asher p2 team 7 Edwardian Synthesis

Siena Palm

Arin Nam

MacKenzie Forman

Steven Li

Period 2

Team 7

Edwardian Era Synthesis Q

Whether violence as retribution is immoral is a question that is often debated about. Retribution, essentially revenge, although not exactly moral, is considered by some to be right. For instance, if someone close to you was brutally murdered, and you retaliate by killing that murderer, is the act of violence still immoral? The major violent retribution of our time would be capital punishment. Capital punishment is the act of administering the death penalty upon someone who has committed a serious crime, and many people believe this to be completely justified. Despite feelings that the guilty must be punished, the fact remains that a human is a human, and denying a person the right to live is immoral. After all, if a person is in prison for murder, life in prison is already a major punishment; seeing as how prison is already complete torture itself, it seems that the death penalty is only a relief.

On the contrary, war in some cases makes retribution amoral. A perfect example would be the United States’ war against Al Qaeda. The September 11^th attacks were one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the United States; approximately 3,000 Americans were killed and the security of our country was changed forever. In the aftermaths of the attack, not only did a heightened sense of hysteria strike the United States, but the need for war, or retribution seemed inevitable and necessary. After Osama Bin Laden ruthlessly had our country under attack, the U.S fought back in a search to capture the Al Qaeda leader and have him executed. The war against terrorism is amoral because yes, people are killed out of revenge, but most would see this as necessary in order to increase the safety of our country.

One piece of art displaying righteous retribution is the poem “The Singer in Prison” by Walt Whitman. The poem tells a story of a singe who visits a prison and sings to the prisoners. As they are all caught up in her melody, she walks calmly past the prisoners and urges them to look forward to death as a “heavenly pardoner”. The poem shows that Whitman was ever so impressed by the idea of condemnation and retribution. Instead of believing God’s forgiveness as a righteous pardoning of criminals’ sins, death is the only source of revenge.