Thus, Nordan does not only give an account of this main event in the true story of Emmett Till, but adds important information about the characters involved to stress the reality of the social tensions that existed at that time in the South. Besides the extensive use of magical realism, Nordan also employs several "blues strategies" to structure his narrative, as Baker points out: "In Wolf Whistle, Nordan uses several blues strategies, not the least of which is the blues technique of playing through the break, to explore the interracial implications of the Emmett Till story."(Baker, 48) the blues technique is also important because it is obviously used as a means of recreating the story within an African-American tradition. Actually, at the very moment of Bobo's fatal whistle, there is a blues singer on the porch of the store that accompanies the events with his music: "The blues singer on the porch sang that he had to keep moving to stay out of the path of the blues, he sang that the blues were falling all around him like hail... there was a hellhound on his trail, a hellhound on his trail." (Nordan, 31) the blues therefore contextualize the story even more, while laying a special emphasis on the African-American tradition. The narrative itself seems to swing and pace in the rhythm of blues sometimes, and Nordan is thus able to recreate the atmosphere and reassert the African-American identity. As the story proceeds towards the kidnapping and the murder of the child, Nordan makes even more use of magical realism. Thus, relying on the basic facts of Emmett Till's mutilation, Nordan recreates the image of the tortured body with one of the eyes knocked from its socket. The dead eye is able to see the world in a whole new and wonderful way, that the child himself couldn't have seen: "The eye that Solon's bullet had knocked from its socket [...] saw the world as if his seeing were accompanied by an eternal music [...] saw what Bobo could not see in life, transformation, angels and devils, worlds invisible to him before death."(Nordan, 175) the wonders seen by the dead eye are significant because they allude at the way in which such a dreadful and violent act of murder can affect our perception of reality and bring to attention the fundamental aspects of reality. The finding of the dead body again prompts an explosion of...
Thus, the whole of nature seems to be affected and to suffer, and the image of the mutilated body suddenly transforms into that of the living, bright boy, innocent and hopeful: "The atmosphere rarified. Birds fell from the air. Cattle toppled over in a field. Car motors stalled on the highway. The body of the Bobo-child, dressed in a heavy garment offish and turtles and violent death, reversed all its decay, and flesh became firm once more, eyes snapped back into sockets and became bright, bones unbroke themselves, feet became swift, laughter erupted like music, and bad manners and disrespect and a possessive disdain for a woman became mere child's play, a normal and decent testing of adolescent limits in a hopeful world." (Nordan, 208-209) Through the use of magical realism, Nordan emphasizes the effect that the image of the murder and of the pictures published in magazines with Emmett's mutilated body has had on human consciousness in general. Trough these devices therefore, the author hints at the aftermath of the dreadful story and the wave of awareness that it managed to create towards the incredible injustice done to an innocent boy.
Murder and Injustice in a Small Town Death sentence Are you innocent until proven guilty? The constitution of the U.S.A. has the provision of being treated as though one is innocent until the due process of the law takes its course and one is proven guilty or set free on absolute innocence grounds. It should be pointed out that if you committed the crime then you are guilty regardless of the conditions. However,
The year 1998 brought the highest number of murdered young girls yet and authorities arrested another man for those crimes. Press reports from the summer of 1999 typically offered body counts between 180 and 190, sometimes coupled with a reminder that "at least 95 women" were still missing. Chihuahua authorities claimed that FBI agents had endorsed their conviction of Abdel Sharif, while El Paso G-men indignantly denied it (MURDERS of the
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There is a plethora of questions result if one deduces the seriousness of the situation. For instance, should the system be reevaluated in terms of the rights of minors; especially when it comes to interrogation practices? Or did the police in Jacksonville, Florida just represent a few bad apples in an otherwise functioning system? The answers to these questions are fair from obvious and subject to intense arguments from both
IC 18-4003 lays out the elements needed for a first-degree murder conviction, and many of those do not require aforethought. Further, IC 18-4001 does not state the definition is for first degree murder only, and thus, simply adds to the ambiguity of the law. Still another change may need to be a redefining of phrase "an abandoned and malignant heart" in IC 18-4002. This phrase is not legally clear, and
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