Preview

12 Angry Men - 7

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1108 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
12 Angry Men - 7
Hum115
12 Angry Men
The character in this movie that was the most effective critical thinker was juror 8(Henry Fonda). The types of characteristics that Fonda, exemplify is provisionalism, creativity, and critical thinking. By doing this he is uncover new ways of interpreting evidence, turns to certainty and shortsightedness when arriving at conclusions. For example, Fonda commented on how the boy had been slapped around all his life and was treated poorly. This kind of thinking leads to more external attributions—it was the way the boy was treated in life, not something inherent about the boy or his character. Next Fonda asks the jurors to consider the larger picture: the defendant's background, the witnesses' credibility, and the defending attorney's motives. He then shakes up the room by presenting a knife identical to the murder weapon--a weapon that the jurors were certain was unique. At this point, he has them wavering about reasonable doubt. Fonda was clearly self-confident. He had complete conviction in what he was doing and saying which instilled confidence in other members of the jury who were leaning in that direction a guilty verdict.
The character that is the least effective critical thinker is juror 3 (Lee J. Cobb). Cobb made more internal attributions for the boy’s behavior. He agreed with the slum kid idea, but also focused on the notion that kids today don’t have any respect or sense of morality. He is basing this decision on his own life situation because of his poor relationship with his son. Cobb categorizes the defendant as a rebellious kid and wants to persecute him.
Another example is when Henry Fonda insulted Lee Cobb by calling him a sadist and that due to his own beliefs. Cobb got mad and said: “I’m gonna kill ya.” Thus, when Cobb said it, it was just the situation that provoked this expression, but when the boy said it, it was an indication of his murderous rage. So this is an example of Cobb is view as bias. The other jurors are

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    On the other hand, juror 10 is a loud mouthed, racist bigot. He scolds people he doesn’t agree with and a low opinion of people living in slum areas. Juror #10 is the character who brings in the most prejudice to the jury room as he has formed his decision from the moment he saw the young boy and sees no reason for him to waste any time debating on whether the defendant is guilty. His prejudice comes from the fact he used to live in the “slums” and considers people like the defendant to be “trash”. This is established when he states “well take a look at them…you can’t believe a word they say…they act different… they don’t need any big excuse to kill someone. (59) This man is very…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    His words, ’there are facts for you’, ‘you can’t refute facts’ and his listing of reasons why he thinks the boy is guilty are persuasive to other jurors and the audience as well. Nevertheless, as the play goes on, the 3rd juror starts to be blindfolded by his aggressive feelings about his own son, making his opinion extremely bias and he even uses threatening language, ‘ let go of me, god damn it! I’ll kill him!’ ‘I’m telling you now!’ to force others agree with him. His shouting towards 8th juror, ‘The nerve! The absolute nerve!’ and also his bad behavior make others feel antipathetic towards…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twelve Angry Men Analysis

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The first Juror to votes not guilty in the initial vote is the old white man who works as an architect. As when sitting on his office and drawing blueprints for constructing a building, He was very quiet and respectful in the room. He wasn’t convinced that the boy is innocent, but he wants to compare what’s really happened with the testimony’s evidence. At the end of the film he introduces himself to one of the jurors as Davis. He is free of prejudice, and he believes in justice for all. Although in his job he can be sure about the construction material and similar things,…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, Juror 4 undergoes a series of questions regarding his confidence that a young man is guilty of murder. From the beginning to the end of the play, Juror 4 gradually changes his mind about his initial vote, through the constructive discussions lead by Juror 8. Juror 4 moves from a belief that all legal witnesses are faultless to truly experiencing some sort of “reasonable doubt.” He is left with a clearer picture of the case, looking beyond his personal prejudices and biases.…

    • 1257 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the drama Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose, there are twelve jurors to discuss and deliberate if the murder in the first degree is guilt or not. Because the verdict must be unanimous, twelve jurors have a critical thinking in their discussion and finally made the vote from eleven jurors vote for guilty to unanimous vote for not guilty. During the development of the voting, Juror Three is hardly to persuade because he has a serious prejudice to the murder. If Juror Three does not admit the murder is not guilty, they cannot settle a lawsuit. Therefore, Juror Three’s prejudice should be the key to get the final verdict.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biased testimony towards the defendant resulted in a prejudice jury. Very frequently, statements like ‘We heard the facts, didn’t we?’ or ‘Pay attention to the facts’ are expressed in the jury room. The 4th Juror cited that the murder weapon was a knife so unique that ‘the storekeeper who sold it to him identified the knife in court and said it was the only one of its kind he ever had in stock.’ The 8th Juror argues that ‘It’s possible that the boy lost the knife and that someone else stabbed his father with a similar knife.’ None of the Juror’s believes this possibility as they have already established their prejudices against the accused. The 10th Juror says ‘Let’s talk facts. These people are born to lie… They think different. They act different.’ These are not ‘facts’ but prejudice opinions made by the 10th Juror about the socio-economic status of the boy. It can assumed that the ‘facts’ presented in this case can be viewed as biased opinions and reports that impairs the true facts.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men Essay

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The movie "12 Angry Men" focuses on a jury's decision on a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin decisions on the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused of stabbing his father to death, where a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. 8 (Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis' bases his vote more so for the sake of discussion after all, the jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. As the movie unfolds, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors' complex personalities and how they deal with argumentation within groups and critical thinking. This allows Mr. Davis to try and convince the other jury members that the defendant might not be guilty by using cooperative argumentation, claim, evidence, warrant, facts, etc.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Twelve Angry Men

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Twelve Angry Men is a classic movie depicting how one determined leader can alter an entire crowd. Through dedication, curiosity, and the pursuit for the truth he is able to persuade a group of twelve to second guess even themselves. Within this heterogynous group are a dozen different personalities - some of which were leaders and most of which were not.…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twelve Angry Men

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages

    With eleven of his peers convinced of the accused’s guilt, Juror 8 faced the daunting task of not only persuading the jurors to move past their initial inclinations and prejudices, but also compelling them to deliberate the case in the full interest of justice. In doing so, the first piece of evidence he called into question was the murder weapon itself. According to the prosecution, the boy had bought it the night of the murder after being beaten repeatedly by his abusive father. They then claimed he had showed it off to some friends, headed back home to stab his father, and then finally returned a couple hours later to be arrested by the police. Also called into question was the testimony of the owner of the store from which the boy bought the knife. He not only attested to the fact…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    12 Angry Men

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The judge in the beginning of the movie showed some non verbal behavior, which is sending a message without using words but things like facial expressions and body movements. The judge in the beginning was hunched over meaning he was not very alert and seemed to be a passive man. The foreman is supposed to be the leader of the jury’s and according to his behaviors he is. He communicates well which is a key role to being a leader. The foreman functions as a leader because he listens well and also tries to give out ideas to the rest of the jurors. He has the ability to look at the situation in other perspectives. In making these hard decisions the jurors need to have perception checks, to make sure they are not jumping to any conclusions. This is the life of a kid and their decision depends on his life. The conflicts that arise in the jurors room where productive to the situation at hand. The conflicts were solved in a good manner and beneficial to the case and getting everyone to feel confident about whether the kid was guilty or not. The jurors had assumptions about “those people” and “slums” which influenced the way they felt about the case. Their assumptions about those things influenced the way they thought about the case initially, the perception of the facts was altered because of having some type of bias. The juror’s assumptions had to do with the cultural and social diversity of the jury. The jurors based on how they lived their life, thought differently from the ones who were different from them based on the way they lived their lives. There were a lot of details to the case, and some jurors did not quite remember what others did. Some jurors remembered things that others did not due to selective…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Imagine having to decide a young boy’s fate who is accused of murder in the first degree. This is the case in “Twelve Angry Men”, the prize-winning drama written by Reginald Rose. Some jurors address relevant topics, while others permit their personal “judgments” from thoroughly looking at the case. After hours of deliberation, the jurors reached the decision that the boy is not guilty, due to the fact of reasonable doubt. While few jurors are motivated by their respect and determination for the justice system, Juror 10 is motivated by his personal prejudice.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    12 Angry Men

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Emotion does play a hefty part but facts can overcome any emotions. One of Juror #3’s biggest arguments was the testimony of an old man that lived on the floor below the apartment, where the murder took place. The old man stated in…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 angry men paper

    • 2273 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Whimpy (juror #2) fulfilled a group maintenance role as a supporter. Once Whimpy changed his vote to not guilty, he supported Fonda’s ideas. When Fonda was conversing with Cobb about the glasses, Whimpy supported Fonda’s point of view and told Cobb, “You can’t send someone off to die on evidence like that!”…

    • 2273 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Juror 11 can relate to the boy as he lived the same life in terms of the environment in which he was raised. Reminds others of their responsibilities and that…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    each juror has there own deficiencies or less than ideal qualities, these emerge through their interactions with eachother or their attitudes towards their trial. juror 10 is predjudice regularly using stereotypes to condemn the defendsant without actually considering if what he is saying is true. such as ‘a very big drinker’ or a born liar’ the third juror is guilty of stereotyping the defendant based on age, and he defends his opinions and stereotypes violently in the jury room, such as his near attack on 8th juror at the end of the first act. the play does not let a single character escape unflawed. even 8th juror,…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics