3.+Confronting+Injustice

**__ How does the individual judge right from wrong? __**

We all lie, some of us feel guilty when we lie, others don't care, however we all know that its bad, but we all know that lying sometimes is necessary. As Ericsson says that we sometimes know that its right to lie in order to "avoid confrontation... or to spare someone's feelings." On the other hand we all know and feel when its wrong to lie, for example if you had done something wrong but because you didn't want to get in trouble you blamed someone else. Deep down you would feel guilty for your actions and that person you blamed would pay your consequences. As Ericsson says "will someone else pay my penance because I ducked out... We must consider the meanings of our actions." In //The Grapes Of Wrath// one example that shows when someone judged the right time to lie was when Mae the waitress in ch.15 lies to the farmer about the real price of the candy and sells him two pieces for just one penny. Ericsson says that we all pay consequences for our lies and in Mae's case her consequences were positive because her actions were also positive.

__**What is the role of the individual in confronting injustice?**__ Lies are a sin and can even be as Ericsson describes them "Destructive because they are used to seduce others into an illusion." In //The Grapes of Wrath// one can see occasions when lying was used to commit injustice was for example in when the car salesman would sell useless cars to the farmers traveling to California. One can see that these farmers would pay the consequences for these lies because with these cars anything could happen to them, they could end up getting stranded in the middle of nowhere and they probably wouldn't be able to do anything to save themselves because of the lack of money. Another case in the book were lying was used to commit injustice was when the Californians would create stereotypes to degrade the migrants. The Californians did this out of greed because they were afraid the migrants would take their money and their lands from them.