In the book, Legend by Marie Lu judgment is a major theme in the book. The two characters Day and June Iparis are forced to make numerous choices that involve their own judgment. They make countless judgments about each other based on rumors they have heard and information presented to them without explanation. Day and June are adequate at reading people and understanding people's flaws. At first glance, the two judged each other and become attracted to one another. Later on, in the book, they realize who each other really are, and they judge each other based on their negative traits. Day and June both come to the realization that they both may have judged each other too soon. In her novel Legend and in her second novel Prodigy (the continuation of Legend). Lu points out that people often judge a person’s character and personality by what has been stated and not by getting to know that person.
Judgment happens numerous times in the book starting with when June and the other students at the academy started to judge Day for being a dangerous criminal. They make this judgment based on a lack of information. According to Bhowmick the reason for judging is “ lack of information” and also “not knowing the whole story”(so). In both novels, Legend and Prodigy Day and June both prove they can read and notice small details to give them an advantage. A good example is in the second book novel Prodigy June reads soldiers and notices small details about them “A third group of soldiers stumbles past us ….. (seven cadets, two lieutenants, gold armbands with Dakota insignias, which means they just arrived here from the North). (pdf) (8)
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Soldiers tend to judge civilians by where they come from. A good example of this is when Day goes to the hospital to steal medicine. To get in the fakes having an injury and falls on a soldier. The soldier then judges him by thinking he is not a threat and pushes Day off of him. He doesn’t realize Day steals his name tag. According to Bhowmick “ appearances are often deceptive…. after meeting a person for the first time we always make a judgment by their appearance” (so). June defined herself after Day said he did not kill her brother. Instead of her just judging him by the crimes he has committed, and not acknowledging it. She goes and researches Day and how his trial went, and she realizes that he makes a perfect score as she did. She then realizes later on that Day was not the one that killed her brother based on the details he told. According to Bhowmick “When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself” (so).
When June finally realizes that she has found Day she tries to see all the negative traits in him, but before she even knew it was him she saw numerous positive traits. A good example is when she says “his teeth are beautiful, the loveliest I’ve seen so far on these streets”(gd)(70). She shows before knowing that the person she is talking to is Day. She is actually attracted to him. According to Markway “our minds naturally scan for the negative… we can also find something good about another person”(rsj). June tries numerous times in the novel to just look at the negative traits in Day, but she can’t because of her attraction and his countless positive traits she can’t see. June doesn’t really think about Day’s problems or what he is going through, because of her judgment. When Day realizes that the Republic is coming to take his family away he makes a parlous attempt to save them. When he tries this it fails and this attempt leaves Day to face June, her friend Thomas, Commander Jameson, and Republic soldiers in a possible fatal conflict. June is still unsure if what she did was right, but that unsure feeling quickly leaves her mind when Thomas blindly follows Commander Jameson’s orders and shoots Day’s mom. According to Khoddam “we fuse, meaning that we can not tell the difference between what our opinion is and what the reality is” (who). This quote goes well with the fact that June thought that her opinion of the Republic was in the right during the war and they couldn’t do any harm, and she fused it into reality thinking it was true.
Later on, June takes away all the things she has heard and just goes along with the facts. June starts to fear her judgment of Day, the death of her brother, and the Republic being the in the right in the war may be all wrong. She first realizes this when she starts to look at her brother's autopsy photos. At first sight, she suspects her brother's killer as being Day. This is her main reason for judging Day as being a horrible criminal, but reviewing the photos she realizes they are taken from an angle. Then after looking even closer she realizes (her brother) Metais’s killer is his best friend Thomas. Thomas has always been portrayed as a good soldier that would do anything for the Republic and never hurt a friend. This is why June judges him as a non-threat. According to Sifferlin “researchers conclude that our brains make judgments of people before we even process who they are or what they look like” (obi). June does with Thomas she judges Thomas as a person who would never hurt her or Meta regardless of the circumstances, but she quickly realizes when orders are given out Thomas has no friends. Judgment even takes place between June and Metals. She judges him as this die-hard soldier for the Republic and who wouldn’t betray them. June starts to find clues after Metais’ death. He did say before he went back to work before his death that they had numerous things to talk about. She realizes what he wanted to talk about when she discovered a website only she can access. Her opinion of Meta and The Republic quickly changes. The website summarises to say that the Republic is the reason for the virus and they are the reason for their parent's death. June’s judgment has been completely changed about everything in her life and everyone in it, because of the actual truth. later, June has all the facts and evidence she is presented with so she decides to put a risky plan in place to do something she never thought she would do. She is gonna break Day out of prison.
To do this she needs help from Day’s best friend Tess. Tess was never found by the Republic when Day was captured. Ever since Day’s capture Tess has been living with the Patriots (one of the Republic’s enemies). June meets up with Tess and someone she judged as someone who would never help her Kaede. June judges not because of her personality but because of her actions. She soon realizes that Kaede can be a huge alley. June and the Patriots rescue Day and escape the Republic.
In conclusion, Judgment in the novel Legend by Marie Lu was a major recurring theme. That shows how judgment can affect even the most efficient and profound people. It affects June and Day who are superior at reading people. These two characters' reading skills are even thrown off when judgment takes place. June is the main character that deals with judgment. June goes from believing the Republic is the best military, and thinking Day is this violent and dangerous criminal. To know that the Republic is killing its own people, and knowing Day was wrongfully accused of murder. Judgment happens multiple times and they are just based on rumors which prove Marie Lu points out that people often judge a person’s character and personality by what has been stated and not by getting to know the person.
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