The Postman Always Rings Twice
question
Do you think "The Postman Always Rings Twice" ridicules LAW?
samodH
Sep 11, 2014 10:27AM
I was glancing over my self made notes before lending my copy to a friend. And I found that I'd made observations on Law. To give you the background, I'm a Sri Lankan never been to USA or Europe. But I find that the narrator being released for a crime he had comitted and apprehended and executed for a something he's not guilty of, is crazy and if you really think about it, even horrific! True, one might say JUSTICE is served. But is it really justice? Doesn't it scare the shit out of you that the (then) law could be wrong enough to "kill" you? How misleading could evidence be? And if we can't trust evidence, what can the law and investigation can count on? Also, if we consider that the postman in the title who's absent in the story is GOD, isn't the novel a mockery on God's dispensation of justice and/or punishment? Sorry, I can't answer any of this. But what do YOU think Cain wanted to achieve by raising these unanswerable issues???
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deleted member
Sep 22, 2015 09:05PM
0 votes
Justice is blind, love is blind, and never the twain shall meet.
No, he wasn't ridiculing nor being mocking or being disrespectful.
In the American legal system, strange & perplexing miscarriages of justice happen frequently. Cain was simply using this fact as a background/context, and also as a theme in his story. He was tapping into the inherent irony and bewilderment of simple man vs modern law; contrasting our clumsy 'constitutional justice' against 'divine' or 'moral' justice.
Neither does he mock God; he is simply reminding us that our fate--as dispensed by God--can often be too intricate for us to fathom.
You also ask:
"True, one might say JUSTICE is served."
No, we rarely admit anything like that. We're too steeped in cynicism in the USA, and rightly so.
"And if we can't trust evidence, what can the law and investigation can count on?"
Well. The law doesn't rely on facts alone (nor does science). It is the interpretation of facts upon which cases and conclusions turn.
In the American legal system, strange & perplexing miscarriages of justice happen frequently. Cain was simply using this fact as a background/context, and also as a theme in his story. He was tapping into the inherent irony and bewilderment of simple man vs modern law; contrasting our clumsy 'constitutional justice' against 'divine' or 'moral' justice.
Neither does he mock God; he is simply reminding us that our fate--as dispensed by God--can often be too intricate for us to fathom.
You also ask:
"True, one might say JUSTICE is served."
No, we rarely admit anything like that. We're too steeped in cynicism in the USA, and rightly so.
"And if we can't trust evidence, what can the law and investigation can count on?"
Well. The law doesn't rely on facts alone (nor does science). It is the interpretation of facts upon which cases and conclusions turn.
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