Butcher & Blackbird

How does the author’s use of first-person narration build empathy for the protagonists despite the fact they are murderers? Imagine their actions narrated from a third-person perspective. How would that change your opinion of them? What does that change suggest about the role of identification in moral reasoning?

Though the novel questions The Ethics of Vigilante Justice, it ultimately sides with its protagonists’ actions. Do you agree? Is the extrajudicial killing of serial killers and other villains morally right, morally wrong, or too complex to simply be called “right” or “wrong”?

The protagonists believe that killing people who hurt others constitutes a form of restorative justice because it prevents them from doing further harm and inflicts suffering on them of the kind they caused. Research the concept of “restorative justice” and compare it to Sloane and Rowan’s approach. What would advocates of restorative justice argue is the fitting punishment for serial killers or abusers? For Sloane and Rowan?