ENGL102 Assignment: Humanity in the Great Novels

 
ENGL102
 
Date
Humanity in the Great Novels
The power structure often influences how the justice system works and where there is fairness in how different people and communities are treated. Zoot Suit is based on historical facts and presents us with brutality, injustice and discrimination that affected Chicano community during the 1940s, in the wake of the events of Sleepy Laggon in 1942, when a group of young people pachucos were targeted and blamed for criminal activities and imprisoned without fair trial. The pachucos wore zoot-suit style, and were manly young Mexicans. Franz Kafka’s In The Penal Colony an explorer is sent to inspect a prison establishment in a distant land, where there are questions about Power and justice in an environment with capital punishment using a machine. The China men and women in Zoot Suit and the condemned men In The Penal Colony are singled out and punished without the due process partly because they are in the low levels of the social hierarchy.
Unfairness results in blatant discrimination and targeting people to keep them under control and is characterized by injustice as is the case of the Mexican Americans and the accused who are targeted. The pachucos are a target of injustice and discrimination will be retaken and Valdez depicts them as victims of circumstances who are made scapegoats. Nonetheless, their resistance where and political struggle create a stronger community out to fight for their rights. “A huge showup of nearly 300 boys and girls rounded up by the police and sheriff’s deputies will be held tonight at eight o’clock” (Vadlez). Lieutenant Edwards lined up suspects believed to have been robbers, and thieves who assaulted people and snatched purses. These suspects were chosen at random mostly because they were of Mexican descent many with no direct ties to the crimes. “The fact that he had been invited to this execution even seemed to indicate that people were asking for his judgment of this trial” (Kafka 9). In the penal colony there is lack of justice since the accused all suffer the same fate regardless of what they did punishment is standardized no matter the crime committed. The Traveler was welcomed with open arms and shown around as though the condemned people had accepted their fate, but this was a way to control them.
Oppression mostly affects the vulnerable who are easy targets of the justice system and have few opportunities to fight for equality The pachuco reflects otherness based on historical events of Sleepy Lagoon in 1943. The events resulted in the detention of Mexican Americans in California and the struggle of the community to defend themselves against xenophobic attacks, injustice and racial discrimination. According to Sergeant Smith to lieutenant Edwards “Forget it, Lieutenant. You can’t treat these animals like people” (Valdez 31). This implies that Smith did not hold a positive view about the Mexicans/ Mexicans Americans and did not care if innocent people were caught up. “The injustice of the process and the inhumanity of the execution were beyond doubt” (Kafka 19). To the Traveler it was easy for the vulnerable to be caught up in the system and once one w...