Helen Prejean

Helen Prejean is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille in Louisiana. Now, she is involved with death row inmates at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola. The thesis of her article is “I see the death penalty as connected to the three deepest wounds of our society: racism, poverty, and violence.” Helen Prejean states in her writing that she refuses to believe that God would put hate to hate and violence to violence together. She said she does not believe that God provides human members with the power to torture and kill. About racism, she tells a story of serving black people in the St. Thomas area. Then, she says that their death would be on the back page of the newspaper. She mentions that she realized that some lives matter…

and again in 2013, is a first-person subjective narration of her experience as the spiritual advisor of Patrick Sonnier, a death row inmate. Prejean skillfully illustrates the cruelty and corruption of capital punishment in the United States through her involvement with Patrick. Sister Prejean is a nun, who agreed to become spiritual companion for Patrick, at first she was wary of the task, because of Sonnier’s reason of conviction for the rape and murder of 18 year old Loretta Ann Bourque and…

Unjust Systems Sister Helen Prejean, in her book Dead Man Walking, uses statistics, stories of injustice, and her childhood experiences to relate discrimination and poverty in cities like New Orleans to the death penalty: both are unfair systems that need to be reformed. Prejean first demonstrates ethos, using anecdotes of her experiences as a white child in the segregated 1950’s to convince the reader of her understanding of discrimination. After ethos, Prejean uses logos in the form of…

In her book Dead Man Walking, Helen Prejean had the purpose of showing why it is necessary for people to take action to fix injustice regarding several systems in American society, with her central focus ultimately being the death penalty. She achieved this by using logos, pathos, and ethos to make a well rounded appeal as to why these systems are flawed and why it is one’s responsibility to fix them. Prejean uses logos to open her readers’ eyes to the flaws with the criminal justice system…

Today, many like Karen Armstrong, acknowledge the significant role art plays in a community. Throughout her essay, Homo Religiosus, she argues that art, much like religion, has the capability to allow one to temporarily forget and transcend their daily struggles, and rather focus on an ideal future. Maggie Nelson’s essay, Great to Watch, questions how society relates to the world and through what can we do so. Nelson opens her text with a discussion of Sister Helen Prejean, who proposes in her…

When Sister Helen Prejean wrote the book Dead Man Walking, she was seeking to unmask the illogical ideas behind the death penalty. Her intent was to save prisoners from the horrors of the death penalty, while exposing the faulty reasoning behind it. Prejean’s novel is a wonderful example of disobedience from social norms with positive intentions. However, the riots in 1968 following Martin Luther King Jr’s murder give a tragic example of how progress slows when intent becomes darker. These…

dilemma, she was comforting him in his time of need, and at the same time she was trying to get him to confess his crime so that he would be forgiven and be able to go to heaven. She also wanted to be able to give some sort of comfort to the victims’ families. She didn’t compromise her beliefs and the duties that she promised to keep. Not many people can separate the two. We are dealing with that daily with corrupt politicians, police, and even school authorities. People trading one for the…

Many people kept asking Sister Helen why she was helping him. When she went to seek out help because she did not know what to do, they told her that is it not usual for a woman to be doing what she is doing. She accepted to be his spiritual guide through the process leading to his death. The parents of both the the teenagers were shocked that she was willing to help him as well. The role of woman in the helping field is dominant even to this day, especially in the social services field. It was…

After helping Paris in his single combat with Menelaus, Aphrodite disguises herself as an old woman when approaching Helen. Homer’s contrast in word play when painting Aphrodites’ physical attributes portrays her to be creative in asserting power. The phrases “a withered hand” and “an old woman” and later on “beautiful neck,” “irresistible line of her breasts,” and “iridescent eyes” contradict each other (3, 412-413, 423-325). The beginning suggests that Aphrodite donned the disguise of an old…

city of Troy. This battle was ignited by the sudden abduction of Queen Helen of Sparta by Prince Paris of Troy. Helen and Paris were star-crossed lovers, in which, nobody could separate them. You could compare them to the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet, where the Montagues and Capulets fought, again, sparked by the love of two young lovers. Back in mythological times, Zeus, the father of the gods and god of the sky and thunder, held a celebration after the recent marriage of Peleus and…