Just Mercy Reflection

After reading this week’s reading of Just Mercy, I learned that Bryan experienced a very different meeting with Henry than he thought it was going to be like. Bryan thought that Henry was going to be rude and heartless being, yet this was not the case. After Henry was taken from the room, Bryan proceeded to say “I sat down completely stunned…I didn’t expect him to be compassionate or generous” (Stevenson, 2014, p. 12). As well, he stated, “in that moment, Henry altered something in my understanding of human potential, redemption, and hopefulness” (Stevenson, 2014, p. 12). Going into their meeting, Bryan had his own idea of how a condemned individual should be and Henry completely changed his view. More importantly, Henry changed how Bryan saw
everyone’s human potential, redemption, and hopefulness because he realized that people are capable of so much more. This scene can be connected to the theory of cognitive dissonance, which can be found in the West and Turner textbook. Cognitive dissonance is the “feeling of discomfort resulting from inconsistent attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors” (West & Turner, 2010, p. 113). Before Bryans meeting with Henry, he had his own view of how a condemned man should act. It is not stated, however, this view was most likely formed through his culture. He thought that condemned people were ruthless individuals. Yet, Bryan did not feel this way after talking with Henry, if anything he felt as though Henry had so much humanity, which surprised and intrigued him. Due to the fact that Henry went against Bryan’s idea of a condemned man, Bryan experienced dissonance and in order to eliminate his discomfort, Bryan changed the way he saw condemned people. In all, people do not want to experience dissonance, consequently, they either change their behavior or their thinking and Bryan chose to change his thinking in order to remove his discomfort.