Features of depiction of justice system and its representatives in the legal thriller by John Grisham

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SHEI «Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky Hryhorii Skovoroda State Pedagogical University»

Features of depiction of justice system and its representatives in the legal thriller by John Grisham

Mariia Pangelova,

Candidate of Philology, associate professor of Ukrainian and world literature and teaching methods chair

В статті розглядаються особливості зображення системи правосуддя та її представників у юридичному трилері Джона Грішема. Традиційно детектив прийнято розглядати в рамках парадигми, що знаходиться на нижчому щаблі літературної ієрархії масової літератури. Однак, завдяки його орієнтації на запити масового читача, саме детектив може слугувати матеріалом для вивчення загальноприйнятих у національній культурі аксіологічних орієнтирів, які визначаються типовими для конкретного історичного періоду уявленнями про добро і зло. Зокрема, у ХХ столітті американський детектив виявляється здатним трансформуватися в нові літературні форми відповідно до соціально-історичного і літературно- культурологічного контексту 1920-х - 1990-х років.

Ключові слова: детектив, трилер, жанр, адвокат, юрист, література, читач, прокурор, вердикт.

В статье рассматриваются особенности изображения системы правосудия и ее представителей в юридическом триллере Джона Гришема. Традиционно детектив принято рассматривать в рамках парадигмы находящейся на низшей ступени литературной иерархии массовой литературы. Однако благодаря его ориентации на запросы массового читателя именно детектив может служить материалом для изучения общепринятых в национальной культуре аксиологических ориентиров, которые определяются типичными для конкретного исторического периода представлениями о добре и зле. В частности, в ХХ веке американский детектив оказывается способным трансформироваться в новые литературные формы в соответствии с социально-историческим и литературно-культурологическим контекстом 1920-х - 1990-х годов.

Ключевые слова: детектив, триллер, жанр, адвокат, юрист, литература, читатель, прокурор, вердикт.

The article deals with the features of the image of the justice system and its representatives in the legal thriller by John Grisham. Traditionally detective accepted to consider as part of a paradigm that is at the lowest level of the hierarchy of literary mass literature. However, due to its orientation to the general reader requests, it can serve as a detective material for the study of national culture generally axiological orientations, defined as typical of a particular historical period notions of good and evil. In particular, in the twentieth century American detective is able to transform into a new literary forms in accordance with the socio-historical and literary-cultural context of the 1920 s-1990 s.

Key words: detective, thriller, genre, attorney, lawyer, literature, reader, prosecutor, verdict.

justice system grisham

The appearance in the 1990 the detective of legal procedure, also called legal thriller associated with the name of American writer John Grisham, whose works, affecting relevance to contemporary American reality the complex social problems (race relations, the death penalty, corruption), as well as a detailed description of how existing legal system, have, as noted by M. Pringle, a significant contribution to the development of this trend in the American detective literature [12, p. 2-8].

Noting that the main plot of a legal thriller as in any type of detective narrative lies a crime, its investigation and disclosure, researchers, emphasizing the importance of the figure detective for the development of the detective story, determine that the name of this type of detective, is directly related to the professional activities of its main character - a lawyer who uses the means of achieving justice available to him [11, p. 21].

The appearance of a legal thriller and its protagonist - a lawyer - in the space of American detective fiction determined by the characteristics of the system of law of the country where, because of certain socio - historical reasons, the level of civil legal awareness is extremely high. Americans are well aware of their rights and freedoms, they know the price and are always ready to protect them. «... It should be everywhere and always ready to fight against evil. He hurried to the court, knowing that he was right, and he hoped to achieve a conviction. The United States must win!», Says one of the characters of J. Grisham [5, p. 176].

Experimenting with form in his books, John Grisham is to break the usual narrative structure detective: crime - investigation - the clue. A plot for his novel «The Client» (1993), for example, the assassination of a prominent politician mafia. The novel begins with the fact that eleven-year-old Mark Sway, accidentally witnesses the suicide of a corrupt lawyer Clifford. He tells Mark before his death that his client killed Senator Barry Muldanno, four shots in the head and hiding the corpse. Clifford calls the place where the body had hidden, and explains to Mark that the FBI suspected Barry that he's the only suspect, but need a corpse to prove murder, «because otherwise otherwise there will not be the verdict» [5, p. 54] emphasizes the prosecutor of the novel by J. Grisham.

Thus, the beginning of the novel destroys almost all the rules that the classic detective story should develop. Mysterious circumstances under which the offense is disclosed at the outset. Solving the mystery is not busy amateur detective and FBI special agents, have not only logic, but also a special legal training. Updated classic rule that the detective, starting the disclosure of secrets, knows as much as the reader. The reader knows about the crime more than a detective (in this case - is the FBI). As a result, knowing all about the crime, the reader keeps track of how it reveals the investigator. In the novel, the «Client» the only person who is dedicated to the mystery and can expose the criminals, is Mark. FBI agents and Justice authorities are making a confession, and the mafia, on the contrary, do everything that he was silent.

Once in a difficult and dangerous situation, Mark refers to a lawyer. Since then, the story starts to develop in the usual, conventional scheme: the introduction of a detective, a message about the crime, the investigation, isolation, restoring justice. To Mark comes in a wise woman lawyer Reggie Love, a customer he becomes. «As a lawyer, she was engaged in the protection of the offended and abandoned children, and did it with great skill and energy juvenile court usually attracted her to protect the children who needed a lawyer, but they had no idea about this. She fiercely protected their young customers, who are often even thank you could not tell. <...> It is well earned, but it was mostly» [5, p. 54]. Introducing the reader to the main character, the author, highlighting its outstanding qualities, it pays special attention not only to its analytical ability or talent spotter, but rather on the quality inherent in a professional lawyer, - willingness and ability to protect the interests of their customers, using the whole arsenal of jurisprudence, in an effort to the triumph of justice.

Accordingly, the main actors of the novels by J. Grisham are investigators, judges, lawyers, and the purpose - the disclosure of how the legal system how to administer justice. As noted by Umberto Eco in the detective work «stable, unchanging narrative scheme creates personality detective and his colleagues. As part of this scheme may be unpredictable unexpected events» [9, p. 113].

By analogy with the detective of police procedure a term detective of «legal process» suggests that in the course of a criminal investigation, the detective in this direction of detective uses methods that are available only to the real lawyer: appearance in court, negotiations with judges, lawyers opposite side. To implement these methods are used articles of the constitution, regulations, case law, legal action. «I take the Fifth Amendment» [9, p. 113]. «He believed that a legislative act of the New Jersey violates the Second Amendment» [2, p. 21].

John Grisham's novels are based on the binary opposition of a single private individual with his personal views on justice, on the one hand, and social and communicative communities: greedy and corrupt corporations, insurance companies, banks, multinational companies, on the other hand. These sinister forces are often referred to by the word «system». The system reflects the state of public institutions and the corporate mentality of using self-defense against the encroachments of any single techniques and tools. «It is not always true, but it is no less true than in New York, Massachusetts or California» [7, p. 139]; «Now in the system occurred a failure. Worse, the system is now trying to force him into a prison cell, to break it, to make his children orphans» [5, p. 61]. «There are different places where you can shove a child of eleven, not to please the system» [5, p. 355]; «... The system sought to drive him in a prison cell, to break it, to make his children orphans» [7, p. 195]. «He felt the injustice of a system that allows to drag the little boy to the court, where, surrounded by lawyers contend, ready at each other's throat under the scornful eye judges, including juggling laws, codes of articles and legal terms, he must figure out what to do. Terribly unfair» [5, p. 21].

The personification of these negative qualities often became a Corporation. For example, in the novel «Camera» in the dialogue between the young lawyer and his older and more experienced counterpart, sounds as follows: «So, for the first nine months, you lost faith in «Kravitz and Bane?» - No. But I feel that this happens. I do not want to put his career on the protection of the interests of the rich crooks and roguish corporations. - Then you do not get there» [4, p. 48]. In the novel «The Verdict» the same young man explains the reasons of frustration: «In that summer Nicholas for the first time faced with this unpleasant phenomenon. He hated company giants. And in the middle of the second course he even bothered jurisprudence. Why should I sit-five years in the dog kennel and pore over textbooks, if the rich corporations still shirk the law?» [1].

In the representation of complex social structures (the judiciary, intelligence agencies, corporations) maintained the same principle: the writer makes a distinction between a person acting as an element of social soulless mechanism, and his own personal qualities. For example, in the «The Pelican Brief», there are two variants of the perception of the same character - FBI Director Denton Voylz.

In the first case, he is depicted at the entrance to the room, surrounded by his subordinates, representing a powerful secret service: «...he strode across the hall newsroom accompanied by K. Lewis and the two agents. It was the usual rumpled jacket with a belt tightly gird oneself his short and fat figure. He was not to strike, but his manner and walk left no doubt that he knows what he wants. All in dark suits, they looked like bodyguards of mafia godfather. The noise in the hall of news instantly verse when they appear. Even when he does not clump, be it humble or how you will, F. Denton Voylz was a figure» [2, p. 355].

Otherwise, he is depicted in the perception of the protagonist of the novel: «In the beginning I did not like, but then as it grew up in his eyes. It is not without a sense of humanity» [2, p. 369]. The reason for changing its initial opinion is simple: Voylz managed to establish a relationship with her, based on trust and personal involvement in her life: «She did not like the man, but the last ten minutes he was with her amazingly frank» [2, p. 366]. The most valuable qualities of the FBI director are frankness and sense of humanity.

In the novel, the «Client» is also facing two vital positions: judicial- bureaucratic and human. The essence of the conflict parties is that one of them (the lawyer Reggie Love, and the boy's mother) Mark - this is primarily an eleven-year child and only secondarily - a potential witness for the prosecution and for the prosecutor's office and the FBI, he - just a very important witness, one of the gears in the mechanism of judicial machinery.

At the heart of the dramatic works of John Grisham is dependent on the decisions taken by the judicial actions of one or more persons. The source of emotional stress is the realization of the characters of novels of J. Grisham of full personal responsibility for the consequences of a decision of whether justice will prevail and the perpetrators escape punishment. In one of the tensest moments of the narrative character of the novel «The Pelican Brief» dream out of the game, to live peacefully, but understands that it is impossible, «She would go out of the country, perhaps in Montreal or Calgary. And there will be hidden from the year in the hope that the crime will reveal its pursuers and will be removed. But it was a dream. The shortest path to justice went straight through it. She knew more than anyone else» [2, p. 204].

For this scheme is built a novel «The client». J. Gresham builds the story in such a way that the judgment becomes dependent on the will and consciousness of eleven years old child. In the novel «The Verdict» in jury meetings before deciding the protagonist recalls his colleagues: «The current court - a crucial stage in the course of all these «tobacco processes», one might say, their Gettysburg their Armageddon. It is here that the parties agreed to a plan to bring down the enemy head on top of his ammunition. And in the battle to be the winner and must be defeated. It is clear and definite. The question of whether tobacco companies are held responsible for damage caused by cigarette smokers health is solved here. Us. We have chosen, and our task verdict» [1]. Ordinary citizens involved in the process of judicial decision-making system, likened to the participants of the crucial events in the national or universal history.

In the works of John Grisham if a person is expressed the will to justice, and he is making every effort to achieve his goal, the system is subject to him, becomes a means of realization of his personal qualities, and he eventually succeeds. Otherwise, he, on the contrary, gets completely dependent on the system, it becomes a hostage, and begin to use those who are able to use the system.

This builds the opposition of good and bad lawyers. Quality, which has a bad lawyer listed in the requirements of the leader of the Mafia: «He needed a new lawyer who would call him when he wanted it, to meet him for a drink, and would have found such a jury, which could be buy. This lawyer!» [5, p. 331]. That is, a real lawyer, from the point of view of the Mafia - is a person without a sense of self-esteem, acting as a pawn in a game conducted by employing its people. Unscrupulousness mafia servants naturally leads to the loss of their personal qualities, which in turn makes them losers: as the author indicates, bad lawyers, despite its reputation, lose the case more often than winning.

The human dimension is traced in relation to John Grisham in thejudicial system. At the same time found a strange contradiction to the lawyer: John Grisham's characters are always disappointed in the law, and never - before a jury. The most sharply expressed in the novel, «The camera», «Adam stopped swearing after a while. Finishing off a bottle of juice, he threw her out of the car onto the shoulder, breaking the law of Mississippi on pollution of public spaces. Now he would not find the words to express their opinion about the Mississippi and its laws» [4, p. 585]. Such disrespect lawyer for the law is quite typical for the characters of J. Grisham, it is found in novels such as «Company», «The Pelican Brief», «Golden rain», «The Verdict», in which the main characters completely abandon a career in the field of law.

At first glance, exactly the same estimate is obtained of jury trials. He highlighted three major drawbacks. Firstly, its decisions are unpredictable, «This is a typical example of errors when trying to pick a jury by skin color, origin, age and education The fact is that no one can accurately predict how to behave in the jury I had studied all the books in the library on the selection of the jury, but the confidence I have not increased one iota» [3].

Secondly, the personal composition of the court - it is an object of manipulation on the part of the plaintiff and the defendant, whose main task - to ensure the imposition of their desired verdict. This transformed the very notion of the ideal of the jury: «Both sides and she and the other so-called hired consultants for the selection of the jury, they come from all over the country to help create the perfect jury. Ideal - is, of course, is not one that will work honestly and impartially, and one that will make the right verdict» [1].

Thirdly, the jury is not training, so they are more susceptible to the emotions in the decision: «The most important thing - it is the jury. Guilt against innocence. Liberty against the prison. Life against death. And to solve it will be the jury. Not exactly reliable thing - to entrust the life of a living being in the hands of twelve ordinary citizens, who have little versed in the laws and alsojust scared the whole procedure of the court» [7, p. 244].

However, all these disadvantages are reduced in the novels of John Grisham's on to the next thought: live people decide the fate of live people in a jury trial. As a result, the jury without much exaggeration called the most clear example of realization of the basic democratic principles of American society, established by its founders and expressed in the well-known saying about A. Lincoln «people power by the people and for the people» («government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth»), as well as set forth in the text of the Constitution: «in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury».

In the novels John Grisham describes a paradoxical situation: the closer people are to death, the greater its opponents they become. The greatest support for the death penalty receives from people infinitely distant from this problem in their everyday life. In the above dialog, the protagonist Adam Keyholl unsuccessfully tries to explain the inhumanity of the death penalty to his sister, a young girl living a very peaceful and happy life. At the same time almost all the immediate death sentence performers (i.e., torturers), which by virtue of their profession come into contact with criminals and communicate with them on a human being, inevitably become the principal opponents of the death penalty. For example, the warden, «... he was a resolute opponent of the death penalty. He understood the reasons for her public support for a long time and had memorized all motivated by the best of intentions reasons - it serves as a deterrent, removes murderers, this is an extreme measure of punishment about it is in the Bible, it meets the needs of society to revenge, it softens the pain of the affected families» [7, p. 244].

John Grisham explains the reasons for this rejection: «The severity of the penalty execution fell on his shoulders, and he with contempt and hatred belonged to this side of his work. It was Philip Neyfi who went out of the camera with convicted, walked with him in the detention center, as they called this space where what remained to suffer the last hours before his death. It was Neyfi Philip who led him into the next room, which was simply called «camera», and took care to properly were tied legs, arms, head [4].

That is, for those who impose the death sentence, the prisoner only person involved in any process, and for this character - he is a living person. The warden is in a position between the powerful social institution that has great intellectual, socio-political and moral support, which is called «the death penalty», and live human emotions, against which all arguments in favor of the death penalty fade and seem meaningless. Normally refer to the death penalty can only be hiding behind abstract reasoning and dogmas, which often cannot withstand a collision with a living reality. It is characterized by the position of a member of the prison staff, «Packer hated penalty. And I put up with them because he was a religious man, and the Bible says an eye for an eye. It's about the death penalty» [4].

The horror of the situation presented in the novel «The camera», is that no one wants the death of Sam Keyhole person whose fate is in the center of the narrative. He talks about the attitude towards him from the future participants of his execution: «In fact, like no one wants to kill me. There is a little zany, nine fingers, the executioner, he brings out the verdict - gas supplies. Ask him when they fasten my belt, what he was doing, and he replied: «I do my job». The prison chaplain, a prison doctor, the prison psychiatrist, the guards, who will lead me, orderlies, who will pull me out of the gas chamber - all are great guys, no one is against me, they just do their job» [4].

Sam becomes a victim of abstract principles, for which completely disappears a living person, his personality. He does not want to have anything to do with their defenders, who actually use it as a reason for punishment once a political demonstration. And even the crime itself, because of which he got to the gas chamber, was committed not out of personal animosity to the victims, and was dictated solely by racial prejudice that existed at that time in South America.

In this novel, which can be regarded as the most outstanding work of John Grisham, ambiguous image of Keyhole Sam's most consistently, and therefore a very shrill reveals the main theme of his work: a man - as an integral part of the system, embodying all of its flaws, and people, as opposed to system becoming a victim or a victor.

According to D. Hammett, Chandler R. and E.J. McBain. Grisham writes in line with the American tradition of detective fiction, based on the opposition of the classical detective story, being built on the intellectual game, far from the real life. As Deshil Hammett, he knows he is writing about, by his own professional experience, carrying books in the practice of the courts and legal offices, where faced with the cases described in his thrillers. In this sense, the works of John Grisham's are quite applicable words of Raymond Chandler in a kind of manifesto of the «tough» detective «Just art to kill»: «He described the phenomenon, which he knew from his own experience of his prose is rooted in real life, she had a real foundation - he portrayed people as they were in reality, wrote the chronicle, not parlor games» [11, p. 21]. He has the skill and professional reliability describes how to operate the courts, prisons, mafia structures.

It is for certain knowing about the work of the police stations, the investigating authorities, jury trials and intrigues of extortion and corrupt, exist in reality, he was guided by a principle of compliance with the established form, and ethical standards of the legal profession, creates largely unique variation of the detective novel, reflecting the moral - value orientations of modern American society.

Literature

Гришэм Д. Вердикт [Электронный ресурс] / Д. Гришэм. - Режим доступа : http://www.litmir.net/br/?b=11135&p=84. - 21.07.2013 г.

Гришэм Д. Дело о пеликанах / Гришэм Д. - М. : Новости, 1993. - 380 с.

Гришэм Д. Золотой дождь [Электронный ресурс] / Д. Гришэм. - Режим доступа : http://readr.ru/dghon-grishem-zolotoy-doghd.html?page=163# - 21.07.2013 г.

Гришэм Д. Камера / Гришэм Д. - М. : Центрополиграф, 1994. - 637 с.

Гришэм Д. Клиент / Гришэм Д. - М : Новости, 1994. - 448 с.

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Гришэм Д. Пора убивать / Гришэм Д. - М. : Новости, 1994. - 574 с.

Чандлер Р Просто искусство убивать / Р. Чандлер // Сборник романов. - М. : РИПОЛ КЛАССИК, 1999. - 800 с.

Eco U. Narrative Structures in Fleming / U. Eco // The Poetics of Murder : Detective Fiction and Literary Theory. - San Diego, N.Y., London : Harcourt Brace Jovanich, 1983. - 412 р.

Freedland J. The Law Lord / J. Freedland // Guardian. - 1994. - 30 May. - P 2.

Mystery and Suspense Writers : the Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage. - New York : Scribner, 1998. - Vol. 2. - P. 1103-1106.

Pringle M. John Grisham : a Critical Companion / Pringle M. - Westport, CT ; London : Greenwood Press, 1997. - 139 p.

References

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Mystery and Suspense Writers : the Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage. - New York : Scribner, 1998. - Vol. 2. - P 1103-1106.

Pringle M. John Grisham : a Critical Companion / Pringle M. - Westport, CT ; London : Greenwood Press, 1997. - 139 p.

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