The Tattooed Soldier Essay

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In Hector Tobar’s The Tattooed Soldier, Antonio migrated from Guatemala saw Longoria in the L.A. who killed Elena and Carlitos, who are Antonio’s spouse and son. People lived in Los Angles were frustrated with the government and power system at the time. Consequently, Antonio got revenge against Longoria for Antonio’s family, others who were murdered by Longoria in Guatemala, and his justice. Justice is based on an absolute human right: the right to life, and whatever violates that right is unjust. If the power system is allowed to violate vulnerable people, the weak have a choice to use violence to attempt to reveal the responsibility of those who abused power. However, seeking violent revenge is also unjust because it violates the right …show more content…

The most fundamental basis of justice is the human right to live. It is unlikely that anyone would disagree with this. This right includes not only life but also people’s right to live humanely. No one should break that right, and law should protect this right. No matter what it is that violates the right to life, it is unjust because the right is formed on an inviolable basis. When people hurt other people’s right to life and violate their humanity, it is definitely violence. We can consider two forms of violence, physical and psychological violence, which both violate the human right to life. Although psychological violence is hard to observe, it leaves sufferers with severe trauma. State violence can fall into either of these categories. In The Tattooed Soldier, The Guatemalan army used “psychological operation” that is a method to …show more content…

The victims repress their rage for past violence and try to realize peace by nonviolent means. For example, Mayor, who is a leader of homeless group, admonished a person who claimed he could steal something in the riot that“ this is more than just getting things, fool” (Tobar 276). Mayor understood that their resistance should be done with justice and nonviolence because their purpose was not express their frustration or outrage but advocate that there was injustice. People who recognize or see the nonviolent movement happen would be likely to sympathize with it because the people would notice that victims do not want to violence anymore, even though they were brutally oppressed. Ideally, their sympathy would drive more people to support the nonviolent movement because the victims fight against injustice by nonviolent means. In addition, Hector Tobar described Longoria knowing that “the enemy deals in ideology. Ideology is one of his most effective weapons, perhaps the most effective” (Tobar 220). It shows that suppressive governments are more afraid of their citizens ideological resistance than violent rebellion. Furthermore, when people sacrifice their right to life with nonviolent resistance, they reveal their assailants’ guilt clearly and are likely to leave a deep impact on

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