“My mother made me do it.”
No evidence of personal responsibility can be found in the previous sentence; rather it denotes an external control of actions and behaviours. How about,
“My family is messed up.”
Better yet,
“This is all I know, I don’t know any better.”
Are you getting a sense of personal responsibility yet?
How many times have you heard or uttered these statements and are quickly reminded to, “Take responsibility for your actions!”
What about murderers? Should they take responsibility for their actions? Should their family history weigh in?
Do murderers have a choice? Or are they created?
The novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo explores this debate.
Enter Lisbeth Salander:
Lisbeth Salander expresses no sympathy for people who kill regardless of their upbringing. According to Salander murder is a choice, no crime can be blamed on family dysfunction or society.
When referring to the murderer in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Lisbeth says, he “Had exactly the same opportunity as anyone else to strike back. He killed and raped because he liked doing it.” She also says, “You’re assuming that —— (character name excluded) had no will of his own and that people become whatever they’ve been brought up to be.”
Lisbeth brings up an important point to a debate that has been brewing for years. There are a lot of societal assumptions that claim if you have been abused or grew up in a dysfunctional family, you are bound to be involved in criminal or abusive behavior yourself. This idea is clearly refuted by Lisbeth, who herself had a dysfunctional upbringing and overcame abuse. She has been taught to constantly examine the consequences of her behavior and this enables her to make good choices. This is a reflection of the free will that Lisbeth has, she does not see actions as deterministic (or predetermined by upbringing). On the other hand…
Enter Mikael Blomkvist:
Mikael Blomkvist in contrast to Lisbeth Salander sees behavior as deterministic; that is actions have a cause-and-effect and are not determined by an expression of free will. Mikael feels sympathetic towards the murderer. He feels the murderer had no choice in what he became because of his dysfunctional family, as he states, “Talk about a dysfunctional family, Blomkvist said. —–(Character name excluded) really didn’t have a chance.”
Determinism vs. free will, what side did Stieg Larsson fall on? That answer may be found in the murderer himself. After all, who else is better suited to answer the question of the source of their actions than the murderer himself?
Blomkvist asks the murderer, “Why do you kill…?”
His response…
“It’s a choice that I made.”
Let’s revisit the earlier question again, are murderers victims too? They very well may be. But who hasn’t been a victim at one point in their life. Are you still able to exercise free will? Do you consider yourself a puppet of determinism? Does control of your life lie outside yourself?
Maybe the question shouldn’t be, are murderers victims too? Rather it should be, do murderers have free will?
And do you?
For more depth see: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
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