Prejudice and Stereotypes in 12 Angry Men Essay

Stereotypes use generalisations to characterise plurality, and tenth juryman is leave-takingicularly prone to stereotyping the defendant based on socio-economic background. He on a regular basis makes generalised statements about those slew (p. 6), without ever justifying his opinions with concrete expound. Examples include .Im tellin you they let the kids run wild up there (p. 6). . Youre non going to tell us that were supposed to swear that kid, sharp what he is. Listen, Ive lived among em all my life. You cant believe a word they say.I mean, theyre born liars. (P. 8) .The kids who crawl outa those places atomic number 18 real trash. I dont want any part of them, Im telling you (p. 12) . Lets talk facts. These people are born to lie Ive known some who were OK, exclusively thats the exception (pp. 51-52) . Theyre violent, theyre vicious, theyre ignorant, and they will edit us up (p. 53) The one instance where tenth jurywoman uses details is when he argues his type, the yre multiplying five times as fast as we are. Thats the statistic. (P. 53).Yet he only uses this statistic to ground his own fears Theyre against us, they hate us, they want to destroy us If we dont pick them down whenever we can, then they are gonna own us. Theyre gonna breed us out of existence. (P. 53). 10th juryman is not the only one disgraced of such generalisation and stereotyping. For example, 4th states The male child Hes a product of a filthy neighbourhood and a broken scale Slums are breeding grounds for criminals. I know it. So do you. Its no secret. Children from slum backgrounds are potential menaces to society. (P. 12).Similarly, third juryman muses .. sometimes I think wed be better glum if we took these tough kids and slapped em down before they make trouble, you know? rescue us a lot of time and money. (P. 3) Neither 4th nor 3rd jurors make reference to circumstantial details of the defendants situation, only if rather rely on generalised stereotypes which support their own preconceived ideas against those people. In fact, 8th is the only juror to carefully review specific details from the case rather than resorting to general class stereotypes. He notes This boys been kicked around all his life.You know living in a slum, his mother dead since he was nine. He spent a division and a half in an orphanage while his tyro served a jail term for forgery (p. 8). This lists specific facts and variables about the boys upbringing, rather than distilling him into a non-specific member of a socio-economic group. Similarly, in 8th jurors speech on page 23,he lists specific details of the dupes rough existence his gambling, his convictions, his employment history. This can be contrasted with 10th jurors simple and prejudiced attitude listen, we know the father was a bum (p.24).This contrast between these two attitudes is that 8th juror is attempting to form his opinions based on the specific factors affecting the defendant and the vic tim, and difficult to focus on the human beings in the case at hand. 10th juror is content to convict the defendant based on stereotypes and generalised tendencies of others in similar situations. Once again, by aligning the less simplistic attitude with 8th juror, Twelve Angry Men endorses compassion and condemns prejudice and stereotyping.