THE NEED FOR SACRIFICE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
IN JOHN GRISHAM’S
THE RACKETEER
(2012):
A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH
PUBLICATION ARTICLE
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for Getting Bachelor Degree
of Education in English Department
by
ARUM AGISTINA
A 320 120 290
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
THE NEED FOR SACRIFICE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT IN JOHN GRISHAM’S THE RACKETEER (2012): A SOCILOGICAL APPROACH
ABSTRAK
Studi ini adalah tentang The Need for Sacrifice in Law Enforcement in John
Grisham’s The Racketeer (2012) yang di analisis menggunakan pendekatan Sisiologis. Tujuan studi ini adalah untuk mengetahui masalah yang timbul dalam penegakan hukum, menganalisis siapa saja penghalang dalam penegakan hukum dan cara mencegah hambatan dalam proses penegakan hukum. Keprihatinan penulis tentang penegakan hukum berdasarkan pendekatan sosiologis oleh Swingewood and Laurenson. Penelitian ini termasuk dalam penelitian kualitatif. Data primer dari penelitian ini adalah novel karya John Grisham berjudul The Racketeer yang diterbitkan pada tahun 2012, sementara data sekunder dari penelitian ini diambil dari beberapa essay, kritik, komentar, informasi sejarah, biodata John Grisham, website, internet dan beberapa informasi lain. Peneliti menarik tiga kesimpulan dalam penelitian ini. Pertama adalah masalah yang timbul dalam penegakan hukum terdiri dari perlakuan yang tidak adil, tidak cukup bukti dan administrasi yang tidak profesional. Kedua adalah yang berdiri melawan penegak hukum adalah pengacara yang tidak jujur, agen FBI, hakim yang korup, dan jaksa yang korup. Ketiga adalah cara mencegah hambatan dalam proses penegakan hukum adalah dengan bukti yang kuat dan menerapkan kedisiplinan dari masing-masing petugas hukum.
Kata Kunci: The Racketeer, Pegorbanan, Penegakan Hukum, Pendekatan Sosiologis
ABSTRACT
This study is about The Need for Sacrifice in Law Enforcement (2012) which is analyzed by using Socilogical Approach. The objective of the study are to know what problem arising in law enforcement is, to analyze who becomes a barrier in law enforcement and to know how to people cope with the obstacle in law enforcement. The researcher concerns about law enforcement based on Socilogical approach by Swingewood and Laurensoon. This research belongs to qualitative research. The primary data of this research is The Racketeer by John Grisham’s in 2012, while the secondary data of this research are take from other source likely essay, critics, comments, historical information, biography of John Grisham, website, internet and other information. The researcher draws three conclution in this research. First , problems arising in law enforcement consist of the unfair treatment, insufficient efidence and unproffesional administration. Second , those standing against law enforcement are corrupt lawyer, FBI agent, corrupt judge and prosecutor. Third, coping with the obstacle consists of the sufficient evidence and applying disciplene of legal officer.
Keywords: The Racketeer, Sacrifice, Law Enforcement, Sociological Approach
1. INTRODUCTION
The Racketeer is a recommended novel to be read because it has great moral value. It tells about law enforcement in the real world. John Grisham writes this novel. He is a great writer in a thriller novel. He serves this story by using sociological approach as a lawyer, so we can apply the perception of law enforcement. The words chosen make the reader understand what the researcher exactly going to say.
The Racketeer was published on October 23, 2012. This novel tells about law enforcement in this real world. It is tell about lawyer, FBI agents, judges and prosecutor. The Racketeer describes the life of a lawyer Malcolm Bannister that gets the sacrifice in law enforcement. He lost of career, job and family. Dionne as the Bannister wife divorces him because he is in prison for ten years, Dionnes married again with other man. In prison with other convict, Bannister knows who killed Judge Fawcett and he knows why. The judge’s body was found in his remote lakeside cabin. There are no forced entry and no struggle, just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. The FBI would love to know, and Malcolm Bannister would tell them. But everything has a price, especially
information as explosive as the sequence of events that led to Judge Fawcett’s death. The novel
ends with Bannister celebrating with the Rucker family in his new house in Antigua, with all the gold.
Before the researcher writes this paper, several writers have analyzed about John Grisham novel. There is no same with previous research because it mostly different research. Those several research is the description between British-English and American-English Slangs in the John
Grisham’s Novel The Racketeer.
In this paper, the researcher explains this novel by using Sociological approach. This theory proposed by Swingewood and Laurenson. The researcher do choose this theory among several theories about law enforcement because this is most apropriate one to analyze The Racketeer. Swingewood and Laurenson has state three types of sociology of literature: (1) sociology of the writer, (2) sociology of the society and (3) sociology of the readers. Welek and Waren also has three classified sociology of literature, there are sociology of the researcher, sociology of the work and sociology of the audience. In this paper, the researcher discuss John Grisham novel The Racketeer by finding to the type of sociology of the writers and sociology of the society. The researcher focusing on the sociology of the researcher that tells about provenance, status, social ideology, profession and institution of literature.
2. RESEARCH METHOD
The type of research method is qualitative research.Object of the study is divided into two, formal object and material object. The formal object is law enforcement. The material object is a novel written by John Grisham’s The Racketeer. This novel was published in 2012. The novel consists of 383 pages. This paper focuses on the law enforcement which spreads in every chapter of the novel. There are two data sources which are needed to conduct this research. They are primary data
sources and secondary data sources. The primary data source
of the study is the Racketeer novel by
John Grisham. Secondary data source are take from other source likely essay, critics, comments, historical
information, biography of John Grisham, website, internet and other information
. In collecting data, the researcher takes some steps as follow: 1) Note taking , 2) Library research that consist of (a) Reading the novel repeatedly to get deep understanding, (b) determining the character that will be analyzed, (c) reading some related books to find out the theory, data and information required, (d) taking notes of important part in both primary data and secondary data sources, (e) classifying and determining the relevant data, and (f) arranging researching and developing the selected material into good unity toward the topic of the study. The technique of data analysis, the researcher uses three processes which relate to each other, such as data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Problem Arising in Law Enforcement
Problem arising in law enforcement consists of unfair treatment, insufficient evidence and
unprofessional administration. The problem must be addressed immediatelly in order to create law
enforcement are beneficial to society.
a. The Unfair Treatment
The first problem arising in law enforcement is unfair treatment. The rights of others should be protected affectively and professionally by the state. The resistance unfair to the victim is the problem arising in law enforcement.
“Judges sometimes ignored them in court and ruled against them for no sound
legal reason. Other lawyers were often rude and unprofessional. The county bar association did not invite them to join. Clerks sometimes lost their filings. All-white juries did not believe them. Worst of all, clients did not hire them. Black clients. No white client would hire a black lawyer in the 1970s, in the South anyway, and
this still hasn’t changed much. But Copeland & Reed nearly went under in its
infancy because black folks thought the white lawyers were better. Hard work and a commitment to professionalism changed this, but slowly” (TR:10).
Grisham wants to convey that the problem in law enforcement is injustice. The law enforcement should be fair and balance, but many people buy the law enforcement by the money in now days. There are corruptions in law enforcement and it is only concerned with self interest. Law enforcement works for the money not for justice. In this case, Grisham tells us about the judge who ignores a justice. Mostly, lawyers defend people who have much money than defending the truth. This is an injustice for the people who do not know about the law and minority communities that do not have money. Law enforcement should work fairly and wisely.
“During my prosecution, it was painful watching their good names get dragged
through the mud, and it was so senseless. When I was on the ropes, the lead FBI
agent informed me that Mr. Copeland and Mr. Reed were going to be indicted if I
didn’t plead guilty and cooperate with the U.S. Attorney. I thought it was a bluff,
but I had no way of knowing for sure. I told him to go to hell” (TR:12).
The main character in this novel is also forced to plead guilty, even though he is not. He tells a lie in order to save his friends. In this case the main character figures showed that law enforcement gets problematic. This is the unfair treatment that the author explains through the plot of the novel. Law enforcement should be fair, but in fact law enforcement threatened the main character to plead guilty. This is an example of injustice in law enforcement.
b. Insufficient Evidence
Insufficient evidence is the second problem arising in law enforcement. This issue makes an innocent person could be imprisoned because evidence is important.
“Then there’s me. Malcolm Bannister, black, aged forty-three, convicted of a crime
I had no knowledge of committing” (TR:5).
Grisham shows that people in prison are not guilty at all, such as that is experienced by the main character Malcolm Bannister. Grisham told that the main character eventually is jailed because he gets accused of a crime. Grisham shows the difficulty as a lawyer who fights to defend himself when he is entangled by legal cases.
During this time, I was vaguely aware of the name and reputation of a Beltway operative by the name of Barry Rafko or, more famously, Barry the Backhander. He was about fifty years old and for most of his adult life had been rummaging around D.C. looking for a lazy way to make a buck. (TR: 55)
This novel tells about Bannister as a lawyer. Bannister has a client. This client is asking to handle the case. Bannister must handle the real estate transaction. Bannister as a lawyer works with good jobs. It is the duty of a lawyer to resolve the client problems
.
c. Unproffesional administration
Law enforcement must work professionally. A law officer must work according to the rule. Unprofessioanl administration makes law officer corrupt. It is not easy to achieve professional level. There are needs to sacrifice for correcting this problem.
In a ham-and-egg storefront law office, you learn the basics of many mundane legal
tasks, but it’s difficult to specialize. I tried to avoid divorce and bankruptcy and I
never liked real estate, but to survive I often had to take who and what walked in the door. Oddly, it would be real estate that brought about The Fall. (TR:54)
The third problems that arise in law enforcement are unproffesional administration and injurious behaviour. When Bannister is out of prison, he is not as a lawyer again. Now he is labeled as a failed lawyer.
“I shouldn’t call myself a lawyer, because technically I am not. The Virginia State
Bar swept in and yanked my license shortly after I was convicted. The language is right there in black and white—a felony conviction equals disbarment. I was treatment and insufficient evidence, Bannister gets the prison and also feels disadvantage. The first sacrifice is his career was collapse. After geting the prison, Bannister career was collapse. He gets ten years in prison. If he gets out from prison, there are no people who believe him because of his status as ex-convict. The people will be afraid because he can not help himself and help the other people or client.
3.2 Those Standing Against Law Enforcer
Those standing against law enforcer are corrupt lawyer, corrupt judge, and prosecutor. Someone who is against law enforcement called criminals. They should be punished for his action against law enforcement.
a. Corrupt Lawyer and FBI Agent
The stand against law enforcement is a criminal lawyer. In application lawyer must help the client with the evidence that they have. Lawyer should not discriminate the client even though they are the poor client or rich client. In real applications many lawyers only help the client if they have much money and authority. Lawyer plays with the rule in law and will reverse the fact if the client have authority and money. In this novel John Grisham wants to show that there is a lawyer like Bannister that stands against the criminal law enforcer. Lawyer and FBI agent help to stand against corrupt law enforcer.
“However, in my little world, I am known as a jailhouse lawyer and as such spend
several hours each day helping my fellow inmates with their legal problems. I study their appeals and file motions. I prepare simple wills and an occasional land deed. I review contracts for some of the white-collar guys. I have sued the government for legitimate complaints but never for ones I consider frivolous. And there are a lot of
divorces” (TR: 2).
Lawyer is a law enforcer that protects his client and handles legal case. The lawyer will look for evidence to protect his client. A lawyer is the first that stands against in law enforcement. In this
novel, Bannister is a lawyer and he always handles simple problem, likely estate and divorce. He is a lawyer who defends about the truth not about money. A lawyer is also as a legal assistant or consultant. A lawyer helps the clients who are guilty and also will protect his client from prosecution. Grisham is very detail when he tells about a lawyer. He tells Bannister as a good lawyer. FBI agents also help the lawyer in law enforcement. FBI agent is also as the law enforcement agencies. FBI agents have function to collect data information as intelligent. FBI agent also has function as the security agencies in country. Grisham also gives detail function about FBI agent when the FBI agents conduct the criminal investigation.
“A couple of radical environmental groups had sprung up and operated around the fringes of the litigation. These had been closely monitored by the FBI at the time. Fawcett had received death threats, and during the trial he had moved around with protection. The threats were thoroughly investigated and found not to be credible, but the bodyguards remained close by”. (TR:2)
FBI agents will monitor and investigate problems in law enforcement. FBI agent usually works as an ordinary person without uniform. Camuflage without uniform helps the FBI agent when he works as intelligent. Intelligent in case is very important because it can help to make an accurate evidence. FBI agent as law enforcement can catch the criminals with hard work.
b. Corrupt Judges and Prosecutor
In this novel John Grisham try to tell about corrupt judges and prosecutor as law enforcers. Some of the law enforcement infrastructures are prosecutor and judge. A judge will prosecute defendant with fair as well as the prosecutor who will prosecute defendant based on the evidence.
“I’m forty-three years old and halfway through a ten-year sentence handed down by a weak and sanctimonious federal judge in Washington, D.C. All of my appeals have run their course, and there is no procedure, mechanism, obscure statute, technicality, loophole, or Hail Mary left in my thoroughly depleted arsenal. I have nothing. Because I know the law, I could do what some inmates do and clog up the courts with stacks of worthless motions and writs and other junk filings, but none
of this would help my cause” (TR:1).
This novel tells about wrong law enforcement. Judge has committed an offense. Fawcett judge is the character in this novel. He is a judge who has killed. Fawcett as a judge must work fair and arrange all the barriers and obstacles for the creation of justice. In here Grisham tells about Fawcett judge as a judge who does not have a sense of justice. As a good judge, Fawcett must give the consideration and advice on legal matters.
He seemed to especially enjoy lecturing the white-collar guys as he passed judgment and sent them away. Their sentencing hearings generally attracted more press, and Fawcett had a massive ego.(TR:27)
The wrong infrastructure in law enforcement would bring bad impact on society. A judge must lead, follow, grasp legal values and sense of justice in society. Judge must check a case and must check with on trial. This is the function of judge as law enforcement.
Not only judges but also prosecutors arbitrarily made mistake in law enforcement. The function of a prosecutor is to conduct the prosecution criminal case in the court of competent jurisdiction. Prosecutor also executes judgement determination of the criminal judge. In this novel Grisham only tells more little about the prosecutor. It is different when Grisham tell about judge. But Grisham tells function of prosecutor.
I’m sitting here doing ten years for a noncrime because a hotshot U.S. Attorney needed to jack up his kill quota. And if the government can nail my ass for ten years with no evidence, just think of all the possibilities now that I have the words
‘Convicted Felon’ tattooed on my forehead. I’m outta here, Pop, just as soon as I
can make the break.” (TR:18)
The role of prosecutor is needed in law enforcement, because the wrong infrastructure of law enforcement will make bad impact. Prosecutor also has an authority to conduct investigation further crimes and violation as well as overseeing to coordinating the investigator tool. Prosecutor also will averse the flow of trust that can harm the society and state. This is that Grisham wants to tell to the reader about law enforcement.
3.3 Coping with the obstacle
Coping with the obstacle consist of the sufficient evidence and applying discipline of a legal officer. Law enforcement officials work with the society to enforce the law fairly. The society also should monitor the performance of law enforcement.
a. Sufficient Evidence
Coping the obstacles in law enforcement process is with the sufficient evidence based on facts not the public opinion. The evidence is very important in the process of law enforcement.
“But much worse,” he continues, “he tried to smuggle in a handgun and four kilos of cocaine.”
“Four kilos of cocaine,” I repeat, acting as shocked as possible.
“Found the powder in two nylon firstaid kits in his gym bag, along with a small
pistol. What a fool.”
I’m shaking my head in disbelief. “He mentioned buying drugs once he got here but said nothing about smuggling the stuff in.”
“ How well do you know this gentleman?” Rashford asks.
“I just met him a week ago. We’re not exactly close friends. I know he has a history
of drug violations in the States, but I had no idea he was an idiot.”
“Well, he is. And he’ll probably be spending the next twenty years in one of our fine prisons.”
“Twenty?!”
“Five for the coke, fifteen for the gun.” (TR:291).
We need an evidence to decide criminal proof guilty and convict it. Criminal evidence will be processed in law. This novel gives some evidence as a crime. Besides the readers forced to think
and know some evidence, the reader also can know about law enforcement. A quote above is one of example about law enforcement that does not dare to imprison a person without evidence. Law enforcement will say guilty by the evidence. Evidence can make inmates defend in court if criminal is innocent.
b. Applying discipline of each legal officer
The second way to prevent the obstacle is by applying the discipline of each legal officer. Government also needs to provide adequate law enforcement facilities.
“The trial was a spectacle, a farce, a ridiculous way to search for the truth. But as I learned, the truth was not important. Perhaps in another era, a trial was an exercise in the presentation of facts, the search for truth, and the finding of justice. Now a trial is a contest in which one side will win and the other side will lose. Each side expects the other to bend the rules or to cheat, so neither side plays fair. The truth
is lost in the melee” (TR:84).
Many legal officers are working by own wishes. Legal officers are not concerned with the people interest. Many of legal officers are selfish. Legal officers actually should concern the people interest in society. In here Grisham wants to show to the reader about law enforcement. A discipline will be formed if all officers of law have the spirit of patriotism and love the country. Legal officers are as law enforcement must concern with the public interest rather than their own personal interest. Many of law enforcement gets the corruption and only think about their own personal interest. The court is supposed to be a palace of justice, but now the court tends to be biased. Many people confuse to searchs the justice because the law enforcement unfair.
3.4 DISCUSSION
The most appropriate theory for John Grisham’s novel is Sociological Approach by
Swingewood and Laurenson. Based on analysis of sociological approach, according to Swingewood
and Laurensoon a literary work tells of human life, conflict of the society and analyze the
relationship between society and community. The racketeer novel clearly explains the phenomenon.
The racketeer novel tells the life of a lawyer as well as a variety society conflict such slander of his case
when choosing the wrong client. Grisham tries to tells life in a prison with objects as black in
American usually distinguish. This is the social aspect in society that Grisham approaches. It is also
try to increase the public understanding based on the phenomenon of social life in the Racketeer
novel.
In Swingewood and Laurensoon theory sociological analysis that contains in the Racketeer
novel is sociology of the society. John Grisham who lives in America tells very detail explaining
about important place in the United States. John Grisham also describes the state of American
society. Indirectly the circumstance is primary influence when he writes this novel. Wellek and
Warren have statement about literary work creates own world but each of them imitates the reality
of the society. In this novel sociology help to find out some social implication in the Racketeer novel
such as law enforcement. Wellek and Warren also state that social allegiance and attitude the author
can be studied in biographical literary documents. It gives the author studies from his work and
from biographical documents since he is as member of society who has social issues.
4. CONCLUSION
Based on those explanations, we can conclude that this study shows the novel has close relationship with the reality of law enforcement in the social conditions of American society in the early twenty century. Based on the analysis in the previous chapter, the study comes to the following conclusion. Firstly the problem arising law enforcements are unfair treatment, insufficient evidence and unprofessional administration. Secondly, those stands against law enforcement are criminal lawyer and FBI agent, corrupt prosecutor and corrupt judges. Thirdly, the strategies used to cope with the problem are sufficient evidence and disciplined in law enforcement. In this novel also determine the point of his criticism of law enforcement. It can be seen from the plots of the story beginning with the introduction of each character. The moral value is Law enforcement not always fair. There is a different between the upper classes and lower classes. Law in this time can be purchased with easy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amini, Sari D. 2015. The Description Between British - English And American –English Slangs In The John Grisham’s Novel ‘The Racketeer. Denpasar: Udayana University.
Grisham,John. 2012. The Racketeer. United States of America: Bellfry Holdings,Inc.
Murtiyasa, B., Sutama, Thoyibi, et al. 2014. Pedoman Penulisan Skripsi. UMS: BP-FKIP.
Swingewood, Alan and Diana Laurenson. 1972. The Sociology of Literature. London: MacGbbon Ltd.
Welek, Rene and Austin Warren. 1956. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace&world.
VIRTUAL REFERENCES
Amazon.com Accesed on November 29, 2015 at 3 pm
http://www.jgrisham.com/bio/ Accesed on Mei 30, 2015 at 3 pm.
