Examples Of Justice In American Gods By Neil Gaiman

In American Gods, Neil Gaiman, addresses justice in different scenarios with his characters, including Chad Mulligan and his case with Heinzelman and Shadow. Mr. Gaiman provides many examples of how justice is present or absent throughout his book.
To begin dissecting the acts of justice in this book, the first thing to do is to define justice. Justice is the maintenance of just actions or to treat fairly. Usually when one hears the word justice, authority comes to thought. Police officers, sheriffs, judges. America is a country that promotes justice and all of these rights for its people, because the Pledge of Allegiance itself says how America has justice and liberty for all. Although America has spent its entirety becoming a country

who is just and completely free, it is lacking the example of actual justice.
It is noted in some of the actions in American Gods by Neil Gaiman, through the character Chad Mulligan; Lakeside’s trusty police chief.

Shadow first encounters him in Chapter Ten, when Mulligan offers him a ride in the freezing weather of Lakeside. He is described as “a lanky man with a round, apple-belly gut on him” mentioning a great detail about authority in America. The visual is of a stereotypical, doughnut loving police officer. Mulligan is friendly with the townspeople and he mentions how the town was not much to deal with, which is an ironic statement because in the following chapter he mentions a case about a missing girl and Shadow joins him in the search of the missing child.
Unfortunately, we can see Shadow’s involvement with Mulligan does not continue until the last few chapters. When he figures out that Mr. Heinzelmann was the one kidnapping the children and murdering them, having Mulligan listen to the conversation and killing Mr. Heinzelmann himself, only to burn the evidence to ashes. Mulligan got rid of the villain in his town. In spite of Mulligan being the hero, Mr. Heinzelmann makes him believe he isn’t, trying to screw with his

mind.
Chad Mulligan avenged the deaths of these children by getting rid of the bad guy. He is a good example of a just authority. He punished the man who did wrong. Eventually Shadow gets his punishment by arresting him as well. Noting that Shadow had also been part of a few crimes beforehand. Neil Gaiman portrays authorities like Chad Mulligan to be as fair as they can be or try to be. However, Neil Gaiman might see American authority this way, but that is only the truth America wants you to see.
In recent events, we see the fault in American authority through the mass shootings happening in our schools and other public services.

If the American authority would’ve been on track with all the signs and warnings given by others, horrifying events like these could be prevented. Instead, they choose to ignore it. When they finally decide to take action, it is too late and the people they were supposed to look after are terrified and hurt. The victims are not taken count of like, the children Mr. Heinzelmann sacrificed in Lakeside. Who will be able to bring justice to the families of these innocent children murdered by Mr. Heinzelmann? Chad Mulligan will, at least in the story. This behavior hurts the image that America is trying to portray of itself. The justice that is being provided by our leaders isn’t just. All the wrong doings caused in this country need to be justified and fairly processed, but our authority chooses to ignore them. Instead of bringing justice and properly sentencing these criminals to the punishments they truly deserve for their crimes, they are given the easy way out; if they have the money to lift the punishment off, they pay, and not go through the justifiable

punishment.
The unfair behavior of America is unacceptable. The leaders of this country are not just and portray a false image to our neighboring countries. American Identity should not be lead on by the lack of justice in this country. The American justice mentioned in the Pledge of Allegiance is propaganda that is falsely taught to our uprising generations.