In John Grisham’s The Pelican Brief, the main antagonist, although unknown to most in the beginning, is Victor Mattiece. Mattiece hires a well-known, infamous assassin who goes by the name of Khamel to assassinate the author of the Pelican Brief, Darby Shaw. He is wanted in nine different countries, (Grisham 29) and those who have seen his face, never lived to tell about it. In the United States, we know about many prominent assassinations, most of which are linked to government officials or popular celebrities. What are the motives behind these assassinations? Khamel is described as a man with “many names and faces and languages, an assassin who struck quickly and left no trail...” (Grisham 21). However, that is not the case with Lee Harvey Oswald when he assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963. From the window of a six-floor building using a mail-order rifle, Oswald shot the President during a motorcade in Dealey Plaza. (Rafferty) There were a total of three shots fired at John Kennedy, one had missed him completely, the next hit the President and Texas Governor John Connally, and the last shot was fatal, hitting the President directly in the head. (Rafferty)
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Whether it be political reasons, the fame, the feeling, or the money, they all seem to feel that it is justified. In John Grisham’s The Pelican Brief, we get to examine Khamel as the assassin. From looking at the cases of these five infamous assassins and their assassinations, we can assume a lot about Khamel, almost as if he was a real person. We can see why he may have been so eager to accept the job of assassinating Darby Shaw. Was he insane? Did he have a bad childhood? Or was he simply in it for the money? From what we know about Khamel, all we can tell is that he was in it for the money. But was there another reason? Grisham leaves these questions for us as the readers to answer, if we’re curious enough to find
Whether it be political reasons, the fame, the feeling, or the money, they all seem to feel that it is justified. In John Grisham’s The Pelican Brief, we get to examine Khamel as the assassin. From looking at the cases of these five infamous assassins and their assassinations, we can assume a lot about Khamel, almost as if he was a real person. We can see why he may have been so eager to accept the job of assassinating Darby Shaw. Was he insane? Did he have a bad childhood? Or was he simply in it for the money? From what we know about Khamel, all we can tell is that he was in it for the money. But was there another reason? Grisham leaves these questions for us as the readers to answer, if we’re curious enough to find