Their racism and sexism comes through in nearly every line of the dialogue. The rapists’ treatment of her leaves us with the clear understanding that they do not view black children as human children. The book begins with the rape in progress, and presents her already being brutalized. The film shots in the movie sexualize the little girl in unsettling ways, showing her legs, and attending to the way she walks down the road. It is clear in both the movie and the novel that one reason they picked her was that she is African American. Two white men (“rednecks”, we’re told in the novel) brutalize a little girl named Tonya. The novel, like the movie, opens with a very brutal rape scene. If you do use the novel in an undergraduate class, given the prevalence of the movie on cable television, some students may even be tempted to watch it rather than read the book. In part because this is a novel that has a movie connected to it that is often seen on cable television and was a blockbuster hit in the theaters, I’ve included some very basic discussion of the book in contrast to the movie below. For those interested in thinking about popular culture and the way films and novels portray the law, here is an opportunity to discuss how cultural representations may vary by genre and structure. While the most basic outline of the story was retained by the filmmakers, most of the detail and many of the elements driving the novel’s plot are strikingly different.

In a manner that is both disturbing and intriguing, there is a vindication of vigilantism and revenge killing that drives the plot and, under the right circumstances, could also provide fodder for some very interesting classroom discussions.įor those who have seen the movie based upon the novel but have never read the book, it will provide some surprises. It poses ethical dilemmas embedded in a social critique that, while perhaps not on a par with a great piece of literature, is thought provoking. While there are hints in it of the formula that would produce for Grisham one bestseller after the other in the years to follow, this novel has a different feel to it than his others.

Now, re-released several times, it has also become a bestseller like many of his other novels. Email: hatcher siu.edu.Ī TIME TO KILL, originally published in 1989, was John Grisham’s first novel. Hatcher, Department of Political Science and Women’s Studies Program, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

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