The words accident, justice and power are all thrown around quite often throughout this piece. Their presence greatly outlines some of the larger themes that are being portrayed. Justice and accident go together in a lot of the monologues. Both the groups are seeking justice for crimes that were acted upon them by the opposing group. The Jews are insisting that the death of Gavin Cato was an accident in which case there would be no one to blame. However on the other side, the Blacks came up with a long list of who to blame and why. Whether it is the man who was driving the car or the Jewish ambulance that supposedly refused to help the boy or the Police who appeared to have done nothing to suppress the riots or help the victims. The main argument for the Jews is that it was a simple car “accident” and nothing could have been done to stop it. Does this mean then that there can be no justice? Is there no justice for the father who watched his son die? Is there no justice for the driver who fled the country to avoid the consequences of his “accident”? Whether the crash was an accident or not does not change the fact that justice needs to be delivered.
Power goes along with this theme also. This is because whoever has the power will be justified. The power held by the Jews was used to deliver what they believed was justice to the community. The monologues paint the picture of power in the community showing how the death of a black boy was a mere accident and that the death of a Jewish man was a malicious crime that required justice. Those in power had the ability to determine what could be defined as an accident and whom justice needed to be served upon.
I agree with what you say about justice and accident. Also, I feel that the lack of justice for the Cato and Rosenbaum families is disappointing. The part on power I agree with, but I think that both the Jewish and the Black members of the community had power. It was very obvious that the Jewish members of this community had the political power, even though they were the minority. The Black community had the power of being the majority in Crown Heights.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your section about Justice, and your writing made me think; why would the driver of the car flee the country if no wrong had been done. I recently watched Fahrenheit 911, and that [controversial] film brought up the fact that all of the Bin Laden's in the country were allowed to leave when almost everyone else was grounded. Slightly different situations, but the same trend. How can our country stand by its justice system if it isn't allowed to even attempt to operate?
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