Murder is defined as the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. In their short stories Alice Munro and Marcy Rogers each give the reader insight into the mind of a sociopathic murderer in the characters of Jude and Marlene. Childs Play offers the understanding that murder can be unintentional and that while some feel guilt others do not. While Marcy Rogers interprets murder as being intentional and that murderers don’t feel any guilt. This essay will evaluate each piece and determine how Munro and Rogers interpret the heinous act of murder.
The two pieces each offer their own interpretation of whether the act of murder can be premeditated or unplanned. Alice Munro’s piece “Child’s Play” follows Marlene and Charlene and…show more content… The story focuses on the life of Jude who plans on killing his Facebook friend Scott after he disliked one of his posts about James Dean. In Rogers view “The decision to kill Scott was not an impulsive one, it had evolved over time from a feeling of irritation to the embarkation of a heroic quest.” (Rogers 12). In other words, Rogers believes that murder is premeditated due to Jude’s thoughts about killing Scott. Jude goes as far as to purchase a gun and plan to post the murder online afterwards.
Another understanding that each piece offers is whether the act of murder is followed by remorse or content. Alice Munro suggests that murder can be followed by either remorse or content. In her piece Munro offers the interpretation of the feeling of remorse with Charlene and the feeling of content with Marlene. From Charlene’s point of view, it is stated “Father H knows and I have asked him and he says that it is possible to help” (Rogers pg. 214). In the perspective of Marlene, she believes that “this could have been an accident. As if we are trying to balance, grabbed on to this nearby large rubbery object” (Rogers pg. 221). In her piece Munro shows Marlene and Charlene’s opposing views on the death of Verna. While Charlene believes that what they have done is wrong and must be forgiven, Marlene doesn’t feel the same way and is not at all remorseful of their actions and she goes as far as justifying what they did that day as stating that they were just
