Shadows in the Mirror

490 Words2 Pages
Shadows in the Mirror The novel, Shadows in the Mirror, by Cameron Nunn, examines the theme Justice. Justice is defined as – the quality of being just; righteousness,equitableness or moral rightness. This is portrayed in the novel by using fourdifferent techniques: crime detective genre, mise en abyme, characterisationand language. Through these techniques, the author demonstrates the reality of justice and Injustice at Hamilton College.A feature that Cameron Nunn has used to display justice through the crimedetective genre is red-herrings. An example of where red herrings are used is onpage 104~105 – “Thomas Dyson...twice he had been suspended for fighting and ...a number of times had received the ‘strap’” The effect redherring’s has on the technique is that David and Simon suspect Thomas Dyson tobe Tommy who killed Pieter Lehr. This adds to the tension because it makes thereader believe that the case is solved by using red-herrings. As a result, justicemust be. Each of these examples play an important role in solving obtaining Justice. Justice cannot be served if you have red-herrings which put you off track.Another feature that Cameron Nunn has used to show justice, through the use of the mystery detective genre, is suspects. An example where it shows this featureis on page 103 – “Thomas Dyson, a large muscular boy with a foolishgrin. It was easy to imagine him as the thug who tormented the juniors.‘It’s got to be him.’” The effect of the technique is that David and Simonsuspect Thomas Dyson to be the bully of the school. This adds tension to thereader by revealing the suspects and questioning if it could be them or not. As aresult, the boys go to Thomas Dyson’s house believing that he is the one whokilled Pieter Lehr. They soon find out that he is innocent. People should not judgeothers without having all the evidence because the wrong people might
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