Violence, Justified Violence

As Zits travels from his own life and into his mystical journey, he is often confronted with the ethical dilemmas that surround violence, including the dilemmas that surround what is considered "justified violence." At the beginning of the novel, when Zits does not have such a defined moral compass, he is willing to see violence as a justified form of retribution. Justice, whose mind tends towards violence, is able to influence Zits by asking provocative questions, like: "'Would you kill a white man if it would bring back your mother?'" (32). Even within the novel, this is an entirely hypothetical question, and there is no mechanism whatsoever where Zits can actually bring his mother back to life. Nonetheless, this indirect peer pressure leads Zits to violently shoot up the downtown Seattle bank.

Zits is confronted with the ethical dilemma of violence during the very...