...Twelve Angry Men – Book Report How does your background and peer pressure influence your opinions and decisions? The play we read “twelve angry men” shows how a jury makes such an important decision of either sending the defendant to his death or keeping him alive – the jury determinates the fate of a 16 year old boy. As the title suggests that there are 12 men in the jury who do not know one another, and do not know the defendant, but these jurors have to work as one united group to argue and reach an agreement. They all have to be convinced wither the boy is guilty or not. The trial is about a sixteen year old boy accused with the murder of his father. The story has no plot because it tells us how these 12 jurors argue about the case in a small room and reach the final decision. They have to think as a group because, otherwise, it could not work, that means that they will get to the wrong decision, and cause or the release of a killer or the death of an innocent young man. The play emphasizes how they deal with the case and how they make a decision vital for the boy’s life. The jury is actually a group of randomly chosen members of society. Each one of them represents a particular class of the society, not only as a mass of people, but also the way this class of society thinks and behaves. Therefore, every one of them is sensitive to different issues and social norms and also each one of them confirms to different society standards and values of society. It is...
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...snap judgements were made that heavily influenced the case at hand, however throughout the course of the play we see that these prejudices were broken down. Arguments: 1. Prejudice displayed through the 3rd, 7th, 10th and 2nd jury members and their apparent lack of compassion and sympathy for a boy none of them know that is on trial for a murder case 2. How easily the other, quieter jury members where influenced by authority/ influential members of the jury team (juror 8, juror 3) 3. The American justice system in the 1950s to today’s views on punishment 4. The 1950s and how social/ political and economic choices all influenced the juror’s decisions in the murder case Title, author Context Contention However statement Twelve Angry Men, a play by Reginald Rose, unfolds within the archetypical and unceasing setting of a 20th Century American court room. The audience bear witness to the procession of a court case in which twelve jury members are set to delegate a murder case where the defendant is a young African American boy who is on trial for the alleged killing his father after a heated argument between the accused and the victim. The play’s theme of prejudice is heavily shown to be a prominent theme in which the majority of the jury members make hasty and potentially deadly decisions based on a pre-existing judgement based on the ill-conceived philosophies of that time period, and of what the America justice system should be for the white community and the black community...
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...Opposing Thoughts in a Coexisting World The foundation of life of this world, is coexisting with one another at the same time or in the same place in peace. In the story “Twelve Angry Men” written by Reginald Rose, he creates a theoretical question, if opposing ideas can coexist as well. Justice verses mercy and certainty versus doubt is the underlying conflict throughout the story displayed by each juror with their personal backgrounds either leading to condemning or saving a teen’s life. After act one, we see the struggle between each juror going from certainty and pushing for justice only to be later filled with doubt and demanding mercy. These opposing ideas disrupt the vary balance of peace leading for any coexisting out the door. The Idea of justice versus mercy is constantly questioned and played out by juror number eight and juror number three. The struggle for justice by juror number three using laws to fairly judge and punish the teen for his father’s murder is contradicted by juror number eight as he seeks for merciful truth. In act one, juror number three says, “I never saw a guiltier man in my life. You sat right in court and heard the same thing I did. The man’s a dangerous killer…”(Rose 3) followed by juror number eight explaining his not guilty vote saying, “… this boy’s been kicked around all his life. You know, living in a slum, his mother dead since he was nine … I think maybe we owe him a few words, that’s all” (3). Juror number three is an extremely opinionated...
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...The Life and Music of the original Angry Young Man On May 8th 1956, Look Back in Anger opened at the Royal Court Theatre as the third production of the newly formed English Stage Company. It was viewed as a play that would provide a euphoric blow to the customary and old English theatre. The changes in popular culture between 1950 and 1960 in Britain have been called a “cultural revolution”. Whatever was revolutionary about this era must have some bearing on both the genesis and reception of the ground-breaking play Look Back in Anger, by John Osborne. Appearing in the middle of the decade Osborne's drama initiated the cultural moment of the Angry Young Man. Precisely which young men were angry at this time and why are questions that lead back to this concept of the Cultural Revolution. Understanding Osborne's Jimmy Porter, the original Angry Young Man can take the researcher away from literary culture and deep into British popular culture. The cultural revolution of the 50s can be constituted with permissiveness, cosmopolitanism, new class attitudes and youth, each of which is manifested by distinctive artefacts such as cinema, popular music, the daily papers and other texts that surrounded the ordinary person on an ordinary working day. These four areas encompass the change in social attitudes and behaviour between the end of post-war austerity and the onset of world recession in the 1970s. By the end of this time, British society dressed differently, ate differently...
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...Definition Communication climateis the relative acceptance or rejection a group member feels based on the social and psychological tone of the relationships established among group members Two types of climate 1. In a supportive communication climate, group members feel their contributions are welcomed and valued 2.In a defensive communication climate, group members feel their contributions are neither welcomed nor valued For a group to establish a supportive communicationclimate, group members essentially must maximize their use of the six dimensions that promote a supportive communication climate and minimize their use of the six dimensions that promote a defensive communication climate 1. Description and evaluation focus on how group members take ownership of their verbal and nonverbal expressions Supportive: Descriptiondescribes her feelings and presents her viewpoints as her own Defensive: Evaluationpasses judgment, assigns blame, and interrogates group members 2. Problem orientation and control deal with how group members approach task accomplishment Supportive: Problem orientationfocuses on collaborating with group members by seeking a mutually defined and acceptable solution Defensive: Controlimposes a point of view on group members 3. Spontaneity and strategy center on the degree of openness that exists among group members Supportive: Spontaneityopenly expresses thoughts, feelings, or emotions upfront Defensive: Strategyshares thoughts, feelings...
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...Twelve Angry Men has lots of different characters in the story. Each character has a very unique costume that goes along with their personality. The style and color go along with their mood and character. The character costumes that I will give in depth details are the the 3rd juror, the 4th juror, and the 10th juror. The 3rd juror is the antagonist of the story. He believes that the boy is guilty no matter what and is not even willing to listen to both sides of the argument as well. In the story he is a businessman. He proudly states in the story that he started his business from nothing and ended up employing 34 people to his business. It is also revealed that he has a very bad relationship with his son. He thinks that the boy is guilty only because his son supposedly tried to kill him. He was also the last juror to change his mind to innocent, which in the end it shows he redeemed himself and started to become a better person. All of these details were shown to show the character of the 3rd character and why this character should get a black suit. Black is associated with evil, which this man in the story is probably the closest to evil. The man would also have very slick hair, giving him a very sharp and corrupt look. If big...
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...In the movie 12 Angry Men, twelve jurors are set to decide whether or not an eighteen year old boy should be served the death penalty. The men came into the room thinking that it was an obvious case. All of the men but one decided on voting guilty. Since there was one outcast, the group had no other choice but to listen to the individual’s opinions on why he believed the boy was not guilty. The visual was executed through different types of communications. There were different needs of control which allowed the gentlemen to gain a self-understanding and insight into each other. Also, the group was able to communicate in an organized manner by being interactional. Group communication was used in the movie because the subject was being spoken...
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...The world is very messed up today. Most newspapers and magazines are twisting the truth, writing the facts in a way that supports their point. Many people today don’t know how to find the truth, and so fall for the biased more likely twisted information written by the media. How do we separate the truth from the bias? The 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose is about 12 jurors who are deciding on if a boy who murdered his father is guilty or not. The jurors work hard in trying to find the truth, and in the process of examining the testimonies, someone is threatened and tempers flare. By examining Juror Eight’s questioning about the evidence, Juror Four’s open mindedness, and Juror Three and Juror Ten’s violent manners, we can clearly understand how...
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...The main theme of the play Twelve Angry Men is given to the readers directly from Juror number 9 and Juror number 2, "It takes a great deal of courage to stand alone". Reginald Rose focuses his central message on the importance of standing up for what is right, even if tt means standing alone. For instance, Rose does not provide many details about the night that the crime was commited in. He only gives his readers limited facts on the crime, such as the knife that was used by the murder, the time of day that the crime was commited and some background of the suspect. This allows the readers to focus their attention on Juror numbe 8, as he stands alone, convincing the the others on doing whats right. In addition, Rose does not end Act...
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...The play 'Twelve Furious Men' by Reginald Rose contains numerous components that look at the usage of the American equity framework in 1957 and help shape the consultations of the case. Maybe the most critical component is the relationship. The most relationship. The play was roused by Rose's experience of jury administration The 12 "Irate Men" are the people that make up a trial jury for the reasons of listening to a lawful case and translating the certainties, lastly coming back with a decision of either liable or not blameworthy for the charged. The primary jury was comprised of neighborhood individuals why should expected know the respondent Members of the jury were to "say reality" (these days it is called "thinking toward a decision") By the fourteenth Century, the part of the jury at long last turned into that of judgment by confirmation By the fifteenth Century, trial by jury turned into the overwhelming method of determining legitimate issues, and it was not until hundreds of years after the fact that the jury accepted a more advanced part of settling on certainties on that which is heard in a court of law....
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...How would you feel if you knew that one decision you make could decide someone’s fate? How would you make sure you make the right, just decision? How could you decide knowing you could end the life of an innocent victim or let a murderer go free? In the motion picture drama, 12 Angry Men, directed by Sidney Lumet, twelve men are given this responsibility of deciding a court case as the jury. The fate of the accused is in their hands. The twelve jurors who hold this power show their contradicting opinions and personalities early on, and are influential to the decision. In the beginning, the jury seems to have agreed that the boy is guilty, but Juror #8 stands alone in the 11 to 1 vote. He digs deeper into the evidence, bringing up points that prove possible innocence. This forces the jury to spend more time on...
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...Twelve Angry Men 12 angry men is a production about a murder trial. A boy that could be looked on as guilty from the word go, is put up to the jury to decide his fait. The boy has a background of violence and crime and has been brought up in a slum. The jury is almost certain of the boys guilt. Every member of the jury votes guilty but ONE and so the jury is forced to sit it out and make a decision. We started off the production by choosing who the director would be. In the director we looked for someone that was a good actor himself so that he could speak from personal experience. Also we wanted someone that people could respect and would give thought to his ideas. The people we chose to be or directors were Craig and Bill we chose Craig because of his talent as an actor. Craig has been a good director so far, we decided that Craig would be the director for act I. act I is full of key scenes that need to be presented to the audience in a understanding way. Bill was also chosen for the director of act II, bill was chosen because of his potential. I think because in the class work we have done he has shown really good initiative. For example in a piece of improvisation work he had the idea that if they turned all the lights off their words would have more of an impact and it did it worked like charm. He also has a good imagination I could see this when he was telling me what he would do as director. We decided to choose the directors...
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...couple to be reunited. What was shocking about the play was its social setting and the attitudes displayed by the characters, especially Jimmy. He is from a working-class family and, although he has a university degree, has turned his back on the sort of well- paid white-collar job that such an educational background would normally have led to in the fifties, working as a trader in the local market, running a sweet stall with his friend Cliff. He and Alison, with Cliff as a lodger, live in a dingy bed-sit in a large Midlands town. Alison herself is from the wealthy upper middle classes (her father is a retired Indian Army officer) and her family resent her marriage to Jimmy. It was in the late fifties that the term "Angry Young Man" was coined by the critics to describe not only writers such as Osborne, Kingsley Amis and John Braine, but also their characters such as Jimmy Porter and Amis's Lucky Jim, who were seen as the mouthpieces of their creators. Jimmy is, to borrow the title of a famous film of the...
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...12 Angry Men (1957), or Twelve Angry Men (1957), is the gripping, penetrating, and engrossing examination of a diverse group of twelve jurors (all male, mostly middle-aged, white, and generally of middle-class status) who are uncomfortably brought together to deliberate after hearing the 'facts' in a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial case. They retire to a jury room to do their civic duty and serve up a just verdict for the indigent minority defendant (with a criminal record) whose life is in the balance. The film is a powerful indictment, denouncement and expose of the trial by jury system. The frightened, teenaged defendant is on trial, as well as the jury and the American judicial system with its purported sense of infallibility, fairness and lack of bias. Alternatively, the slow-boiling film could also be viewed as commentary on McCarthyism, Fascism, or Communism (threatening forces in the 50s). One of the film's posters described how the workings of the judicial process can be disastrous: "LIFE IS IN THEIR HANDS - DEATH IS ON THEIR MINDS! It EXPLODES Like 12 Sticks of Dynamite." This was live television-trained director Sidney Lumet's first feature film - a low-budget ($350,000) film shot in only 17 days from a screenplay by Reginald Rose, who based his script on his own teleplay of the same name. After the initial airing of the TV play in early 1954 on Studio One CBS-TV, co-producer/star Henry Fonda asked Rose in 1956 if the teleplay could be expanded to feature-film...
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...If you were on death row, would you want a fair trial? Obviously, yes, I wouldn’t want anyone to die if there was reasonable doubt that they weren’t guilty. Reginald Rose’s purpose of writing twelve angry men was to show the pros and cons to the juror system and how effective it is. For example, in act three juror number five changed his vote to not guilty not because he believed that, but to have the trial finish quicker so he could get to his baseball game that he cared more about than a man’s life. Reading this part in the story, you can tell the ignorance of the character. The perfect example of how back then the jury system was ineffective. And to strike a question if it is still ineffective today. Within the last scene juror number...
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