(HOOK-statistics on how many people were accused wrongly for a crime they didn’tcommit). Margaret Atwood’s number one national best-seller, “Alias Grace”,published on 1996 is a historical fiction based on the actual murders of ThomasKinnear and Nancy Montgomery. Atwood retells the story of Grace Marks’ journeyfrom an Ireland immigrant to the accusation of killing two people to herrelease sentence form jail of almost 30 years. Thefictional character, Dr. Jordan, was intrigued with Grace’s story and moved toKingston to study her. Dr. Jordan isn’t an ordinary doctor, he’s an Americandoctor interested in the mind and has the desire of opening his own lunaticasylum. In order to study Grace, he needed to know her background story andeverything must be included.
So he tells Grace that “the small details of lifeoften hide a great significance” (Atwood, 193) This reminded me of how theauthorities wrongly accuse of someone who’s innocent based on the physicalevidence. However, there are times where the small details of how theseevidences came up can create a great significance. There was a case back inApril, where a man was accused of sexually harassing her daughter and killingher eight-month-old daughter because the medical examiner found that thedaughter received trauma to the head and rectal tearing. However, they accusedan innocent man of killing his daughter by missing the detail of how thedaughter received trauma to the head and how she received rectal tearing. Justlike in ALIAS GRACE, Grace was sentence to life in jail based on the evidence atcrime scene. However, the authorities missed the detail that Grace had DID,dissociation of personality. So it wasn’t Grace Marks who was involved with thekilling, it was the other identity that Grace possessed who was involved. Andbecause of this small detail, they wrongly accused of Grace for the murders ofThomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery.
In thenovel, Dr. Jordan and a few members in the Penitentiary were discussing aboutGrace’s possible innocence in the murder case of Mr. Kinnear and Nancy. A memberof the Penitentiary wouldn’t believe in Grace’s possible innocence and said”that woman has nerves like flint.
She’d have made a good lawyer, if a man”(Atwood, 456) This reminded me of how stereotypical remarks against women wereoriginated. In the 1800s, the society was mainly dominated by the malepopulation, where men were more superior than women in almost all aspects.Women had no control over their lives, everything was controlled by men. Womenwere not allowed to do whatever activities they desired, so they weren’tallowed to have jobs to bring home any income. Their only tasks were cleaning,cooking, and taking care of children.
Hence, the husbands were the solebreadwinner of the household and because of that superiority, they were themain voices in the family.
