The Cold Dish

Content Warning: This section mentions sexual assault.

In examining Melissa’s rape and its aftereffects as well as Turk’s subordination, Johnson raises questions about what constitutes true justice, as well as how justice ought to be administered in a civil society.

One conception of justice, as presented in the novel, holds that it doesn’t matter how justice is achieved—legally or extrajudicially. Broadly speaking, this concept is associated with the not-too-distant past and the mythology of the American West, where individual initiative was favored and encouraged while centralized legal authority was weak or nonexistent. For example, one of the most famous figures of the American West, Wyatt Earp, was a lawman but was most famous for his “vendetta ride” to avenge the deaths of his brothers. As Walt explains to a farmer who complains that Lucian would have allowed him to shoot trespassing hunters, “We’re living in more enlightened times. […] Ain’t it grand?” (74). As Walt’s predecessor, Lucian largely embodies this free-for-all approach, as when he offers to put Turk in his place: “If I had two good legs, I’d go out and kick that little son of a bitch’s ass myself” (121). Following Lucian’s lead, Walt proceeds to physically assault Turk the next time he sees him, leaving him severely injured. From an ethical perspective, Walt’s treatment of Turk mirrors Vonnie’s treatment of the young men who raped Melissa. She gives a proportionally larger punishment to those who committed a more significant crime.

A second conception of justice holds that for society to function properly, the rule of law must be maintained, and vigilante expressions of justice suppressed. This is the position that Walt generally holds, at least in his calmer moments. While he gives into his more violent impulses with Turk, he consistently establishes himself in contrast with stereotypical Western heroes by consistently valuing and pursuing legal justice. Thus, although Walt remains dissatisfied with the outcome of Melissa’s trial, he takes steps to protect the young men who raped her from Vonnie. Similarly, following his attack on Turk, Walt almost immediately regrets his actions, feeling that he should not have resorted to violence. While Walt sometimes struggles with the tension between the two types of justice, his alignment with legal justice ultimately prevails, as shown in his solving the case and ending the novel with a strong network of friends and colleagues.

Each of these approaches reflects on the subjective nature of justice, which Johnson highlights as well. Each person who evaluates any particular situation is likely to arrive at a different conclusion regarding what constitutes a just response. For instance, Ruby chastises Walt for his attack on Turk, just as Walt later refuses to condone Vonnie’s actions. In choosing to uphold the rule of law, Walt effectively sacrifices his personal view of justice, allowing it instead to be administered through institutions that are subject to biases and limitations, as Judge Selby’s lenient ruling demonstrates. To Walt, this is a necessary sacrifice since anything else would entail chaos. Far from being a tangential aspect of his work, Walt views this mandate to maintain order as imperative. As he tells Vonnie while reflecting on his earliest cases as a soldier in Vietnam, “It was my way of introducing a little order into the chaos” (180). Walt often struggles with the emotional impact of life and injustice—at the end of the novel, he is mourning Vonnie’s death—but he does not doubt himself when he chooses to uphold the law.