Needing help on response from a classmate. Darkly dreaming Dexter
I believe that more people are willing to accept a vigilante, even if he is a serial killer. A community who realizes he only kills "bad" people may believe that he is doing the community a service, and that he is heroic. A Vigilante is defined as: "a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate)", or "a self-appointed doer of justice". (Merriam-Webster, 2016) We can safely rule out both of these definitions in relation to Dexter, because in both the television series and the novel, we know that Dexter does not kill because he has a great sense of Justice. His father, Harry, is the person responsible for putting Dexter on the "vigilante" path, not Dexter himself, because Harry knew if he did not curb Dexter's killing urges, he would end up like any other serial killer. Dexter himself serves as the "cleanup" crew to the legal system. He nabs and kills the killers that get away with killing, protecting ordinary people from them by getting rid of them entirely. Jeff Lindsay highlights the flaws of the legal system throughout the book, and one great example is Daryll Earl McHales indictment as the Tamiami Slasher. He is a criminal hoping to become famous again, and the Miami police want to close the case as quickly as possible. Through Dexter the reader is able to see the incompetence and flaws of the justice system, as well as the pretty picture that LaGuerta paints for the press: "Because however course and brutal Daryll Earl looked, the real threat to society was LaGuerta. She had called off the hounds, closed down the hue and cry, sent people back to bed in a burning building." (Darkly Dreaming Dexter, p.112)
Lindsay, J. P. (n.d.). Chapter 12. In Darkly Dreaming Dexter: A Novel (p. 112). NY: Doubleday.