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guilt, forgiveness, atonement, redemption
Jul. 10th, 2012 04:14 pmAt first I didn't intend to write something so long and in-depth, but then realized that this is a subject that is far too difficult with which to take the lazy way out.
Thomas is a young man in his early-to-mid 20s who has served 8 years in prison for killing a young boy. He always maintained that it was an accident - certainly, it was not an overly heinous murder but a negligent drowning - however, the child's body was never found, so nothing could be proved.
Thomas' crime was not committed by him alone, but also by a friend who curiously still remains in prison. It is not known why, but is presumably because Thomas had testified that he and his companion on that day only took the boy Isak to play on the riverbank, that Isak ran away from them, fell, hitting his head on some rocks, and frightened by all the blood, thinking the child was dead, Thomas' friend told him to "put the body in the water", so he did. The "water" was a fast-moving stream and Isak was swept away, never to be found.
The other primary character in this story is Isak's mother, Agnes. Agnes undoubtedly feels guilty for having left Isak alone in his stroller outside a busy ice cream shop while she lined up inside. The fact that she spilled some chocolate ice cream on her white sweater and went into the washroom to clean herself up also added extra time to the interval that she was gone. At the trial, she never believed Thomas and his friend's story, thinking that they each blamed the other and neither told the truth about what actually happened. Agnes is also a schoolteacher and a control freak (which is not a bad thing, certainly not in the context of this story).
( Read more... )
Thomas is a young man in his early-to-mid 20s who has served 8 years in prison for killing a young boy. He always maintained that it was an accident - certainly, it was not an overly heinous murder but a negligent drowning - however, the child's body was never found, so nothing could be proved.
Thomas' crime was not committed by him alone, but also by a friend who curiously still remains in prison. It is not known why, but is presumably because Thomas had testified that he and his companion on that day only took the boy Isak to play on the riverbank, that Isak ran away from them, fell, hitting his head on some rocks, and frightened by all the blood, thinking the child was dead, Thomas' friend told him to "put the body in the water", so he did. The "water" was a fast-moving stream and Isak was swept away, never to be found.
The other primary character in this story is Isak's mother, Agnes. Agnes undoubtedly feels guilty for having left Isak alone in his stroller outside a busy ice cream shop while she lined up inside. The fact that she spilled some chocolate ice cream on her white sweater and went into the washroom to clean herself up also added extra time to the interval that she was gone. At the trial, she never believed Thomas and his friend's story, thinking that they each blamed the other and neither told the truth about what actually happened. Agnes is also a schoolteacher and a control freak (which is not a bad thing, certainly not in the context of this story).
( Read more... )
