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Day 9 Assignments
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8 Replies
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Marie’s 12 Angry Men Analysis
What I learned doing this assignment is there are many ways to show old ways and the challenges to them – this movie is very dialogue based and so I’ve used dialogue snippets to show both the old habits and the challenges intended to change them. The movie is a very good study in transformational journeys and I learned many avenues into uprooting belief systems, many possibilities I can use in my own work.
Old Ways and the Challenges in 12 Angry Men:
Assumption of guilt – Juror #3 calls it “an open and shut case” and says: “You can’t refute facts. The kid is guilty.” One of them says “If we are a hung jury, they will try him again and they’ll find him guilty just as sure as he’s born.” Juror #8 has many challenges to this, starting with: the defence council “let things go by”… “a lawyer can be stupid”.
Just want this over – #7 wants to get out quick; he’s got tickets to game; #8 challenges them all, saying “This isn’t a game.” He tries to impress on them that this is a boy’s life; he’s not willing to call him guilty without talking about it a bit.
Not caring – Many of them behave very casually about their duty, making jokes, talking sports and business; #8 challenges by saying “Suppose it was you on trial” and reminding them over and over that a boy’s life is on the line.
Prejudice – “Slum…kids are trash,” #10 says, and: “They are born liars”; #8 challenges: “You don’t believe the boys story, why did you believe the woman? She’s one of ‘them’ too isn’t she?” #10 rants: “They don’t know what the truth is – don’t need any reasons to kill someone – the way they are by nature – violent… these people are dangerous.” #8 challenges: “It’s always hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And wherever you run into it, prejudice always obscures the truth…”
Not looking beneath the surface – #8 challenges their casual attitudes with examples: “Let’s look at the knife” and viewing other evidence more in depth. Juror #11 points out that “on the surface the boy looks guilty” but “maybe if we go deeper” – so he goes into some details, and raises questions, eg. “Where did the panic start?”
Assuming the evidence is not questionable – #3: “We’ve heard the facts!” #8 challenges the evidence by producing the other knife and by pacing out the apartment, etc; He challenges: “It’s just possible – just staying a coincidence is possible.” When #7 counters: “The odds are a million to one,” #8 says: “I’m just saying it’s possible.”
Assuming the witnesses were accurate – Some of the jurors are hell bent on believing the testimonies of the witnesses; #8 challenges: “Could they be wrong?” He questions how fast the guy could have got to the door and sets up an experiment to throw his testimony into question. “Witnesses can make mistakes,” he says. #3 balks that the witnesses couldn’t be that accurate when it comes to hearing the train, etc. and that it doesn’t matter that they weren’t. #8 challenges: “Well, I think testimony that could put a boy into the chair should be that accurate”; #9 provides a character portrait of the old man witness that points to his testimony being made up.
Assuming defence attorney did his job – #8: “A lawyer can be stupid”; the lawyer for the kid was court appointed, didn’t want the case; “lawyers aren’t infallible”.
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1. Kathleen’s 12 Angry Men Analysis
What I learned is to pose challenges to my characters to give them depth by trying to overcome the challenge are surrender and agree with the challenger.
Assumption of guilt: What’s the difference how long it takes? We honesty think he’s guilty. So supposing we finish in 5 minutes. Challenge: Let’s take an hour. The ball game doesn’t start until 8:00. He was challenged to “cool his jets”, not to be in such a rush.
Just Want this over: I got tickets to a ball game tonight. This better be fast. Challenge: This was blatantly ignored by the foreman and they just kept moving forward. Sometimes you don’t have to say anything. Again, impatience. His mind is made up and believe everyone agrees.
Not caring: Children from slum backgrounds are potential menaces to Society. #5 said “I lived in the slum all my life.” He challenged him by say, you are talking about me if you are talking about a slum boy. The young man is just another one of “them”.
Prejudice: I mean THEY’RE all liars. Challenge: Only an ignorant man can believe that. He had to be challenged on his racism. He put it right in the man’s face.
Assuming the Witnesses were accurate. #12 asks, “What do you mean, suppose they were wrong? What’s the point of having witnesses at all? #8 challenged him with a questions. Could they be wrong?
Assuming the evidence is not questionable. #4 said, “Everyone connected with the case identified the knife.” #8 challenged with “It’s possible the boy lost the knife and that someone else stabbed the father with a similar knife.”
2. Kathleen’s Old Ways Challenge Chart
1. Assuming where you are born determines your value. Mom challenges Cassie by telling her, It’s not where you come from, but where you are going.
2. You’ll never be a part of this family! Cassie asserts herself by telling Rhonda, “We may have different mothers the blood of my father runs warm in both of our veins.
3. Cassie was told she was a Bastard born out of adulatory. Cassie’s mother told her, “You are a child born out of love. I loved your father.
4. You will never learn how to run this business. Cassie replied, ” I just graduated Valedictorian from one of the most prestigious colleges in the nation and I am up for the challenge.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Kathleen Gamble.
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i love the way you challenge values like love vs marriage in your story. Looking forward to reading more.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by
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Marie’s Old Ways Challenge Chart
What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s not as confusing as I thought it would be to think through and then chart more than one character’s learning curve (old ways/challenges) and that these curves will naturally weave together or crisscross at points.
2. List Old Ways:
a. Kay’s assumptions and beliefs mostly have to do with her entitlement: she behaves selfishly in shirking her responsibility to the play, she’s too self centred to consider others who have less opportunities than she does, she whines about her successful TV series, etc. The townsfolk have other assumptions, beliefs and traditions: they want to put on the play exactly as it’s been done for years and years, allowing many to stay comfortable while others fall through the cracks.
b. The townsfolk believe that people who are different from the small-town norm – in appearance, attitude, approach, ideas, etc. – are lesser than and suspect. Kay also has this attitude but it manifests differently – she welcomes people who are “different” but she doesn’t want them in her life too much anyway, holds them at arms length.
c. The townsfolk have assumptions about what people are capable of eg. assuming someone in a wheelchair could not be in a play or capable of duties other than menial tasks.
d. “This is how we do it here.” The auditions go the same as always – the people in charge make the same decisions every year, giving roles to the same people. A stifling conformity of habits and traditions. No breath of fresh air, no newness to help people move forward in understanding others or themselves. And while Kay goes in for a level of creativity above what the common folk will do, she also wants to stay in her comfort zone.
e. Their rules and beliefs say that gender is binary, and that you should stay the gender you were assigned at birth.
f. Their social values are superficial: be kind is really just smile sweetly and act like you tolerate someone – a kind of passive aggressive approach. They are hypocritical, as they think they believe in acceptance and understanding but they don’t practice it – or they practice a fake brand.
3. List ways to Challenge each of the Old Ways.
a. The challenge to Kay’s entitled feelings comes mostly from Emoke telling her off or others pointing it out. When Kay does decide to seize the reins, she bucks the traditional play procedures and casts outside of the drama club clique; she also runs rehearsals in different ways: exploring character arcs as opposed to just learning lines then blocking the show.
b.Those looked upon as different and therefore lesser-than are given key roles in mounting the play. They are on display to others in the town, illustrating that they are not only capable but also good at what they do. There are also scenes where others get to see that these folks have feelings just like the rest of us – and that acceptance is critical, possibly even a matter of life and death. For Kay, as she becomes more involved in the play, she is more willing to put her money where her mouth is and actively back marginalized people.
c. Everyone gets to see how well Coco gets around in the world in her wheelchair, how being in a wheelchair doesn’t mean she has a lower IQ or can’t be creative and valuable, as some have assumed. Just as they physically look down on her in her chair they look down on her in attitudes.
d. Kay uproots the traditions of putting on the play by teaching new techniques that allow for deeper understanding of the play and the emotions within, rather than using performance tricks. She also casts differently. And this all leads to deeper understanding of individuals; but it also causes upset in the town – and this becomes Kay’s challenge to get out of her comfort zone.
e. At least two characters live as their authentic selves, openly declaring themselves trans or gender non-conforming. This is a constant challenge to the towns-folks’ binary ideas and their beliefs about birth assigned gender being the only possibility. The winter fair is a happy event for all and is put on by a contingent of LGBTQ+ folks, who are so apparently just like all of us.
f. There are many challenges to the hypocrisy, some subtler than others and some as overt as Kay or Emoke calling the hypocrites out in plain language.
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What I learned from this assignment:
Lee J Cobb is EVERYTHING!!!!!!! EVERY!!!!! THING!!!!!
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1. Old Ways
A. Miguel
Spanish Exceptionalism
Soldier
Uses people
Relies on his charm to get what he wants
B. Dulcinea
Reliant on men
C. Hamad
Soldier sense of duty
2. Challenges to the Old Ways
Forms relationships with people from other countries
Being a prisoner
Falls in love with the person he can’t use
Dulcinea sees through him
B. Dulcinea
Challenged by Hassan and Miguel’s competing proposals
C. Hamad
Challenged by his love for the other concubine
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William, this sounds like a really interesting story! I hope I get a chance to read it.
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What I learned is that there’s a story in everything; I just have to see it.
I typed this assignment out, then lost my draft. Does anyone know how to make copy and paste work in this interface?
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