt the hard choice of killing Lennie was the right decision for George because Curley wanted to get his revenge, Lennie would be mistreated in prison and he was
“After what just happened to Marie, I don’t want to be left alone with Uncle Frank”. Davis father is a sheriff, a very unique one as he does not wear a badge or carry any gun. David’s attitude towards his father also changes, David did not believe his father played the role of sheriff as he should have, but this all changes when the incident with Uncle Frank and Maire takes place. As Wesley does the right thing and deals with his brother’s crime the way he would with anyone else’s, this is seen by David as a brave duty charging your own brother.
Due to child like qualities, Lennie is a person which would be easy prey and a vulnerable person. Lennie is a vulnerable person who is quite dumb. His has an obsession for touching soft thing and this will often lead him in to trouble. But poor Lennie is an innocent person who means no harm to anybody. When he and Curley get into a fight Lennie is too shocked to do any thing. He tries to be innocent but, when told to by George grabs Curley’s fist and crushes it. George is Lennie’s best friend and Lennie does every thing he tells him to do as demonstrated in the fight with “But you tol...
Wesley, at the beginning of the book, very quickly has his limp brought to attention. The limp suggests he is weakened, that he lacks strength over criminals. Perhaps allowing his brother to escape blame for as long as he did. It represents his status as a ‘fallen hero’, but also shows his determination to instigate justice, peace, and equality to the community, in spite of his weakness. Through pitying such emphasis on Wesley’s weakness and physical barriers, Larry Watson highlights the characters strengths, mentally and morally. The readers quickly understand that Wesley’s unconventional use of the role was a positive aspect of his character, showing Wesley’s role as a moral figure; It shows that he solves crimes and problems through negotiation, as an alternative to threats or violence. His son, however, does not realise this, and that is shown clearly by Wesley’s gun. A “small .32 automatic, italian make and no bigger than your palm “, the gun pales in comparison to what young David believed his father, as sheriff, should have been using, a “nickel plated western lot.45”. Used only in emergencies, even the small gun was only used as a symbol of Wesley’s role as sheriff, as Wesley never needed, nor did he choose, to use it. When his brother, Frank Hayden, is revealed to be a serial ra...
By definition justice means the quality of being just or fair. The issue then stands, is justice fair for everyone? Justice is the administration of law, the act of determining rights and assigning rewards or punishments, "justice deferred is justice denied.” The terms of Justice is brought up in Henry David Thoreau’s writing, “Civil Disobedience.”
For example, as Curley is yelling at the men, Lennie starts to smile, but he is actually thinking about how he will get to tend the rabbits and the ranch him and George will own. Curley takes Lennie’s facial expression as an insult and picks a fight with him. Lennie is scared to stand up for himself until George says, “‘Get ’im Lennie!’ The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed fist was lost in Lennie’s hand.”(63) Lennie’s innocence caused him not to stand up for himself, but when he did, he soon saw that he had taken it too far. Another example of Lennie’s cluelessness and innocence is when Curley’s wife comes in and starts talking to him about her life story. She asks him to feel her hair and all of a sudden he grabs her and won’t let go. Curley’s wife shouts, “‘Look out, now, you’ll muss it.’ And then she cried angrily, ‘You stop it now!’ She flopped like a fish…’” (91)This time Lennie went too far and killed Curley’s wife. Lennie’s innocence protects merely himself, however not the people around him. When Curley finds out that Lennie is the culprit, he wants him killed. Curley exclaims,“‘I'm gonna get him. I'm going for my shotgun. I'll kill the big son-of-a- myself. I'll shoot 'im in the guts. Come on, you guys.’”(96) George makes
In ending of "Of Mice And Men", George kills Lennie after he killed Curley's wife. However, I can still feel sympathy towards George, and see his action as justifiable. In the beginning of the book I had sympathy towards George. The book starts with George talking to Lennie and from this you learn a lot about their relationship. After Lennie asks for ketchup, which they can't get, George gets angry at Lennie and says, “Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble" (6). This shows the reader that George has given up a lot to take care of Lennie. He has given up his job security and a lot of his happiness because he takes care of Lennie. In chapter 3, the reader finds out how George and Lennie started traveling together, and from this the reader can infer that George travels
The animals that he accidentally killed included lots of mice and even a poor little helpless puppy. Since Lennie like the idea of touching soft things, he used to keep the mice in his pocket to pet as he would walk around. Except that he killed the mice for biting him, as said in, “I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead --- because they was so little.” (Steinbeck, 10) To prevent Lennie from killing any more mice, George, Lennie’s caretaker, promised to get Lennie a puppy to keep him occupied from killing any more mice. Although when Lennie finally received this puppy, he killed it. Lennie didn’t mean to kill the puppy, he was just playing with it and killed it without out realizing how tough he was being on the puppy. As for the person that Lennie killed, Curley’s Wife, she didn’t know what she was getting herself into when she allowed Lennie to touch her hair. Curley’s Wife’s hair was soft, which is why she allowed Lennie to feel
One of Lennie's many traits is his forgetfulness. He easily forgets what he is supposed to do, but he somehow never forgets what he is told. An example of how Lennie is forgetful is when he has the mice in his pocket and when he went to pet them they bit his finger. “Lennie picked up the dead mouse and looked at with a sad face. When they bit him he pinched them, and by doing that he crushed their heads” (page 5) . This is important because he knew that if he squeezed their heads they would die, but since he is forgetful, he squeezed anyway. Another example of how Lennie is forgetful is when he grabbed Curley's hand and crushed it. “ Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. Lennie squeezed on until George came running in shouting ‘let go’. The next moment Curley was on the ground wailing while he held his crushed hand” (page 64). This event is important because Lennie had held on, not knowing what to do next, until George told him what to do. A final exampl...
Lennie apologized to George for killing the mice; he told him that the reason for killing the mice was because “they bit my[Lennie’s] fingers” but he only “pinched their heads a little”(Steinbeck 10). Lennie’s guilt drives him to apologize about the mice but he appears to underestimate his own strength because he claimed that he vaguely pinched their heads, but Lennie being a vast man, that couldn't have been the case. He didn't know the consequences of pinching the mice even after he had done it so many times. This shows the lack of perception he holds, meaning he can't become cognizant of the things happening around him on his own, causing the reader to initiate sympathy for Lennie. Lennie’s immaturity is so big it can be misunderstood for cleverness. George sharply asks Lennie to give him the object from his pocket but he claims “ I ain't got nothin’”but later on admits he has a dead mouse but [George] insists to “ have it”,but George insisted to have the mouse then he “slowly obeyed”(Steinbeck 5-6). It appears as if Lennie was being clever but by handing the mice to George, his childish behavior is revealed. His ingenuous acts portray identically to a child influencing the reader to gain sensitivity to the way Lennie is treated. The way Lennie understands the world and process thoughts makes him mentally stable, for a child. Not only is he innocent but he is also ironically characterized.
After many discussions involving this topic in the course, I was able to define justice and what it means to me. Although I do not currently work in the field, the classmates who have experience in the field brought great personal experiences to the discussions. University of Phoenix has also contributed to my definition of justice through the facilitators. The facilitators currently work in the field they are teaching and that involves the entire criminal justice field.... ...
Curley's wife, an accident that seals his own fate and destroys not only his dreams but George's and Candy's as well. In the beginning Lennie used to pet mice that his Aunt Clara used to give him, he would always end up killing them because he didn't know his own strength. Lennie never killed any pet or person purposely; he pets too roughly and kills them accidentally. An example of his rough tendencies is in the first chapter (page7) when Lennie wants to keep a dead mouse and George wouldn't let him Lennie says" Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George.