The Brethren essays

The Brethren essays The novel, The Brethren, written by John Grisham takes place primarily in a minimum security federal prison in Florida. The time period is modern day. The prison is called Trumble. It is full of harmless criminals, crooks, lawyers, embezzlers, judges, and drug dealers. There are no barbed wire fences or guard towers. Fighting is not tolerated, and some criminals choose to escape by running and make it on the outside. This setting plays a key role in the book because this is where the scam takes place. The scam could be easily tracked if it were not in a prison. Also the scam artists are in prison with little to do with lots of time on their hands. This is how they have the opportunity to cook up the scam. The secondary setting is not a concrete setting. It takes place all across the United States from Washington D.C. to Seattle. It may be in a Boeing 747 or in a secret CIA headquarters, or in a post office. This secondary setting is crucial to the book because the presidential candidate mails a letter to the scam artists in a hurry when his plane is going down. One major character in the book is Congressman Aaron Lake of Arizona. Lake is an individual who likes to be by himself and enjoys being a simple man. Aaron Lake gets chosen to run for president by the CIA to help build up the United States defense, and go after the Russian bomb making army. Lake is a widower and is a closet homosexual. Lake is the nations only hope for self-defense. He gets connected with the Brethren by responding to their gay pen pal ad. In addition to Lake, another main character is Judge Joe Roy Spicer. Spicer was a Justice of the Peace in Mississippi. Spicer had 90,000 dollars of stolen bingo money buried in his backyard. Spicer is the main man in the trio of judges called the Brethren. The Brethren is three ex-judges who do petty court cases in prison for little money. Justice Spicer enjoyed gambling on college sports...