Jennifer Government Essay
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Vengeance, retribution, vendetta, and settling a score. These are all synonyms of revenge which means retaliation against a person or group in response to a perceived wrongdoing. In the book Jennifer Government, written by Max Berry, the plot revolves around the idea of revenge. With five main characters, the book shows how the various characters lives are transformed and intertwined after the antagonist, John Nike begins his evil plan to get himself and Nike the company rich. During the story the characters carry and complete various vendettas they have against each other. As a result we see how revenge negatively affects the characters choices, relationships and personality.
Personalities are negatively affected by personal vendettas in various ways. Jennifer Government the protagonist is consumed by the idea of putting John Nike in jail. On pg. 48 she states that “This is about some asshole at Nike thinking he can build a career out of dead teenagers.” John Nike had contracted murders on 14 teens. Another reason for wanting revenge on John was the fact he had left her after he found out she was pregnant. He did not want a kid nor did he want to settle down and leave his career. The unhealthy obsession with John set her priorities out of whack and thus her personality suffered. She lost her temper quickly to various people including her best friend, the therapist and even her daughter. Another example from the book is from the character Hack Nike is also affected negatively by his vendetta. After being used and then discarded by John Nike, Hack felt betrayed and as a result he decided to get his revenge on John by going after various corrupt businesses. Hack joined a small “terrorist group”. Hacks personality is more aggressive and inconsiderate. Hack sends John a hostile where he states he will take companies head on. His hatred towards companies has blinded him and made short sided. He cannot see that by trying drawing bad public attention to companies he is giving them free publicity. The clichД© of “no such thing as bad publicity” holds true to this. Along with Jennifer and Hack, John Nike is another character whose personality. During a hostile takeover of a rival company, the markets crashed and the bid was ruined by a virus sent by the rival companys employees. John is consumed with anger and he goes after the culprit. On pg. 198 his friend says this “You trashed my Ferrari, the least you could do is wait up.” Being consumed by anger John did not care about the various broken laws, and his friends car lent to him. Johns lack of sympathy shows his weak. Clearly having a personal vendetta and putting forth acts to carry it out leave a negative impact on a persons personality.
Along with a persons personality, a persons choices are also affected negatively. Jennifer Government is willing to do almost anything to get John in jail including blackmailing Billy NRA a professional sniper in one of Johns partner companies. She made the choice to let the assassin choose between spying or facing serious jail time. Its apparent that Jennifer does not see the mistaken in her actions because she fixated on her goal. Her sense of right and wrong is affected negatively as she cant tell the difference between them anymore. Another character whose choice is affected negatively is again Hack Nike. In order for him to get his revenge against businesses Hack joins “terrorist group” which goes against businesses in a semi-extreme fashions. Hack and his group vandalize various advertisements on bill boards to across their message to the public. Another thing that Hack and the group did is they took over a MacDonalds restaurant destroying property and scaring the customers. Hack is a completely difference person from the law-abiding one before. His choice to take actions into his own hands to get his revenge is just in his mind. His focus on life has changed completely. The last example that that shows the negative impact of revenge