Sunday, April 1, 2007
"Killings" by Andre Dubus
This short story tells of a mother and father struggling with the death of their son, who has been shot by the ex-husband of his current love interest. The interesting twist is that the parents know who the killer is and, because they live in a relatively small community, must see him on a regular basis. My question is this: Do you believe that Matt did the right thing in killing Richard, or should he have let the justice system take its course? Furthermore, what would you have done if you found yourself in Matt's situation?
6 comments:
I think that Matt did the wrong thing. To kill is a sin, no matter how justified it may seem. If I were in Matt's situation, and was very bothered by seeing the killer of my son every day, I would move away. By moving away I would see the murderer less. Most importantly, however hard it may seem, I would try my hardest to forgive the murderer of my son, because it is the Catholic and Christian thing to do.
Without a doubt, forgiveness is the Christian and moral way for this problem. Murder is sin hands down. And because this is question posed to me with all my brothers and sisters alive I can easily say, forgive and move on to another place. With that said, if I was living in the same town as the man who killed my brother I wouldn't find it that easy to just move on. As a sister speaking I would have a hard time not harming the one who killed my loved one. And especially as a mother I don't know how easy it would be just to forgive and stay in the city of the murderer. This questions reminds me of the one from the Lesson of would you save an old woman or a famous painting. Are we really going to know how we will react without being in that situation?
I do not think that Matt did the right thing in killing his brother's killer. I hope that I would possess the courage and strength to forgive. Violence begets more violence. However, this forgiving perspective is much easier said than done. Almost everything in the human nature would be to lash out for revenge. I pray that I would have the strength to forgive. In my mind that takes more courage.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" ~Mohandas Gandhi
I think Matt did the wrong thing. Why do we kill people who kill people just to show them that killing people is wrong? It makes no sense and no one really learns anything. We just end up creating a never ending circle of killings. Now, I'm not saying it would be easy, but I agree with Amy, I would try to find forgiveness or at least peace and acceptance. Kill 'em with kindness kind of mentality!
From both a Christian perspective and a vengeful perspective, I think Matt did the wrong thing. As previous posters dealt with the Christian aspect that leaves me to explain why Matt did the wrong thing if he wanted revenge.
First of all, to ensure that vengeance is the correct course of action, Matt would need agreement of all the people involved. This would require Matt to somehow trap Richard in a prison like place. Here, Matt could threaten Richard in ways similar to how Richard did his son until Richard realizes the wrongfulness involved. Next, vengeance seeks to equalize both parties, inflicting equal injuries on the other. Since Richard not only killed a person, but also inflicted large amounts of pain on Matt and his wife. Thus, torture would be required before killing Richard in order to ensure complete vengeance; just death is too merciful from a vengeful perspective.
Of course, I advocate only Christian ways, but it helps to know how pure vengeance addresses similar issues.
I think Matt was wrong in killing him. I don’t think killing someone is right, but I don’t know how I would react if someone would kill my brother. Being in the situation is so much different than just reading about it. Maybe I will do the same thing Matt did or maybe I’ll just torture the person but definitely people can’t rely on government punishments. I agree with Amanda M that killing will just lead into a cycle of killings, but when someone kills your brother revenge is needed.
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