Injustice In The Life Of Jennifer

This book highlights on the several themes including injustice, forgiveness and penitence. It involves a young woman whose life comprised of traumas from a terrible crime and a young man whose life was destroyed by the false accusations and conviction. This story was brought upon Jennifer’s life which took a turn of events one particular morning upon waking up to a stranger who raped her with a knife held at her throat. The assumed perpetrator, Cotton, after serving eleven years in prison was finally released after a DNA test confirmed that he was not the one who raped Jennifer. By his time Jennier, after endless torments by the attacker’s images, had finally settled and was married. Miraculously, Cotton decided to forgive Jennifer even after …show more content…
This is the issue of injustice which, was portrayed by various instances in the book. One of them is where the police threw the accused in jail though Cotton maintained his innocence. This occurred as Cotton went down to the police station to clear his name of the rape allegations made towards him as well as settling his warrant of arrest issue. The police recalling a previous conviction relation to a raped white woman, bombarded Cotton and added a high bond upon jailing him. Another injustice incidence is when Cotton, who had gone to appeal of his innocence after meeting up with the real Jennifer’s rapist in jail, was accused of raping another woman, Mary. Mary pointed out Cotton as the man who had defiled her which saw the judge throw away ad never having the chance to listen to the evidence that concerned Poole, Jennifer’s real rapist. Cotton was then sentenced for longer terms where he received several prison transfers. I feel that these incidences of injustice highlight the serious problems being experienced in our judicial systems as well as some of the public offices (Thompson-Cannino, 2009). The police in this case did not seem to have done enough investigation s before they took in Cotton, arresting him on the count that he had raped Jennifer. They relied on their previous convictions related to the raping of a certain white woman and took Jennifer’s word for it since to make matters worse Cotton was black. The …show more content…
From all the bad things that happened to Cotton, he above all people would be expected bear hatred and anger towards Jennifer and not forgive her shortly after being released from prison. If I were in Cotton’s shoes, I am certain that I would not have the heart of wanting to talk things through with her leave alone forgiving her. I would have sued her in any way possible and make sure that she would rot in jail for making me loose ten years of my life. In relation to forgiveness, I was not surprised however by how Jennifer was unable to forgive herself because of what she made Cotton go through. It is indeed the human nature to not forgive oneself for causing harm to another. I would not forgive myself especially, since this was not a simple case but a case that brought years of pain to an innocent individual. This can be related to our societal beliefs that one has to do something so as to be forgiven in return. My perspective was however by the lessons from the book indicating that forgiveness is usually received and offered freely. From this text, I notice that Jennifer is consumed with vengeance rather than justice as her actions seemed to be controlled by the desire of punishing Cotton for his crimes. During the trials, hatred was seen to have consumed Jennifer which I believe were partially motivated by seeking justice. From