Revenge, feels good to
get it doesn’t it? It sure does, but don’t be too vengeful or else it will come
back ready to smack you. “Revenge converts a little right into a great wrong”. In
Mystic River, there are many
situations of “revenge”, but the one that sticks out the most is the murder of
Dave.
After surrounding Dave in
the back of the bar near the water, Jimmy quarrels with Dave and accuses him of
murdering his “sweet” Katie. Dave pleads to Jimmy that he did indeed murder
someone that night, but it was not Katie. Jimmy infuriated with the “made up”
explanations from Dave, refuses to let Dave go until he confesses the “truth”. Finally,
Dave falsely confesses only to be met with a knife piercing through his stomach
and shortly after shot in the head by his former friend Jimmy.
Jimmy believed killing
Dave was avenging Katie’s death, his “little right”, but it turns out he was
wrong and made a mistake and Dave was indeed telling the truth. Jimmy’s actions
contributed to the “great wrong” by taking action too soon and cold bloodedly
kill Dave for essentially no reason. Jimmy has to live with the fact that he
ended a life of an innocent man. Dave’s wife and son are now without a husband
and a father. Jimmy’s wrong doing leaves an empty hole where Dave once filled
up. Dave’s son will now have to grow up without a father and will have to face
the reality that he will never see his dad again. One act of revenge results in
the greater wrong. 
Jimmy’s murder impacts everyone around him. It makes me wonder why he didn’t leave the case to the police. He was already in jail once, so why would he kill a man just to go back? He has daughters of his own, so if he gets incarcerated, then they will have to grow up without their father being around. Even if Dave did kill Katie, he would have suffered more in jail — thinking about his mistake — instead of having a relatively quick death.
ReplyDeleteJimmy could probably care less about leaving his other daughters if that's what needs to happen in order to avenge Katy's death. Recall, his current wife reminds him that Katy is not his only daughter, as if he forgot. Katy is his favorite because she is all he has left of his former wife. She has her blood coursing through her veins and mostly likely resembles her. When Katy dies, the remainder of his former wife slips away.
DeletePeople view revenge in many different ways. Some people believe revenge is useless, but others believe if it is the only way to be happy. Jimmy would have been happy by avenging his daughter's death when he murdered Dave, but his false accusation ended up hurting him in the end. Jimmy didn't care to punish anyone as long as he thought they deserved to be punished.
ReplyDeleteDave's death is tragic because he was innocent. He had nothing to do with Katie's murder. His death occurred because there was a lot miscommunication. Everyone jumped to conclusions and assumed Dave committed Katie's murder because his stories did not add up and he always acted strange. This is sad because he was not strange- Dave was misunderstood and scared.
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ReplyDeleteNot only is Jimmy's "great wrong" a result of his killing of Dave, but one can argue that his childhood plays a vital role in why he makes this unreasonable decision. Because Jimmy witnesses the abduction of Dave as a youth, he feels a sense of guilt for not doing anything about it. This significantly contributes to his poor choice, for he feels the responsibility to do the right thing for his family, regardless of the method he has to take.
ReplyDeleteDave was unwise to keep changing his story, making it seem suspicious when he could have told both his wife and Jimmy that he had murdered a pedophile. The story about a mugging was believable at first but when he changed it the people in his life started asking questions. Dave was innocent, but he could have reacted differently rather than lying about murdering a degenerate member of society.
ReplyDeleteHonestly this movie pissed me off so much due to the fact that he gets off scott free just because it was more of a revenge thing. It's as if history repeats itself as both Jimmy and Sean realized they messed up but instead of owning up to it and trying to right a wrong, they ignore it. Maybe that was the point of Jimmy not getting arrested, but that's the kind of tragedy elements I don't need.
ReplyDeleteAgreeing with what many people said if Dave had just kept the truth as his story he may of faced jail time, but he would still be alive, and it is due to all his secrets that he is dead.
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