The definition of despondency is a state of low spirits caused by loss of hope or courage, according to Dictionary.com. Despondency is definitely a word anyone could use to describe both Night by Elie Wiesel and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Night by Elie Wiesel and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson are similar as they both contain victims and monsters, whereas they are different as in Night there is genocide and in Just Mercy there are sentences given by the American justice system. The similarities in these two books is astonishing. These two stories contain not only victims and monsters, but there is also loss of innocence, injustice, and trauma. Now it may seem as though these two stories are just books entirely full of sadness and despair, but even if they were it’s still very important for us to read them. It’s important to read them because they’re our reality. There are things in both books that actually happened, they’re non-fiction books. While both of the books are mostly about the horrors of the real world that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any hope in them or at least some good things. Like in Night how even though Elie lost his family eventually he was saved and how in Just Mercy even though a lot of people died, and some would say didn’t deserve to, Bryan did save Walter McMillian. Life …show more content…
One of them is about mass genocide, while the other is about faults in the U.S. justice system. While some people may say that the people who died in Just Mercy got what they deserved, most people would agree that everyone in Night didn’t deserve to die or the torture they went through if they survived. In Night there is a sure enemy, everyone knew who the bad guy was, but in Just Mercy there isn’t one person who is to blame for everything that goes wrong. There are very bad people in it, but it isn’t as black and white as it is in Night. The entire book is just one big gray