Shadows in the Mirror Essay

The novel ‘Shadows in the Mirror’ by Cameron Nunn explores the themes of justice and injustice: Justice can be defined as the quality of being just or righteous and also moral rightness, this is depicted in the novel through the use of three different techniques such as: mystery detective genre which including, suspects, detectives and crime. Cameron Nunn also skillfully uses techniques such us: en abyme and language techniques such as metaphors, he cleverly uses all these techniques to demonstrate the reality of justice and injustice at Hamilton College.

Cameron Nunnn displays injustice from the very first pages of the book, he begins the story as the main charcter David Pollifrone remembers witnessing an injustice occuring; a group of seniors bullying another student ‘One student has another pinned against the red brickwork’ (page 1), “Do we tell a teacher?” David asks then Marty his buddy at that time in year 7 says “You better learn this fast if you want to survive at Hamilton. It doesnt matter what you see. You never dob. Not on anyone. Not about anything, unless you want to get the crap kicked out of you.” (page 1), we can also see that this injustice not only occurs because of the seniors but even some of the teachers, we can see an example of this in the quote on page 3 “Those who understood the unwritten code learnt easily, other had learn the hard way. Brutality was never random. It was a coordinated exercise that brought everyone into line. Those we enforced conformity – the seniors I saw on the first day, the prefects, even some of the teachers – worked as a unit , though none of them would ever have been fully conscious of it. Weakness could not be tolerated” (page 3).

An element that the author has very cunningly used to display injustice through the use of mystery detective genre particularly suspects, an example of this element is on page 99