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Jasper Jones Quotes Justice Essay

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In the novel Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey it is revealed that justice and the law are not the same things. The law can be defined as a set of rules and regulations to be followed and justice can be defined as just behaviour or treatment. The law is meant to ensure that justice is always present but this is not always the case as seen in Jasper Jones. In the novel, the law is not used for justice but is rather used for prejudice, in order for characters of the novel to find justice they must do so outside of the law and to find justice you have to take the law into your own hands.

At times it is necessary to break the law for justice to prevail.The quote “You want me to go to prison for nothing just so the Wisharts can say goodbye properly?..I’m …show more content…

This is made evident in the quote “I can hear them shouting: Red Rat! Fucking Red Rat!...He’s (Charlie’s father) stepping between them and An Lu.” The phrase “Red Rat! Fucking Red Rat” shows the racial abuse targeted at An Lu and his family because they are of a different ethnicity. They are word red is used to signify that the attackers associate the Lu family as communists as currently there is a war in Vietnam against a communist party. This racial attack is an act of injustice and at the time of the attack the police were nowhere to be seen, forcing the civilians to take the law into their own hands and fight for justice. This is shown in the phrase “He’s (Charlie’s father) stepping between them and An Lu." With the absence of the law civilians like Charlie’s father must intervene in the name of justice as the law will not do so. This shows how ineffective the law is in Corrigan when it comes to protecting its people and fighting for justice, forcing the civilians to fight for their own justice as the law will not. For justice to prevail, civilians must take matters into their own hands as the absence of the law will only allow acts of injustice to wreak

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