Decision Between Loyalty And Justice example essay topic

Montana " Does the novel Montana 1948 suggest that the pursuit of justice is more important than loyalty to ones family?" Discuss Loyalty versus Justice, Montana 1948 is the issue of a family torn between loyalty to one another and obeying the law to follow justice. In the novel we see that Wesley Hayden is forced to make this choice, and is not helped by the pressure of his dominating father Julian and his wife Gail, but Wes takes the right steps of pursuing justice and doing what is right. "He looked exhausted... his face was pale", here David notes how big the load is on Wesley, emotionally and physically, and how he is having trouble with the issue of justice versus loyalty. Throughout the novel we see the load that Wesley has to carry.

Deciding whether to put the accused and guilty behind bars or to remember that the accused and guilty is his own brother Frank and to be loyal to him, he has to put the loyalty aside and serve justice. Wesley has trouble putting aside the loyalty to his brother, "Maybe she's simply got it wrong", and implying that Marie has little knowledge of a doctor's procedures. Gail puts the guilty conscience onto Wes, and he takes the role of investigating his brothers accusations. Wes knew from the start that this wasn't going to be easy and realises that it is just "simply too hard", is now stuck and cannot get out until the problem is solved. When Wesley realises that his brother is guilty, loyalty was yet still an issue "He didn't want to go to jail. Not here in town", he yet again saves his brother the embarrassment from the Bentrock community, by turning his own basement into a jail.

Even though we see Wesley is still trying to be loyal to his brother, he chooses the difficult, but more justified side and arrests his brother Frank By arresting Frank, Wes must confront his family members, especially his dominating and powerful father Julian. This is when Wes finally finds the courage and stands up for himself and ignores his father dominating and abrupt orders. Julian, still being controlling, has obviously chosen loyalty over justice. "This is your brother here. My son!" . This comment made by Julian, doesn't really have anything to do with family loyalty, it comes from arrogance and trying to save the Hayden family name in the Bentrock community, as your son being locked up for sexual harassment, is bound not to look too good.

"My god. My god, boy. Stop this now. Stop this before I have to". Julian has no beliefs in justice and is only thinking about himself and his favoritism to his son Frank and not what it is doing to Wes.

"I cant let him loose. Not and live with myself". Wes stands up for his rights and beliefs and for the first time goes against his father's wish and does what he believes is the right thing to do. Wes carries on and erases Julian's orders and goes on to pursuing justice. Even though Wesley makes the right choices, by following justice, it never really pays off for him in the end. In the novels epilogue, we note that Wisely never really gets congratulated for his hard work and efforts and gets the tribute he deserves.

The town of Bentrock never had to decide whether Frank was innocent or guilty, "You see, I knew- I knew! I knew- that Uncles Frank's suicide had solved all our problems", this comment made by David, brings to our attention, that by Frank killing himself really did solved everyone's problems. Wesley didn't have to march his brother into jail, there would be no trial and no one would have to make the hardest decision of all, if he was innocent or guilty. In the end, every one knew what would really happen to Frank, but it never really mattered, because once again Frank got the big send off and his image was restored, just because he was a war hero and yet again Wesley's was not.

Deep inside, Wesley still felt the pain and anguish of these events, which in the end resulted into cancer, and took the better of him. This is how the novel shows us that justice can often be a difficult, but the right choice, the pain of his choice still lived inside him. Family loyalty is an important element in Montana 1948, the decision between loyalty and justice, simply became a dilemma between the Hayden family. The strain on Wes to decide whether his brother was innocent or guilty, had immense pressure on him, especially from the Hayden family members, who tried to show loyalty to one another. In the end Wes couldn't have made any other choice and at the expense of his family pursued justice.