Scarlett Fever: Justice

            I am currently reading Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson. The book is about a girl named Scarlett whose family owns a struggling hotel in New York. Scarlett’s family is on a very tight budget right now because the hotel is having serious financial problems. Many of Scarlett’s friends are very well off, as is the former boyfriend of her older sister Lola, Chip. Spencer, Scarlett’s older brother, hates Chip. Scarlett mildly dislikes his lack of personality and amazement at the life of an average person (Chip is very well off), but Spencer simply hates him because he was born into money. Chip doesn’t have to worry about not being able to afford college, or what he wants to do with his life, and Spencer despises him for it.

            This is something I have noticed in another book. In Looking for Alaska by John Green, one of the characters hates all of the characters that have money, just because his family doesn’t. On one hand, I understand why characters like Spencer were upset. They hated the fact that other kids with more money were living care free, while they have to struggle to pay for college. Characters like Spencer are taking out their frustration with their own life, on someone else just because they don’t have the same problems. My first reaction to this is not fair. They don’t control who their parents are. But then I started thinking, what is justice in this situation? Because while Spencer shouldn’t take his anger out on Chip, it is certainly not right that Spencer should have to work his butt off for a chance at a decent life, while Chip just has to get good grades, go to college and inherit his family’s money. I guess in an ideal world, everyone would have the same amount of money, and the same chance at a good life, but that isn’t how the world works right now.

            It isn’t fair for Spencer to hate Chip. It isn’t fair for Chip to have so many more opportunities then Spencer. Maybe they sort of cancel each other out. Spencer does have some sort of right to be upset. And it is hard to be upset with the universe for putting you where you are. But projecting your anger onto someone else is not all right either. So Spencer can hate the system, or the world or whatever he wants, but in the end, I don’t think it is right for Spencer to hate Chip.