Perspective Theme Analysis of Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose Essay Example

Different perspectives affect day-to-day life, both in a positive and negative way. Acknowledging different people’s perspectives leads to understanding their worldviews, which results in impartiality. Characters from "The 12 Angry Men" by Reginald Rose are great examples of this. Juror number 8’s willingness to see other people’s perspectives allowed him to make a fair and impartial decision. On the other hand, we have Juror number 3. His past experiences led to bias against the defendant, which resulted in him not listening to other people's opinions and holding onto his opinion until the very end. People shouldn’t conduct themselves like this, as it doesn’t allow for feedback and personal growth. This is why I believe that it is important to hear other people’s perspectives, as it leads to developing a better understanding of the world. As a kid, I wasn’t opened up to many worldviews, and after I started school, I discovered so many different cultures that I hadn’t ever seen before. Additionally, it allowed me to cast off biases from my life and be more respectful towards people. These 3 factors signify how important it is to recognize other people’s perspectives and how they have positive impacts on your life.

Juror number 8 goes out of his way to find evidence that supports the defendant, he does this through looking at many diverse perspectives, which eventually leads the jury to find the defendant not guilty. The first case of him looking at different perspectives is when he says "I don't want to change your mind. . . You know why slum kids get that way? Because we knock 'em on the head once a day, every day. I think maybe we owe him a few words. That's all." (Rose, P. 5) This proves that Juror number 8 took into account the defendant’s perspective and wanted to dig deeper into the situation instead of hastily making a decision, another example of him doing this is when he remarks "I think we proved that the old man couldn't have heard the boy say, ‘I'm going to kill you,’ but supposing he really did hear it? This phrase: how many times has each of you used it?. . . ‘If you do that once more, Junior, I'm going to murder you.’. . . This doesn't mean that we're going to kill someone. ~"(Rose, P. 16) Juror number 8 brought up past experiences to prove a point. If he wasn’t present and the same question was asked, they wouldn’t have been able to respond like that because they were destitute of someone with that kind of perspective. Later on, Juror 8 exclaimed "I want to try this thing. Let's see how long it took him. I'm going to pace off twelve feet—the length of the bedroom. [He begins to do so.]" (Rose, P. 19) Juror number 8 wanted to experience walking twelve feet from the old man’s perspective to accurately find out how long it would take him. This is yet another example of how looking at other people’s perspectives is so important. Juror number 8’s efforts show how important it is to have access to multiple perspectives and be able to think of how it would affect the people involved.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have Juror number 3. He is the complete opposite of Juror number 8. He refuses to listen to people’s perspectives, strictly sticking to his own. This is described most accurately when he states "Well, you're not going to intimidate me! (They all look at NO. 3.) I'm entitled to my opinion! (No one answers him.) It's gonna be a hung jury! That's it!" (Rose, P. 30) He mentioned this so late into the screenplay that it was completely unreasonable; there is more than enough evidence for reasonable doubt and all of the jurors have already voted not guilty, so holding his vote as guilty is completely unjustified. He later says "I've got a kid. When he was eight years old, he ran away from a fight. I saw him. I was so ashamed, I told him right out. . . When he was fifteen he hit me in the face. He's big, you know. I haven't seen him in three years. Rotten kid! (Rose, P. 8) Juror number 3’s past experiences altered his perception of youth, consequently this affected his decisions in the jury just because of who the defendant was. Partway through he exclaimed "Don't tell me we're gonna start that. They went over it and over it in court." (Rose, P. 24) He doesn’t want the rest of the jury to look at the evidence from different perspectives so that they continue to think that the defendant is guilty. Evidently, Juror number 3 is incredibly stubborn, but this is due to his perspective on youth, formed from his past experiences, he is unable to change his perspective. Although this is present in real life, it is not what leads to self-improvement.

In the real world, we come across many different people who each hold their own perspectives. From these people, we can learn many useful and intriguing aspects of the world. Here is an example from my life: As a kid, I wasn’t exposed to many different cultures and religions, and after I was introduced to them in elementary school it taught me many different characteristics of the world. These include how different people perceive things differently than I do. Additionally, Canadian culture was also a surprise to me because I didn’t grow up in a Canadian household. Being opened up to different perspectives allows you to see how contrasting people interpret various concepts, this allows you to build up relationships faster and improve confidence. In my life every time I went to downtown Calgary I was shocked to see so many homeless people and I wouldn’t treat them properly. I had recently watched documentaries and interviews about how it was like living out in the streets and even if I couldn’t truly understand how life was out there, it let me realize how they got into this situation and made me more empathetic towards them. Don’t judge a book by its cover, although this is primarily used for books, this principle also applies to people, you usually don’t know what they have been through and this is almost always useful to know. Whenever we do group assignments I am introduced to different views on the topic at hand, for example in math class, when were put into random groups it allows me to see how different people handle particular equations. This builds upon my understanding of the material and helps me in the future. Group assignments can benefit your learning because you can see other people’s perspectives and learn from them. Discovering different perspectives, researching different perspectives, and hearing different perspectives all play into broadening your knowledge of the world and different people.

In short, hearing other people’s perspectives changes how you interact with different individuals and see the world. Acknowledging different people’s perspectives leads to understanding their worldviews, which results in impartiality. Returning to Juror number 8, he showed how important it is to listen to other people’s perspectives, and how it can vastly change the outcome of a situation. Furthermore, Juror number 3’s perspective helped him hold his own opinion for so long, which in turn nearly caused a hung jury. This is not something that people do in the real world, as it could cause major complications for no real reason. Lastly, in real-life perspectives can greatly alter how you act and the things you do. Perspective changed my life, and it has also changed yours.