Murder Mystery

This morning I read in the paper how a young guy was found in late August dead on his mother's front porch. I continued reading to find out that the autopsy showed that, Eric Connell Fields Jr., was the victim of murder. After finishing the story I thought of how it related to the Inferno and what circle the murderer would be placed in.

Eric Connell Fields Jr. was found lying dead in a chair on his mother's front porch one August morning. His brother pulled him inside and started CPR. Later, the family told the press that he had been to a nightclub the night before. This morning, I read that the autopsy report showed that Fields had suffered fatal injuries to the head and that this had been the result of a fight in the club. He had been in this fight only hours before his death. According to the article, Fields also had a high blood alcohol content. The article read, " During the autopsy, the medical examiner determined Fields had a blood alcohol content of .16 percent"(Tomsic1).This was another possible factor as to why Fields was involved in the fight, because he was too intoxicated to make good decisions. The article ends telling about how the police have taken action and gotten search warrants to investigate and hopefully find the murderer of Fields.

After reading this article in the paper I was deeply saddened. Murder is a very serious crime to me. This crime would easily relate to circle 7 round 1. Round 1 pertains to the violent against neighbors. I think Dante would agree that the murderer would be placed in this circle. I feel that compared to people of this round like Alexander the Great and Attila who are almost fully submerged in the river of blood, this murderer would only be in knee-deep blood. Dante describes this round saying, "But turn your eyes to the valley; there we shall find the river of boiling blood in which are steeped all who struck down their fellow men"(Alighieri94). With no doubt I believe that Dante would agree in putting the murderer of Fields in round 1.

The relationship between the murder of Eric Connell Fields Jr. and the sin described in circle 7 is very similar. I believe Dante would also agree to put the murderer into the circle 7 category. The police will continue to search for the murderer and hopefully justice will be served. 

Circle 3

In Circle three of the Inferno, the gluttonous are dying in a dirty slush on the ground while being eaten by Cerberus, the three-headed dog. This is due to the excessive eating and drinking in their lives before.  Their sin is gluttony. The gluttons made no higher use of the gifts of God than to wallow in food and drink. They also were producers of nothing but garbage. The punishment of this sin is that the gluttons would lay forever half-buried in the dirty slush on the ground while Cerberus eats them. Three points that show the sin, punishment, and contrapasso of the circle include excessive eating, producing garbage, and the warmth that food gives. The first point is how the gluttons had excessive amounts of food and drink. This is shown when Ciacco says," Gluttony was my offense, and for it I lie here rotting like a swollen log"(46). This shows that the people of circle three were gluttonous. I believe that Dante chooses this punishment because it is the opposite of the sin. I think the contrapasso of this sin and outcome is how the gluttons ate a lot, but now they are being eaten. The second point is how they were producers of garbage. Dante shows this by saying, "We made our way across the sodden mess of souls the rain beat down"(46). This excerpt talks about how the gluttons are the rotten slush on the ground. I believe this is the contrapasso because they made the slush and now they are stuck in their own slush. The last point is how the gluttons hoped for warmth like they got from eating food, Dante shows how they looked for wealth by saying, "And they, too, howl like dogs in the freezing storm, turning and turning from it as if they thought one naked side could keep the other warm"(45). This shows how the gluttons were cold in the frozen, dirty slush. The contrapasso is that food kept the gluttons warm, but now they are cold because there wasn't any food to keep them warm. All three of these points show the sin, punishment and contrapasso of circle three. Dante used these to portray the main theme of gluttony in circle three.