I am currently reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult. Frankly, I find it one of the most terrifying pieces of literature I have ever read. It is about a boyfriend and girlfriend, Chris and Emily, who have known each other for forever. One night, their parents get a call from the police saying that Emily is dead, killed by a bullet to the head, and Chris found passed out next to her. When he wakes up, he tells police that he and Emily had a suicide pact, that they were each going to kill themselves in order to stay young together forever, but Chris got scared, couldn't finish the job, and fainted. The book follows Chris as he is convicted of Homicide, and you, as the reader are not sure if he committed the crime or not.
The social action question I am answering today is "How does the text make you think about justice in the world?" There is not a lot of evidence to say that Chris killed Emily, yet they lock Chris, 18, in jail for nine months. They aren't sure if he killed anyone, yet they are forcing a young, possibly innocent person to stay in a jail full of proven rapists, pedophiles, murderers, and other criminals. Chris seems to live for Emily, to love her endlessly. He never shows any mental evidence of wanting to hurt or kill her. It was also proven that Emily was suicidal.
However, it is hard to know what exactly to think about Chris. When Emily was six, she was raped by the custodian at Seven-Eleven. She never told anyone, not her parents, friends, or Chris. When she and Chris were older and dating, Chris kept touching Emily and trying to have sex with her, even when Emily screamed at Chris to stop. So, even though we know that Chris loved his girlfriend more than anything, we are angry at him, because he, in a way, raped her.
Justice has not yet been served permanently in the book yet, as I am only halfway through it, and it is hard to tell whether it is just or not for Chris being in jail, as we do not know if he killed Emily or not at this point in the book.
Amelia- Great job! After this I definitely want to read this book. However, I do feel like you're missing a few questions. Like who does bring justice? or who blocks justice? But I really liked howw you talked about the relationship Chris and Emily had. It's obviously a very complicated issue, because Chris who seemed to "love" Emily raped her! But overall, I found this blogpost well writeen with a lot of good details :)
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