dead man walking Essay

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Prejean deals with the "other" in her book.
The “other” can be viewed as the breach in the System. According to the readings, there are people participate in evil and eventually “wake up”. The awareness of the “other” as a human being breaks the cycle of evil. It alters one’s world views and salvation is achieved. In the book, Dead Man Walking, the “others” are the death row inmates in American prisons. It is the judicial system that has implanted such attitudes towards criminals in our minds, where we recognize criminals as “others”. According to Christian beliefs, God is perfect, lacking nothing, infinite. While, anything that God created would be secondary, finite, imperfect, less than God. As humans were created by God, they are imperfect and are prone to make mistakes. A good example of such would be Adam and Eve’s sin. The consequence of institutionalizing criminals as “others” is to shatter the face -to-face relationship which is done through the negation of the dignity of the person who you perceive as the “other”. For example, judging a person by his actions and concluding that that person is not a human being but an object (other) and does not deserve the dignity of a human being. In such a case of dehumanization the person who is supposed to be part of the community is now being turned into an object against whom any action is permitted. Except this way sin is being institutionalization an original denial of the subjectivity and the dignity of the victim becomes part of everyday life. It is the destruction of God’s will; Gods wish for community. Just

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