Stereotypes In Twelve Angry Men By Reginald Rose

In Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, and Sherman L. Sergel, Juror Number Ten believes the Kid is guilty because he has lived in a slum all his life and he has strong negative feelings about kids who grow up in the slum. “knowing what he is. I’ve lived among ‘em my whole life. You can’t believe a word they say” (Reginald Rose, and Shermal L. Sergel 16). Juror Number Ten is excessivley racist and he only cares for his own ethnic group.

Majority of the jury was not representative of the defendant’s peers. Most of them wanted to quickly vote guilty and punish the defendant. There were many exaggerations. Biases included where the defendant grew up, what race he was, and his age. In reality, a jury does their best to prove if the defendant is guilty or not because they are handing an individual’s life. There are biases in reality, but those are ruled out when picking out a jury. An example of groupthink in the film included when one juror, specifically the one who had a son, pressured everyone else to choose the verdict of guilty. He would ridicule those who did not agree with him. Another example of groupthink was when juror #8 threatened the juror with a son. He caused that

Similarly ,In Twelve Angry Men Juror 8 is a smart and moral juror who is willing to stand against all the other jurors for what he thinks is right. He is the main protagonist who believes a boy accused with murdering his father deserves a discussion prior to a guilty verdict. Although all the other jurors initially voted guilty, juror 8 believed that the jurors should not “send a boy off to die without talking about it first”(Juror 8, 12). Throughout the play Juror 8 combats the pressure from the other Jurors to just vote guilty and manages to convince his fellow Jurors one by one that there in fact is “reasonable doubt”(Judge, 6) and convinces them to arrive at a “not guilty”(Juror 3, 72) verdict. Reginald Rose extols Juror 8’s pursuit of justice through his success. Not only did Juror 8 stand by his principles and have the courage to stand against all the other Jurors, he also had the wits to convince his fellow jurors to change their verdict. Through these actions Juror 8 brings justice to the courts of New York city saving the life of a young boy.

In “Twelve Angry Men” Reginald Rose shows how flawed the justice system could really be. He portrays this concept in this story by having 12 jurors try to figure out if a nineteen year old boy that grew up in the slums is guilty or not. The jurors automatically assumed that he is guilty only because of the fact that he was always getting into trouble when he was younger. Even after they heard all the unclear evidence that was given, 11 out of the 12 said that he was still guilty. If it wasn’t for the 1 juror that spoke up about how the evidence wasn’t clear, the boy would’ve been declared guilty. There has been many cases up to this date that show this type of prejudice.

Through history people have tended to judge the lives of other by what they see on the outside, and completely disregard their actually character. “Stereotyping in the World” today has become a greater and greater problem has history moves on. Some have been known to look past these cases such as Reginald Rose’s book Twelve Angry Men. The play has been shown that one voice can change the thoughts of many by getting past the first layer and breaking it down to their inner person. Twelve Angry Men has showed the theme of “Stereotyping in the World” through the characters’ proper reasoning, communicating, and believing in good faith.

The unique courtroom drama film, “Twelve Angry Men”,directed by Sidney Lument and written by Reginald Rose, revolves around a young Mexican boy on trial for killing his abusive father. It is in the hands of twelve unnamed jurors to unanimously decide whether the boy is to be set free or sent to the “chair”.

Bernard Roth`s definition of self image in The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing and Take Command Of Your Life revolves around identifying “your role models,” “being autonomous,” and finding “your self-image” (192, 196, 205). In 12 Angry Men, when Juror Eleven says, “What kind of man are you? You have sat here and voted guilty with everyone else because there are some baseball tickets burning a hole in your pocket?” (Rose ) this calls to mind Roth’s question, “how do we interpret our own self image” (198). Throughout the process of examining their self images, each juror learns a great deal about his own biases and prejudices. Juror Eight is the conscientious role model who influences his fellow jurors to withhold judgement, to accept different points of view, and to communicate respectfully which forces them to examine their own self-image.

Imagine living in a world where differences are celebrated and diversity can be seen everywhere you go. The world would be a place where you would not have to be afraid to hide who you choose to become, your opinions will not be casted aside despite it’s not being what majority agreed upon, and society would simply just be accepting and loving. However, reality is quite the opposite, for years human beings had struggled with racism, discriminations, and accepting others different from themselves. As shown in recent events, the Texas church shooting occurred due to an unknown shooter opened fired during mass on November 5 because they did not approved of Christianity. This event led to the death of 26 people, the event illustrates discrimination against one’s religion. From this it is safe to say that people should accept those different from themselves to an extent that would benefits the society today; however, there are situations where acceptance is not an option due to one’s action causing harm to other.

The film Twelve Angry Men shows many social psychology theories. This film presents some jurors who must decide if an accused murderer is guilty or innocent. In the beginning, all but one juror voted for guilty. Eventually, however, they come to a non-guilty verdict. It shows how a various group of individuals react to a situation that no one wants to be involved in. Twelve Angry Men exhibits so many examples of the true power of informational social influence and normative social influence. According to informational social influence, individuals tend to comply with others because they believe that another individuals version of a situation is more valid than their own. Normative social influence is a type of social influence that leads to conformity. This theory seems to fit in along with this movie because of the way the juror’s decisional processes went. Informational social influence is aggravated by obscurity and doubt of situation, importance of being correct, time constriction, and presence of those recognized as professionals. Just within the first few minutes of the movie, social influence is shown. In the jury room, a heated debate is prevented by an initial vote. This vote, which was taken publicly, was vulnerable to normative social influence or conformity from the fear of seeming in submissive. An obvious feeling of doubt is presented as the jurors vote. This hesitance can be perceived as weak conviction swayed by the guilty majority’s influence. Time constraints intensify informational social influence and possibly helped play a role in causing some of the jurors to cast guilty, conformist votes. Majority influence and social impact theory generate conformity. These theories are relevant in the jury context and are relevant to an explanation of Twelve Angry Men. Social impact theory specifies the situational and personal factors that bring on conformity. Conformity is enhanced by the immediacy element of social impact theory which brings to belief that without anonymity conflict is increasingly difficult. Perception of norms is apparently a factor that also brings out conformity. Stereotyping and prejudice were rampant at the time Twelve Angry Men was filmed. The director and writers cleverly

12 Angry men is a film that was made in 1957 showing the drama of a jury in a deliberation after hearing a case on first-degree murder. When the jury enters the room before any formal discussion as started each of them engage in one of two conversations. Those two conversations were either “what did you think of the case” or “Aren’t you read to hurry this along”. Both of these conversations in a group setting help feel out the room’s social atmosphere for each of the men. I think they each engage in this conversation to feel out each other position on the case before a formal vote.

An individual's past experiences can have an incredible impact on the way they think and behave for years to come. So, the past have a significant impact on an individual. In my own life, I have had past experiences that have affected me to be the person I am today. One example is, whenever I walked through the downtown part of Edmonton and I noticed a lot of homeless people lying around on the streets. I felt so bad for those poor people that didn’t have a place to live. They appreciate anything and everything they get. This really effects me and teaches me to be more grateful in life. And appreciate everything I have. In the play the 12 Angry Men, jurors 3, 5, and 11 prove that their experiences has affected who they are. I believe that juror 3’s family issues such as his problems with his son has affected him to become an aggressive man. Additionally, juror 5 has had a background of living in a slum all his life. Therefore, he tries to prove that not all people living in slums are criminals. Lastly, juror 11 struggles with others judging him because he is a European Refugee. This affected him by making him feel unconfident about himself and feels that the others jurors don't take his opinion too seriously.

The play "Twelve Angry Men", By Reginald Rose, is a play about 12 jurors that in an

In the movie 12 Angry Men, the jurors are set in a hot jury room while they are trying to determine the verdict of a young man who is accused of committing a murder. The jurors all explain why they think the accused is guilty or not guilty. Throughout the movie they are debating back and forth and the reader begins to realize that even though the jurors should try to not let bias cloud their judgement, the majority of the jurors are blinded by bias. The viewer can also see that the jurors have their own distinguishable personalities. Their personalities intertwine with each other to demonstrate how the jury system is flawed, but that is what makes it work.

The capacity of human beings to possess different viewpoints, opinions beliefs and choices is what draws the line between man and animal. During the course of Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, the viewer sees exactly what makes up the unique and complex nature of man and how these individualities can compare and contrast when combined. The message she conveyed by her depictions of the opinions of each of the jurors was that with twelve different people comes twelve different viewpoints that everyone included can learn from. By using the Marxist and Historical lens, it reveals that even though the jurors are seen as a collective, their individuality is what propels the story into a study of human nature and interpersonal communication.

3. Social identity (10 points): What role(s) does social identity play in the movie? Discuss SID in relationship of the jury to the accused. (Define your terms and give two examples of how they apply).