Racism, Segregation, and the Harms of Implicit Bias in “Borden Murders”
Sarah Miller’s documentary novel “The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden & The Trial of the Century” illustrated the brutal murder of Andrew and Abby Borden and its aftermath. The novel starts with the introduction of the murder, setting up the scene and introducing the main suspect: Lizzie Borden, the first witness of the crime scene, daughter to Andrew Borden, and stepdaughter to Abby Borden. The novel then dramatically unfolds into the trial of Lizzie Borden and ponders upon a particular question: Did Lizzie do it? And if not, who did?
This book is a highly compelling read, where surprises peak around every turn-of-the-page. Please scroll down to see the analysis of the main ideas and recurring themes from this murder mystery.
The first central idea I discovered was: The truth can have many possibilities, and it is wrong and unfair assumptions. I realized this was the main idea because the author hints early on in the book that the actual culprit is unknown, and all of the speculations are simply baseless assumptions.
The second central idea that I discovered was: Racism and sexism make up essential parts of implicit bias. I picked up this main theme while connecting the dots between racial references and outside research. This is crucial to understanding why my first theme is actual (I’ll explain this more if you read on). I used two sources on this page, so credits to Smithsonian Magazine and the National Humanities Center.
On the notebook page below, I analyzed some possible causes or incentives for Lizzie Borden to commit the murder. I also briefly mentioned the elements that went into the story, which contributed to its ultimate ending, an unsolved mystery. I connected the two of my main ideas and discovered the cause-and-effect relationship between them, which I did not expect. In other words, main idea 2 is established upon the premise of main idea 1.
Thank you for reading this blog post! Hope you have picked up something useful! Please check out the book because it is a fun read for those who love an unsolved mystery!