DEFENDING JACOB

& The Hermeneutic Code

 Written by American
novelist William Landay
in 2012

Genre:
mystery
thriller

Translated version
publised by La
esfera de los Landay served for seven
libros publishing years as an Assistant
house in 2012 District Attorney in
Middlesex County,
Massachusetts
How is the enigma
constructed?
ROLAND BARTHES: HERMENEUTIC CODE
The hermeneutic code refers to any element in a story that is
not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader,
raising questions that demand explication.
 Devices for the construction of the
enigma
Snares deliberate evasions of the
truth

Equivocations mixtures of truth and snare

Partial answers only one part of the truth is

revealed

Suspended answers a question that remains

unanswered

Jamming acknowledgments of
insolubility
 (Andy)
Patz did it because Jacob did not. But the
illogic was not apparent to me then. I was
Snares
the boys father. And the fact is, I was
right to suspect Patz. Part 2.11

h 1.6 Jacob denies being the killer

I was not angry at this Smart-ass punk.

() No, I was angry at Patz myself
because he was the murderer- the worst
kind of murderer , a child murderer, a
category for which cops and
prosecutors reserve a special contemp
Part 2.16
 (After revealing that
Patz was interviewed

Equivocatio once)

ns Mr. Logiudice: How did

you feel about that?
Mr. Logiudice: no? You discovered the
murder weapon in an ongoing Witness: I thought it
murder investigation and you did not was a mistake.Based
tell anyone? Why not? on what we knew at
the time, it was a
Witness: I did not report it because I mistake to turn away
did not believe that it was the from Patz as a suspect
murder weapon. I certainly did not so early in the
know it for a fact. (1.6) investigation. He was
our best suspect.
Someone watchs the family. They
feel in danger and observed, So Mr. Logiudice: you still
Andy calls the police. believe that?
Unreliable narrator
(convinced that Patz is the Witness: without a
murderer, misleading the doubt. We should have
reader) stayed on Patz.
 Partial
Answers
When Andy learns that handprints in the victims clothes match Jakes, he goes to Jacobs
room and tries to find something incriminating and get rid of it. It is a extremely important
clue because the chances of Jake commiting the murder are higher.
In shrink session , the readers learn that infant Jacob had a tendency to violent and agressive
behaviour.
Jacobs alibi is weak. His story about the Discovery of the body is inconsistent. Details dont
match.
Dereck tells Andy about Jacob being bullied by Ben and his racist attitudes and the webpage
(motif)
Dr. Vogels report: (Jacob has) reactive attachment disorder, narcissistic personality disorder

From the time he was two,

other kids started getting hurt
around Jacob Part 2.12
Suspended
Answers Mr. Logiudice: What do you
do for work, Mr Barber?
Who killed Rifkin?
Who killled the girl? Witness: I was an assistant
district attorney in this
Was Jacob innocent? country for 22 years.
Did Father OLeary
Mr. Logiudice: was. What
killed Leonard Patz do you do for work now?
and wrote the suicide
note? Witness: I suppose youd
say Im unemmployed. (p.1
chap 1.1)

Is really the murder

weapon?
Is that true? Or was
he in denial?
 Jammin
g
Readers will never know if Jacob was a murdered or not
because he was killed by her mother.
 The knife was sinister and beautiful, the shape of the
blade, its curve and tapper. It was like one of those
lovely deadly things in nature, a lick of flame or the
claw of an enormous cat. (end of chapter 1. 5)
The enigma is constructed by the changes of time in the
narration (future, past). In the case of the future
(represented by trial scripts) the questions asked by the
lawyer cause the reader to think that Jacobs father
manipulated the evidence. We learn that the scripts
belong to a different trial because Andy cannot be a
witness and prosecutor.
The narration of the past events, told from Andys
perspective, induce the readers to think that Jacob is
innocent, because is depicted as a good boy.
SOURCES
http://www.esferalibros.com/uploads/ficheros/libros/p
rimeras-paginas/201206/primeras-paginas-paginas-del-l
ibro_1-es.pdf