ipl-logo

Analysis Of Sister Helen Prejean´s Dead Man Walking

764 Words4 Pages

In the book, Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean who grew up in Louisiana and had gone through a spiritual transformation and pursued in social justice. To pursue in social justice she moved to St. Thomas housing projects in New Orleans where she observe the discrimination between black and white on crimes. She wrote about her journey as she is asked to become a pen pal for a death row inmate in a murder case by a friend from Coalition Prison. Patrick Sonnier was convicted for raping and murdering a young couple, David Leblanc and Loretta Bourque with his younger brother Eddie who received life in prison. Sister Helen explained that if a black person is killed it would barely make it to the newspaper but, if a white person is killed it would be a front page story. When Sister Helen was asked to be Patrick Sonnier pen pal, she would exchange letters with him to try and get to know one another. With Patrick mother being too old to visit him and his brother being in jail with him he is alone in this case with no one there for him. Even finding a lawyer for Patrick was hard but soon after he would receive a lawyer who volunteered from Louisiana to …show more content…

Millard would than try to help Patrick out with the case by arguing that Patrick’s lawyer failed to proposal a testimony on his client’s behalf during the sentencing. Even after Prejean asked the Bishop to talk on Patrick’s behalf, the Supreme Court still denies Patrick’s petition and the execution date was set to April 5, 1984. Prejean would than ask her friend Kathleen Lory to help prepare the funeral for Patrick. Patrick was served his final meal and head was shaved clean in order to prevent his head from catching on fire. Patrick also had to wear a diaper incase an accident happen. Patrick would apologizes to the victim family and tell Prejean he loves her and was pronounced dead at

Show More
Related
659 Words | 3 Pages

Dr. Smead’s book, Blood Justice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker gives an investigative and in-depth account of one the last lynchings in America. The book tells the story of Mack Charles Parker, an African-American victim of lynching in Poplarville, Mississippi during 1959. Parker is accused of raping a pregnant white woman named June Walters. He is also accused of abducting Walters and her four-year-old daughter Debbie. Eventually, Parker is apprehended and later murdered by an angry mob of the town residents in order to prevent a trial.

Read More
739 Words | 3 Pages

Imagine that your living in the 1930s, you’re a white woman, and you had just gotten “raped” by a black man or group of black men. This exact scenario happened in the critically acclaimed book To Kill a Mockingbird and in the real-life court case deemed the Scottsboro trial. Which in both the book and the court case, the characters, and people were shaped and influenced by society to become victims and accusers. This paper is going compare and contrast how the fictional character Mayella and the non-fictional plaintiff Victoria Price and Ruby Bates as painted victims and accusers by society.

Read More
1404 Words | 6 Pages

Danielle L. McGuire’s At the Dark End of the Street, “an important, original contribution to civil rights historiography”, discusses the topic of rape and sexual assault towards African American women, and how this played a major role in causing the civil rights movement (Dailey 491). Chapter by chapter, another person's story is told, from the rape of Recy Taylor to the court case of Joan Little, while including the significance of Rosa Parks and various organizations in fighting for the victims of unjust brutality. The sole purpose of creating this novel was to discuss a topic no other historian has discussed before, because according to McGuire they have all been skipping over a topic that would change the view of the civil rights movement.

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

A major theme in the true story, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park is perseverance. Perseverance is to stay steady in what you are doing or in a purpose, especially when you are faced with difficulties. This is a perfect theme for A Long Walk to Water because the main character, Salva Dut, an 11 year old Sudanese boy, faced many difficulties and kept going. He took things ‘bit by bit, one step at a time’, a lesson he learned from his uncle that helped him get through the desert, and he applied it to his life and kept going and believing his family was alive. Even though he almost died many times, he did not give up, and he went back to his home country and helped many people have better lives by building wells and giving them clean drinking water.

Read More
1353 Words | 6 Pages

Mamie specifically wrote this book to tell her son’s story, representing hope and forgiveness, which revealed the sinister and illegal punishments of the south. She wanted to prevent this horrendous tragedy from happening to others. The purpose of the book was to describe the torment African Americans faced in the era of Jim Crow. It gives imagery through the perspective of a mother who faced hurt, but brought unity to the public, to stand up for the rights of equal treatment. This book tells how one event was part of the elimination of racial segregation.

Read More
866 Words | 4 Pages

Dick Rowland (African American) was being tried for attack and attempted rape of a white woman named Sarah page. On the day of May 31, of 1921, Ms. Page opened the elevator and Mr. Rowland went to enter the elevator. He tripped because the elevator did not stop moving the way it should have, and so he grabbed what there was so he did not fall; and that happened to be Ms. Page’s arm. She let out a sharp scream and a clerk from not too far away Saw Mr. Rowland run out of the building and Later he was tried and as some white believe he did try to rape her as on the other hand African Americans did not believe in what was said what so ever.

Read More
1896 Words | 8 Pages

Jail is a place no one ever wants to go. People go to jail for many reasons: robbery, murder, hate crimes, and there are people who are sitting in jail for a crime they did not commit. People have their different views on the justice system and how it works. People’s religious beliefs and personal beliefs in stereotypes play a major part in their convictions. In A Lesson before Dying Earnest Gaines reveals how different values and racism in a small community are seen through the characters Jefferson, Grant, and Tante Lou and their experiences and reactions.

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

Should I Save The Day? Society is in the mindset of not taking initiative on issues. As a whole, we rely on each other to take the first step and when one isn’t taken, it leaves the opportunity for growth fairly stagnant. The article “The Dying Girl

Read More
1164 Words | 5 Pages

The revolutionary Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, once described discrimination as “a hellbound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.” His point being that African Americans face racial discrimination on a daily basis. Brent Staples, being an African American living in America, expresses his view on the subject in his essay “Just Walk on By”, where he conveys the message of how fear is influenced by society's stereotypical and discriminating views of certain groups of people; his point is made clear through his sympathetic persona, descriptive diction, depressing tone, and many analogies. Staples sympathetic persona helps the reader feel and understand the racial problems that he experiences daily.

Read More
971 Words | 4 Pages

The soldiers around Peyton before his death can be seen as the personification of death itself, the faceless troops look on with order and cold precision, and Peyton remarks that “gentlemen are not excluded,” implying that just as death does not discriminate, neither do these soldiers. At the time that Peyton is being hung, he creates a fantasy in his mind that he has survived this, even though he is surrounded by these soldiers, by death, which finalizes his fate. Choosing not to accept his death, as many people continue to do even today, in a split second his mind creates a wild vision, that is devised to protect him from the reality of his inescapable death. This vision could have been conjured in the seconds before he truly died, with simple thoughts of escape, or a dream to see his wife and family one last time. But his thoughts do not save him, as death is a reality that must be accepted by all, and he meets his end while still grasping at

Read More
1919 Words | 8 Pages

Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the past experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues African American women face during their ‘passing’ journey through her characters of Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. During the reading process, we progressively realize ‘passing’ in Harlem, New York during the 1920’s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges approach ahead. Although Larsen decides the novella to be told in a third person narrative, different thoughts and messages of Irene and Clare communicate broken ideas for the reader, causing the interpretation of the novella to vary from different perspectives.

Read More
526 Words | 3 Pages

The Graveyard Book Theme The theme of the text, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is that fate and free will are apart of life and we need to embrace them. Neil Gaiman weaves this throughout his novel by showing how Bod is destined to fight the Jacks. He somehow gets lead to the graveyard where he meets people like Mr. and Mrs. Owens that take care of him. Thousands of years ago someone predicted Bod would defeat the Jacks.

Read More
473 Words | 2 Pages

So when his Pap leaves to go to town. He comes up with a plan to get out. He is going to fake his death. “I says to myself, they’ll follow the track of the sackful of rocks to the shore and then drag the river for me. And they’ll follow that meal track

Read More
393 Words | 2 Pages

He paid no mind when the passing of Luis Cruz was announced, and was rather apathetic about the muder in whole. Equivalently, he made rather cruel jokes about the death of Mike Costello, in which a lightning bolt administered the coup de grâce. Furthermore, Erik depicted crude falsehoods of his brother, Paul, which slowly tarnished Paul’s reputation. In reference to Mike Costello’s fatality, Erik was heard bantering Mike, saying, “Did you see his hair? Did you see the side of his head?

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

When one reads Les Miserables it may be assumed that Jean Valjean and Javert are opposites, but upon closer consideration, their similarities are more numerous than a first glance lets on. To begin, they are both men and will therefore both struggle with things of men, which gives immediate grounds for comparison. A ground for contrast is also present, for every man struggles with different matters. Jean Valjean and Javert are most similar in the way that both want to, and do, good - or at least what they envision as good. Jean Valjean aids the helpless, his enemies, his friends and gives to the poor.

Read More

More about Analysis Of Sister Helen Prejean´s Dead Man Walking

Related Topics

Open Document