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Justice In A Few Good Men

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Justice is Never Black or White The word "justice" appears in many of Australia’s most important documents, Australia even employs a chief of justice. But for a word that's used so often, its precise definition is a major topic of debate. Justice is often used interchangeably with the term fairness. However, majority of the time justice is never as impartial or unbiased as the law defines it to be. Literature also explores the idea that justice is never black or white. The novels A Time To Kill and Silence of The Lambs and the film A Few Good Men help to conceive the idea that justice is never black or white in their own individual ways. A Time to Kill is set in Canton, Mississippi, amongst the rebirth of the KKK. The novel is developed with …show more content…

The film effectively explores the concept that justice is never absolute by trying to establish the blurred line between obeying orders and disobeying the law. Throughout the film the viewer is made aware that a “good marine” abides by the code: Unit, Corps, God, Country. However, for the code to be implemented effectively the enforcers must be honest and just. As the film progresses, the viewers are made aware that the definitions of honesty and justice are distorted concepts to some marines; effectively abolishing the codes meaning and effectiveness. Throughout the hearing, the prosecution is required to define and convince the court that a “code red” existed and was ordered by the superior officer to the accused marines. After admitting to ordering a “code red”, superior officer Col. Jessep states, “You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury, you have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago's death while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence while grotesque and incomprehensible, to you, saves lives.”(A Few Good Men, 1992) Col. Jessop is explaining that without him and his robustness, men would die, and that although it isn’t nice to hear, one maladroit man’s life is worth far less than the risk of losing a proficient man. This verifies that justice is never absolute because it is effectively saying that …show more content…

On the surface, Starling is a young FBI agent willing to sell her soul to “the devil”, Hannibal, in order to detain Buffalo Bill. But, the defining point is deciding whether detaining Buffalo Bill is worth freeing the infamous Hannibal Lector. Throughout the novel the use of symbolism is very dominant. An example of this is when Hannibal says to Starling, “When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help.”(Silence of The Lambs, page 127) In this instance the fox represents evil Hannibal, and the Rabbit represents innocent Starling reaching out to Hannibal for help. This establishes an overpowering relationship between Hannibal and Starling and signifies that although Starling thinks that Hannibal is helping her to catch Buffalo Bill, Hannibal is only helping himself using her vulnerability. This shows that justice is never black or white because it is saying that freeing one criminal is worth it to detain another. Hannibal is aware of who Buffalo Bill is the whole time, however he still strays Starling along until he achieves what he wants most; freedom. Although Hannibal doesn’t dispense enough information to Starling to find Buffalo Bill until toward the end of the novel, Hannibal still leaves subtle clues that Clarice doesn’t identify. One example is the drawing Hannibal has of "the Belvedere as seen from the Duomo” (Silence of The Lambs, page 87) on the

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