12 Angry Men Essay Research Paper Social — страница 3

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same” and “you know how those people are”. He suggests that people who grow up in ghettos are trash and are inevitably criminals. He is not only discriminating based on the ghetto aspect, but also suggests ageism as well. “Those kids are all the same.” he says, and refuses to believe that such a person could be innocent. Begley’s bigoted character exhibits the highest form of stereotyping, the ultimate attribution error, making dispositional attributions about an entire group of people. Juror eleven is a watchmaker with a foreign accent. Because of his situation, he understands the effects that prejudice can have. He sticks up for the man from the ghetto when the others are discriminating. This is indicative of the idea that birds of a feather flock together. He is

stereotyped because of his occupation and his background, because it is said that all Europeans are good watchmakers. This juror is also an example of altruism, feeling a sense of duty and respect for the justice system. The salesman, juror twelve, is the epitome of conformity. He at first votes guilty with almost all the others, but changes his vote when others start siding with Fonda’s character for not guilty. But that’s not all, when one of the jurors brings up the testimony of the woman who said she saw the boy stab his father, he changes his vote back to guilty. Then, when the idea of the glasses comes out, he changes his vote yet again, to not guilty. One explanation for his behavior may be his situational factors, namely his job. Being a salesman means having to

convince someone that they need something even when they sometimes don’t. To do this, most salesmen simply tell people what they think they want to hear, whether it is true or not. This may be the reason for his oscillation between guilty and not guilty votes. In sum, there are many different factors that lead us to behave the way we do. Things such as our upbringing, our jobs and ranging as far as to what we had for breakfast may influence the ways we respond to situations. Our system of justice understands this, and that is why the jury of our peers has the number of members that it does. All it takes is one person sometimes to speak out against something in order for others to see the error of their ways. Luckily for the boy in this movie, Henry Fonda’s character was just

such a person.