For Mattie, justice is simple: you do the crime, you do the time. (Or you hang.) She judges criminals harshly, and only looks past Rooster's criminal tendencies because he'll make sure her justice is served. But there's a problem. Mattie's situation may seem pretty straightforward—Chaney killed her dad; she wants him dead—but justice is rarely that simple. If everyone just went around killing people who'd wronged them, the nation would be effectively lawless. In fact, it'd be no better than Indian Territory: a bunch of criminals and might-as-well-be criminals running around waving guns at each other.
Questions About Justice and Judgment
- How do Mattie's religious views influence her judgments? Is she concerned with divine justice, or earthly justice?
- What's the relationship between justice and the kind of judgments that Mattie suffers from her neighbors?
- Do you think justice was done to Chaney? To Ned?