The Oppressed in Just Mercy and Reading Lolita in Tehran
Bryan Stevenson’s novel Just Mercy journals the stories of men, women, and children in prison and details the ill-treatment and poor living conditions in the prison system for those incarcerated. Stevenson reveals the corruption of government officials and how those officials manipulate the judicial system to determine the fate of prisoners on death row. Azar Nafisi’s novel Reading Lolita in Tehran follows Nafisi as she details her stories as a professor at the University of Tehran. In her tales, the reader is able to understand the treatment of the Iranian people and the fear they live in on a day to day basis. Both novels stress hopeless characters in the fate of a government system that instead of protecting them does the exact opposite; both Stevenson’s and Nafisi’s characters face oppression and helplessness. Whose fate is worse: Stevenson’s imprisoned clients or Nafisi’s characters under a strict, oppressed government? The constant fear of being abused, hurt, or killed is evident in both novels at some points. Characters in both novels suffer abuse and mistreatment at the hands of the government that is supposed to keep the peace and order. The two novels, Reading Lolita in Tehran and Just Mercy, detail the injustices of the world and how no one is safe from being mistreated; they portray the reality of the world, a world that is not free of human injustice.
H. J. Ortiz 