Throughout history mankind has always been faced with judgments. According the Oxford English Dictionary, judgment means "the mental ability to form an opinion" (AHD, 454). We are forced to make decisions based on our "mental opinions." Then, one's actions are based on 'mental opinions' which are judged by other people. Then there is the inevitable justification of these actions by other people or the person themselves. According the Oxford English Dictionary, justify means "to demonstrate sufficient legal reason for (an action taken)" (456). Once those actions are justified, they are considered morally and legally acceptable and are therefore are left alone. However, many times in a person's life, some decisions based on judgments are not justifiable. That is what causes conflict and separation among people. Often this disparity in perception on judgment leads to crime and punishment. This is very apparent in young children. If a younger brother bothers his older sibling, the older sibling often cannot understand why. So he or she feels that the younger sibling's action is not justifiable. Since it cannot logically be justified, the older brother or sister usually decides to punish the younger sibling by hitting him or her. This leads to crime and punishment. Now it is difficult for the parents of those children to justify the reason for argument. So they punish their children by putting them in 'timeout'.
             And this whole concept is what underlines both Antigone, by Sophocles and The Reader, by Bernard Schlink. In both stories, judgments arise and decisions are made based on those judgments. When those judgments cannot be justified, they are sent to be judged upon by a higher authority. This is all due to a difference in opinion which leads back to whether those unjustifiable decisions were considered a crime that deserve punishment. The focus of ...