Dead Man Walking Review
In the novel Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean, was asked to correspond with Pat Sonnier, a man sentenced to die by electric chair for the murder of two teen-agers, which he did not commit. Dead Man Walking, gives a moving account of her spiritual journey as she became knowledgeable about our system of capital punishment through her involvement in the lives and deaths of several convicted murderers, their families, the families of their victims and the people whose job it is to carry out executions. Sister Helen brings a profound compassion to all the people she meets, reflecting on her experiences from an engaged Christian perspective. She helps the two death row inmates by loving them even though society despises them. The soul of a man is reached and articulated through the assumption of those who love without judgment. Sister Helen's novel is a classic example of the practice of attentive love, and of its consequences. Throughout the novel, Sister Helen quotes Albert Camus extensively on resistance to the death penalty. The soul comes into articulation not through the discipline of punishment, but through the practice of love, a process that the death penalty may initia
Sister Helen challenges the current taste for public executions, which seems rooted in the desire to participate personally in the act of vengeance. However, by talking to this man and having a "relationship" with this man, she sees that he is human. In return, these men gave love back to Sister Helen and defined her soul. By loving Patrick Sonnier, Sister Helen brings him into awareness of himself as a soul, of his worth as a human being. "Right at the wrist, it cut him in two like a knife and his waist and legs dropped into the water, and he just looked down and died. ' He looks up and says, 'Thanks for loving me'" . What Sister Helen accomplishes in her conversation with both Patrick and Robert is a refusal of the separating gaze, an insistence in connection between two human beings who enable one another to see what it is they do. It was awful to see, and fascinating. Therefore, witnessing her second execution, Sister Helen insists that seeing is an act of connection and of responsibility. She is worried about what to say or how he will react to her. Forcible, violent, premeditated death .
Common topics in this essay:
Sister Helen,
Robert Willie,
Patrick Sonnier,
Albert Camus,
Patrick Robert,
Dead Walking,
sister helen,
Sister Helen's,
Department Corrections,
Pat Sonnier,
patrick sonnier,
death row,
robert willie,
Helen Prejean,
death row inmate,
love judgment,
own eyes,
love sister,
row inmate,
capital punishment,
citizens country,
love sister helen,
sister helen brings,
novel sister helen,
judgment sister helen's,
|
Acceptance Essays
