Vengeance vs. Justice Theme Analysis

Nineteen Minutes is a story of revenge: it depicts a teenager, Peter Houghton, who murders 10 students at his school in a shooting spree after a lifetime of bullying. The book makes a strong case that vengeance isn’t effective because, although it might superficially appear to bring about justice, this isn’t how things usually work out in the end. The result of Peter’s act of vengeance is that innocent lives are lost, the underlying problem of bullying remains unresolved, and Peter himself ends up being sentenced to life in prison, where he quickly commits suicide by stuffing a sock into his mouth. Yet while the novel cautions against vengeance, it also doesn’t portray the criminal justice system in a particularly positive light, either. Ultimately, the story indicates that neither vengeance nor the legal system can be trusted to deliver justice.

Because Peter feels powerless to defend himself from the relentless bullying to which he is subjected, he turns to dreams of vengeance. While his lawyer, Jordan McAfee, tries to frame the mass shooting Peter commits as an act of self-defence, it is clear that Peter didn’t want to merely protect himself—he actively wanted revenge. This is demonstrated by the video game he designs, Hide-n-Shriek, which is set in a high school and involves shooting “jocks.” Describing Peter’s though process when he designs the game, the narrator observes, “What if you took the prey… and made them the hunters? […] He’d create a computer game that was Revenge of the Nerds, but updated for the twenty-first century. A fantasy world where the balance of power was turned on its head, where the underdog finally got a chance to beat the bullies.” In designing the video game, Peter turns to fantasies of revenge in order to cope with being bullied. Yet as the novel indicates, even such fantasies can be dangerous, because they pave the way for very real acts of violence.

Peter’s fate after the shooting makes clear that vengeance isn’t just bad because it harms others, but also because it harms the person enacting the revenge. Part Two of the novel opens with a Chinese proverb, which states: “When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.” Peter’s fate is a literal manifestation of this proverb, which summarizes the novel’s message about vengeance. While both the fantasy and enactment of revenge might be tempting—particularly for people who feel powerless against their tormenters—the reality is that vengeance can only lead to more destruction, including the destruction of the person seeking it. This idea plays out when Peter is given a life sentence and kills himself in prison. 

The novel also features many characters involved in the criminal justice system, and through them explores the extent to which this system can truly be said to deliver justice. These characters include Alex Cormier, a judge; Jordan McAfee, a lawyer; Patrick Ducharme, a police detective; and Dr. King Wah, a forensic psychologist. All these individuals are well-intentioned and dedicated to the mission of bringing about justice. However, both Peter and Josie arguably receive unfair sentences. The court discounts Jordan and Wah’s arguments that Peter was traumatized by the bullying to the point that he had diminished responsibility for his actions; meanwhile, Josie is sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for killing Matt even though Matt was violently abusive toward her.

Despite their terrible crimes, Peter and Josie are driven to commit violence by the abuse that they themselves suffer, so imprisoning them is arguably an unfair or ineffective punishment. This idea is emphasized when Peter kills himself, which means in a way he “escapes” his sentence and also never has a chance to properly reflect on his crimes or reform himself. Indeed, the novel indicates that—despite its repudiation of Peter’s act of vengeance—the legal system may operate according to principles of vengeance more than it does true justice. This is emphasized when the mother of one of the students at Sterling High whom Peter shoots but doesn’t kill (Jade Knight) tells reporters outside the courtroom, “This has ruined her whole life; why should Peter Houghton’s punishment be any less?” While the novel helps the reader to see why Jade’s mother’s pain might lead to a desire for vengeance, it also indicates that this desire won’t actually help anyone in the long run. Furthermore, the novel highlights an important—and disturbing—similarity between the sentiment expressed by Jade’s mother here and Peter’s own desire for revenge. Indeed, in the aftermath of the shooting many people in the town of Sterling demand a vengeful punishment for Peter, and are opposed to the idea of him having a fair trial. This is ironic, considering that Peter’s shooting was itself an act of vigilante justice. In this sense, the novel suggests that desires for revenge are everywhere, and they are always pointlessly destructive.