Persuasion In 12 Angry Men

The art of persuasion have been the subject to change over the decades as people change and adapt to the events and situations that are happening around them. There are three ways of knowing that act as a tool and are at the base of persuasion: emotion, language and reason. These ways of knowing are used extensively around us, in commercials, political speeches or in a trial advocacy. Used as tools for persuasion, emotion hinders the pursuit for truth, while language and reason advance the the search for verity.
In 2016 the United States of America underwent elections for their new President. Donald Trump, a promising candidate at the time, used emotion as a tool of persuasion, more specifically he used fear. In rallies, Trump preached the
In the film “12 Angry men” there is an extensive use of reason as a form of persuasion. The movie talks about how a Puerto Rican youth is on trial for murder, accused of knifing his father to death. Eleven of the jurors vote for conviction, each for reasons of his own. The only juror that decides to give the boy a chance is juror number eight. Juror number eight, outnumbered eleven to one is able to persuade the other jurors. Reason is used as a tool of persuasion and it advances the search for verity. Different jurors slowly change their minds and verdicts to “not guilty”. Everyone then uses reason to try and convince the others. Juror nine was especially convincing when he notes problems with the testimony of a prosecution witness who, like himself, is elderly. Another example is when the newly confident Juror 2 asks how a 5'6" boy could have made a downward stab wound on a man who stood 6'2". In support of their "not guilty" verdicts, the jurors realize that the witness deceived the court by taking off her glasses prior to her court appearance and they surmise that she was most likely not wearing them in bed the night she claimed to have witnessed the