In the three stories "A Vendetta" by Guy De Maupassant, "Crackling Day" by world's famous novelist Peter Abrahams and "The Gold Cadillac" written by Mildred Taylor the writers present different ideas of justice

One day, Wednesday it was, the two friends have been sent by their carers to the farm in Elsburg to buy "sixpence crackling." It was cold at that time and the boys were dressed in light clothes; they walked on bare feet. Both had a small piece of bread for their whole journey, which was not particularly short. On their way back they have been involved in a "word exchange" with three white boys form the local village. The boys have insulted the two friends by calling out racist names, they also began to pelt them with stones. Once the boys got to the sons of "fathers which were black baboons" the main character decided to defend himself.

"You're a liar! I screamed it. [...] My father was better than your father! Liar!" Unfortunately these words made the situation, which was already wicked even worse. The black boy has been hit in the face by the biggest of the offenders. The fight started. Suddenly the black boy lost his conscience and fall asleep. When he woke up, his clothes were ripped in many places. Anxiously he looked around for the crackling. It was on the other side of the road. He went home with Andries and when he came, the dinner was ready. Some time passed and the family, aunt Liza, uncle Sam and their nephew heard knocking on the door. It was the father of the white boys that were involved in the fight that day. Uncle Sam was asked to "then teach him [the black boy]." The boy was hit several times with a leather thong until he promised never to lift a hand to a white person no matter what happened.

Peter Abrahams wanted to show in this short story rather the opposite of justice - injustice. The system of apartheid allowed only the white people to discriminate on the grounds of race, legally. It was unjust that people were allowed to be racist against other persons. According to this kind of law, it was all right that the white boys shouted "Hey, klipkop" and "Hottentot!" at the black boys, of which one in the meantime involved himself in a 'fight for justice and honour' and actually got punished for this in a very cruel and violent way. The white boys got away with their crime.

Uncle Sam was very unhappy with his acting but he understood that this was the best case - the consequences could have been much worse for the whole family. On the next day he brought his nephew an orange, a bag of sweets and a picture book as a compensation, hoping that "You'll [nephew will] understand one day. This probably was the only just part of the whole plot - boy gets punished for something which was not really that bad but then he gets recompensed with presents.

Peter Abrahams presents both justice and injustice in his short story. The unjust part is punishing the black boy in an extremely violent way for a crime which was not as serious as the punishment and the getting away with racism of the white boys. It was only just that the black boy got rewarded on the next day for the unjustly carried punishment.

The third and last story studied is called "The Gold Cadillac" and is set in the north part of the North American continent. It shows a community of a neighbourhood consisting of black people. The main characters belong to a family made up of a couple with two children, uncles and aunts. Just like the previous short story, this one is also about racial discrimination against black people.

One day the father of the two children, Wilma and 'lois drove a brand new, expensive Cadillac of the colour gold up the way to the garage. His wife was not particularly happy with the new acquisition; she hoped that the money they saved for the past few years will be spent on a new house. She was so angry that she refused to drive in the car during trips and on they way to the church on Sundays. Finally Wilbert, the husband decided that he will drive his new car to the rural south. All of his relatives, also the neighbours tried to convince Wilbert that "it was [...] a mighty dangerous thing, for a black man to drive an expensive car into the rural south." Wilbert's argument was that he "paid good money for that car" and therefore it gives him the "right to drive it where he please." The relatives did not agree, that Wilbert goes on his own and so they have decided to travel with him. Even the wife participated in the trip. On the way to Mississippi, on the road signs started appearing. "Signs that read: WHITE ONLY, COLOURED NOT ALLOWED." When the family got to Memphis, their cars got separated by the traffic, which was very heavy at that time. The Gold Cadillac was stopped by the police officers and Wilbert was asked to sit at the back of the police car. The second policeman sat at the steering wheel of the Cadillac and followed the squad car with Wilber onboard. In the police station it came out that Wilbert got stopped for speeding up in the traffic; he paid the ticket and was dismissed. After a long journey Wilbert stopped the car at the side of the road and went to sleep, so did the rest of the family. In the morning the father realised that his son holds a knife in his hand. He woke the kid up and asked for the reason. It came out that the kid was scared of the white people, he didn't know what they did to his father, he was scared that they will hurt him after the signs that he saw on the way. When the rest woke up, Wilbert decided to collect the rest of the travelers and head back north. On the next day after the trip Wilbert sold the car and came back home with a block of green banknotes in his palm.

Mildred Taylor also presents injustice in his story. According to the police, if a black person drives an expensive car with northern plates, it must mean that the car is stolen. This is discrimination because it is thought that people of the skin colour black are criminals in all cases, even in driving a car. The policemen were not fair because out of a big lot of 'road pirates' they've chosen to stop the black one, and instead of giving him a ticket and leaving they locked him in a cell in the police station. This was not the punishment for a small speed excess in the USA. The reality forced the main character to at least stay in his own area but finally to sell the car he dreamed of, the car which was a part of his "American Dream."

I think that the most interesting, but at the same time deeply disturbing and depressing story is the second one explained in this essay - "Crackling Day" by Peter Abrahams. It gives me an insight into the South African culture and the evil system of apartheid. There is a lot to write about this story in terms of how justice and injustice are presented.

In all three stories justice and/or injustice are presented in a specifically different way. In "A Vendetta" justice is achieved by the mother taking revenge in the climax, where the murderer is killed. This situation is a reference to the words that Matthew wrote in the Bible centuries ago - "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth." The murderer killed a boy but at the end the same situation happened to him - he got punished for murdering in exactly the same way as he murdered Antonio Saverini.

In "Crackling Day" both justice and injustice appear. The boy gets insulted and hit by a guy of the other colour just for being black. He gets involved in a fight for his and his father's honour. When he comes back home he is punished for what he did; I think that the fact that he fought was well justified because he was deeply cursed and provoked to start the conflict. At the end justice is shown when the boy gets presents and apologies from his uncle for the violence, which was also justified, it could always be worse.

*Source: wikipedia.com