September 8
Second Chances Allow for Improved Behaviour
In the short story, “Thank You Ma’am” Luella’s character reveals that second chances allow for improved behaviour. “I got to get my rest now. But I wish you would behave yourself, son, from here on in.” This quote shows that Luella gave Roger a second chance when she didn’t take him to the police, so now she expects Roger to be a better person and behave after he has been lucky enough to be saved from getting into any trouble. When Luella says, “I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.” This implies that Luella herself did bad things when she was young, but was probably given another chance and so she improved herself to be who she is today. Luella is a perfect role model for nice behaviour and gave the young boy Roger another chance from doing what was wrong so that he could grow up a respectful boy and not get into trouble with all sorts of people.
In the newspaper article, “Young offenders should meet victims of their crime” The English/ Welsh youth prisons allow some of the young offenders a chance to meet their victims of their crimes and have to apologise to them. If they do this then they will be given another chance at life and not have to go to jail. A boy had come up to a 22 year old man and punched him, the boy then later met up with his victim and apologised. "He had higher self-esteem and he seemed to be really embarrassed by the fact that he had to do all of this, that he had hit me.” This quote shows that after being given the second chance the offender improved his behaviour and was actually sorry.
These two sources have similarities in many areas, like in “Thank You Ma’am” Roger feels sorry for what he did and regrets that he did it. In the news article the young offender got to meet up with his victim and so he realised that he was wrong and did something wrong.
In the newspaper article, “Young offenders should meet victims of their crime” The English/ Welsh youth prisons allow some of the young offenders a chance to meet their victims of their crimes and have to apologise to them. If they do this then they will be given another chance at life and not have to go to jail. A boy had come up to a 22 year old man and punched him, the boy then later met up with his victim and apologised. "He had higher self-esteem and he seemed to be really embarrassed by the fact that he had to do all of this, that he had hit me.” This quote shows that after being given the second chance the offender improved his behaviour and was actually sorry.
These two sources have similarities in many areas, like in “Thank You Ma’am” Roger feels sorry for what he did and regrets that he did it. In the news article the young offender got to meet up with his victim and so he realised that he was wrong and did something wrong.
August 16 2010
There are Two Sides to Justice
There are two sides to justice is a dominant theme in Roald Dahl's short story, "Lamb to the Slaughter." Mary Malone was a happy housewife who was always willing to do what her husband wanted. Mary was also pregnant and she was relying on her husband to support her after she had the child. When she was told that her husband was leaving her and that she wasn't getting any money to live on the husband almost deserved to die and she gave it to him. But no matter what people do and whether they deserve it they should not be killed, if one person kills someone for the right reason then others might kill for the wrong reason and so people have to go to justice no matter what. Justice of the mind and heart do not overtake legal justice.
There are two sides to justice is also a dominant theme in the fictional movie “The Bourne Identity.” Jason Bourne wakes up with no knowledge of his name and life. Federal agents were chasing after Bourne and he didn’t know what to do, so he killed the agents that were after him in self-defence. Even though he just wanted answers he got hunted and he was the victim. The agents saw him as being a national security threat and so they attacked him out of legal justice. Jason Bourne was fighting to find out who he was and was being attacked for no real reason that he could remember and so he was fighting for his justice. Jason Bourne could have turned himself in but the agents were actually trying to hurt him so he could not state that he was innocent.
In the end it depends on whose perspective you are looking from and so that there are two or more sides to justice. With Mary Malone she was being deserted by her husband and so she took matters to her own hand with justice of her heart but there was the fact that she was breaking the law and so she had to be put to legal justice. For Jason Bourne he was being hunted for something that he didn’t do and didn’t remember, he was fighting for his rights because he didn’t do anything, but he did kill federal agents so he would have to be put to legal justice.
