Roberta Lobo
February 19, 2013
Essay
Sometimes it is very difficult to do the right thing. In “The Adventure of the Blue
Carbuncle,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, James Ryder steals a precious stone called
the blue carbuncle. Sherlock Holmes catches him, but Holmes lets him go and
does not bring him to the police. Holmes has made a mistake and broken the law
by letting him go. First, the thief has caused another person to experience a very
hard time and should pay a consequence for his actions. Also, Sherlock Holmes
has not lived up to his responsibilities as a detective. People tend to fall under
peer pressure and do things they don’t necessarily want to do, this is not the
case, but Sherlock Holmes committed a big mistake by letting James Ryder go.
Sometimes you have to do the right thing, even if it hurts people. In the story the
blue carbuncle, James Ryder stole the blue carbuncle from Countess Morcar.
When James Ryder stole the blue carbuncle he accused John Horner who is an
innocent plumber of stealing it, and later on Sherlock Holmes found out that he
was falsely accused and that the real thief was James Ryder. But, wrongly
Sherlock Holmes decided to let him go, and did not send him to jail and I believe
he made a wrong decision. First of all not only did he steal the blue carbuncle,
but he also framed John Horner who is an innocent plumber. In fact in the United
States over 10,000 innocent people go to jail in a year because they get accused
from some type of crime they did not commit, which in this case happened to
John Horner. Moreover, Henry Baker was also very confused when he found out
there was a blue carbuncle in the goose he bought. John Horner went to jail
when he was falsely accused, and he stayed there for some time even thought he
did not do anything and he could not spend Christmas with him family. That is
why Sherlock Holmes was wrong but letting James Ryder go, he deserved it by
the damage and trouble that he caused a lot of people.
Making mistakes can be a critical thing, especially if you make the wrong one. As
for Sherlock Holmes he made a wrong decision by letting James Ryder go. Due to
this big mistake Sherlock Holmes did not complete the duties he should complete
as a detective, it is their job to save the innocent and capture the thief’s. At the
end of this story Sherlock Holmes felt pity towards James Ryder and let him go,
when he clearly deserved it. As Sherlock Homes stated in the book “I suppose
that I am commuting a felony but it is just a possibility that I am saving a soul.
This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened.” This makes
Sherlock Holmes aware of what he was doing and I feel that he knows he did a
big mistake, but he felt that should have been done in order to close the case.
Moreover, how could Sherlock Holmes be so convinced that James Ryder is now
a “good” person and would not do this again? Ryder can’t be trusted, no criminal
can. If he were to do something again it would be Sherlock Holmes fault.
To conclude, sometimes it is difficult to do the right thing. As this essay has
stated Sherlock Holmes made the incorrect decision by letting James Ryder go.
James Ryder framed the innocent, commuted theft and lied. Not knowing if
Ryder is a good man and could be trusted again is very dangerous and if he does
something again Sherlock Holmes would take part of the blame, which in my
opinion is way to risky. James Ryder made an incorrect decision by stealing the
blue carbuncle, and a strong decision. And every action has a cause either a good
one or a bad one. This decision James Ryder made was the incorrect and wrong
decision and he should have a consequence.