A story I’m working on has prompted a curious question. It’s not really germane to the plot, but I’d like some opinions anywhistle.
The story is an urban fantasy, with two main characters–a girl of 12 and a boy f 13. In the chapter I’ve just finished, the protagonists are riding their bikes on a Sunday morning when they’re ambushed by a gang of bullies they’ve had increasingly hostile encounters with throughout the story.
It’s a fairly violent attack. The bullies–seven of them–chase the protagonists down and assault them viciously. First they shave the girl’s head. Then they beat the boy–first with a belt, then with heavier items. The boy’s wounds aren’t life-threatening, but they are quite severe (though mostly implied). Then the leader of the bullies starts to rape the girl; her rebuff of his attentions were the motivation, or excuse, for the attack.
Before the rape can occur, the protagonists are saved. A magical creature whose existence has heretofore only been hinted at arrives. It dispatches the bullies quickly and non-lethally. Aghast at the children’s injuries, the creature uses its magical powers to cause the girl’s hair to grow back again and to heal the boy’s wounds. Said healing is so effective that, to the boy, it feels as if the beating never happened at all.
Now the question: were the creature’s actions wise? The bicycle ambush is clearly not the first crime the bullies have committed; it’s just the most severe one the protagonists have personal knowledge of. By healing the children so effectively, the creature has made it impossible to prosecute them for their actions, as they seem to have committed no crime. (“You say these boys broke your knee and your hand and cut off your hair? But you don’t have a mark on you. Stop wasting police time.”)
So were the creature’s actions’ wise? Should it have not healed the children so effectively, so that the bullies could be arrested?
Thanks, Maxie son of Sammie son of Henry son of Cyrus
That actually might be an interesting question to pursue in the story. Of course, I don’t know the tone of the book and the whole plot, but it’s still an idea to pursue, I think.
Well, a theme I’d advancing in the story is that the creature in question, though powerful and good and kind, is perhaps not the sharpest crayon in the box. As it might say, “Being nigh-omnipotent retards cleverness. When you’re busy stopping a giant meteor from obliterating al of civilization, brains aren’t as important as unearthly strength and hypersonic speed, and if you’re not mighty enough to get the job done, brains won’t help.”
But is there a case to be made for not so utterly destroying the evidence? Which would you choose, if you were the boy so brutally beaten?
Depends on the severity of the injuries. If there were no broken bones or face/hand damage, I’d probably want to keep the injuries as long as I had a good feeling that the bullies actually would be prosecuted. If the damage was more extensive, I’d say my health came before retribution, even if there was a slight chance they’d try to come after the girl later. Of course, if I did choose to be healed and the bullies ran off only to rape the girl later when the creature wasn’t around, I would not be able to live with the guilt. That might be an interesting plot twist.
Well, let’s see. In a section I wrote and removed, I detailed the boy’s injuries; I still feel they happened, but I decided it was too graphic. When he first sees the creature he can only open one eye; the bones of his left hand feel like they’ve been ground into powder; he can’t bend his left knee even a fraction; and he can’t talk because he’s missing too many teeth. (See why I decided not to list them in the story).
The bullies don’t run off; the creature immediately captures them and restrains them while it heals the boy, a decision it clearly makes out of pure emotion. (It weeps at the mere sight of him.)
Well, the critter could rectify the entire situation more satisfyingly than having the brats prosecuted as minors for assaulting other minors with no disinterested-party witnesses.
Toss the bullies into a different world to get some experiences that will teach them lessons and grow them up? Force them to experience exactly what their victims had experienced (playback of emotional and sensory memories) so they see what it feels like? Terrify the piss out of them and convince them that if they ever do anything coercive to an innocent party again they will be turned into Soylent Green K-Rations?
Oh, the creature punishes them, and the children end up satisfied that justice was done. My question is really more general (which is why I put it in IMHO, not CS. So let me rephrase it:
You’re attacked and brutally beaten, with no witnesses. Before you might have died, you’re rescued by someone who has the ability to completely heal your enemies, leaving not even a scar or an ache–but you still retain the memory of the attack. Would you want this healing done immediately, so that there was no longer any evidence of the attack and thus no real way to prosecute your attackers?
Thanks,
Maxie son of Sammie son of Henry son of Cyrus
What you’re basically asking here is: which is more important, repairing damage or meting out punishment?
For kids, it’s the punishment. For teens, it’s a good dilemma to ponder. For adults, we can often understand that fixing the problem is more important than assigning blame and seeing vengance done.
At least, for adults of a fairly high Kohlberg score, which is never as many adults as I hope.
So I think it depends what age you’re writing for. Little kids have a great need for “fairness” and seeing the bad guys punished. It’s very upsetting for them when the bad guy gets away. So I’d bring it up as A Bad Thing the creature did, even though it was well-meant. (Little kids also need it emphasized to them that what we think we’re doing isn’t always what turns out.)
If you’re writing for teens, have some fun with the ambiguity. They’re trying to figure out the same things in their lives - is it more important to find the jerk who TPed my tree and beat the crap out of him, or should I just clean it up before mom wakes up so she’s not so upset?
Well, it’s not just about vengeance. If the bullies aren’t punished for what they’ve done, they might very well come back and rape the girl–or another girl–again. Or they might beat up someone else, to the point of death this time. Punishing the bullies protects society as much as it punishes the bullies. But I think I like the idea of the creature punishing the bullies best; it would most likely be more rehabilitative than anything the state does (since it’s fantasyland, where anything can happen).
I think Davenport Avenger said it well, so I’ll quote him:
It’s a plot point that the creature in the story, for all its power, hasn’t the best judgment, because it tends to react emotionally. As another poster pointed out, it can (and does, I’ve written that chapter and moved on to the next) terrify the bullies–but by not merely rescuing the two protagonists but leaving them in better physical shape than they were when it started, it makes it impossible to prosecute the bullies. Granted, they are probably too afraid of it to ever do anything to either protagonist–but the two children in my story are hardly the only possible victims.
I’m not sure how much I’d worry about prosecution. The process of prosecuting someone for a crime can be quite difficult in and of itself (I assume. I’ve never been in a position to know first hand). What I would be concerned about is this: how much moral and emotional support would I get from others with respect to my traumatic experience if I couldn’t show evidence that it took place?
As a concrete example: I broke my arm several years ago. Actually it was a “non-dislocated radial (stibnial) fracture” - which basically means that where the radius in my right arm gets big at the end, I kind of snapped that part off. (I was roller skating. My injury is one of the most common roller skating injuries).
Given that I am right handed, not being able to move my wrist normally was a hassle. I couldn’t write legibly, I couldn’t type properly, use a mouse normally, even wear normal long sleeved shirts. One of my friends even laughed at me for the way which I clapped after seeing a live student musical production.
My injury probably would have healed equally well(in the long run), and less expensively had I never seen a doctor. I would have had more pain, and gotten much less sympathy and help from others as I would have looked normal.
For the children in your story, being rescued is nice, but it doesn’t erase the original mental trauma they suffered. (Or maybe it does- I can’t claim to speak for you). Still, it seems to me that you should keep in mind the impact of having had horrible but unprovable experiences on them–even apart from how punishing the guilty by prosecuting them may alter the future. Worrying about protecting other possible victims seems pretty low on the list of priorities-- though maybe not for you, or for the creature in your story.
You’ve got some good thoughts, and ones I’m exploring as I write. The reason I posted the question is that I want to make the point in the story that the magical creature in question doesn’t have the best judgment. It tends to react emotionally, not rationally; when it sees these two innocent children so badly hurt, its impulse is to fix everything without, perhaps, seeing the larger picture.
Here’s what I’m thinking on mental trauma. The girl who comes within moments of being raped, only to be rescued and healed, and then see her attackers incapacitated and helpless, is immediately quite vengeful; she wants the bullies flat-out killed and has to be restrained from inflicting damage herself. The boy, who was actually physically hurt far worse, also seems more forgiving; the scene is told from his point of view, and he even muses that he is surprised not to be angrier; i’m rather implying that his physical proximity to the creature is the reason, as it is calming to be around (as long as it likes you. If it doesn’t, it’s terrifying.) The issue of the boy’s mental trauma is one I might need to explore more.