The Chamber - John Grisham (Spoiler Alert!)

Am I for death penalty or against it? I don't know because honestly, I never thought about it. The death penalty has not been in practice in India for many years now. So no articles on it appear in newspapers. Neither is there any discussion about it on TV channels. So there was no reason for me, I guess, to think about my position on the subject.

The Chamber by John Grisham, however, made me think about it. Does the law have a right to terminate someone's life even if that person is a murderer? If not, how about justice for the victim's family? Does justice always mean 'an eye for an eye'? Is life sentence enough to make someone pay for taking another person's life? Tough questions, all of these. And I am not sure there is one right answer.

When I was reading the book, I had mixed feelings for Sam, the Klansman who has been on a Death Row for killing 2 little boys. Yes, he was wrong to kill people, he was wrong to hate others who practiced a different faith from him or had a different skin color. He was wrong - plain and simple, no two opinions about that. But I simply couldn't make up my mind about whether the Chamber was right for him or not. I mean, one can argue that the person who has killed someone else does not have a right to live. He should pay for his sin with his life. On the other hand, being on a Death Row for years, not knowing whether one is going to be pardoned or killed, is nothing short of a punishment. What it is going to be? As I said, there is no single right answer that you can neatly check off.

That perhaps was the reason why Grisham left the real bomber, Wedge, in the shadows right till the end and sent Sam to the chamber - an end that will make people sit up and think as they close the book. I doubt if a free Sam would have achieved the same effect.

As far as I am concerned, I rather like the plot tied up neat and clean at the end - no loose ends anywhere. Perhaps the result of watching all those Hindi movies long ago :-) And we Indians do love happy endings. The fact that I was hoping for some miracle that would free Sam even when the last 10 odd pages of the book were remaining is proof enough!

However, that feeling lasted only till I turned the last page. As I closed the novel, I thought that it was right that Sam was executed in the end but Wedge shouldn't have gone scot-free either. Oh Boy! Didn't I say that there is no single right answer? :-)