To Kill A Mockingbird And 12 Angry Men: Film Analysis

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter,” Martin Luther King Jr. The day that we as humans go by our judgement and decide that it doesn’t matter to speak about justice, that fighting for what we believe is right, is worthless, our lives begin to end. The films To kill a Mockingbird and 12 Angry Men are pieces that present the theme of justice and judgement. How one man can speak about what is right and forget about the judgment everyone else is making. Forget about society's judgement and speak up for justice. As a result, the films To Kill a mockingbird and 12 Angry men teach a lesson about justice and judgment, through examples of racism, injustice and independence. The first example that we learn about
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Atticus and Juror 8 did what they believed was right even when society tried to shut them down. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus stood up for what he believed was right even if he was the only white man in the court fighting for a black man's life. Atticus said, "I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system—that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty." This quote is an example of how Atticus was pleading to the jury to make the right choice. He wanted justice to happen even if he was the only man in the whole town to stand up for an African American, Tom Robinson. He didn’t care what people were saying about him. He didn’t want to be a racist man who was supporting in injustice accusation. He wanted to be an independent man who chose to defend a man who he believed had been accused falsely. Equally as important is when Juror 8 began to the defend the African American child. When he said, “Let me ask you this: Do you really think the boy'd shout out a thing like that so the whole neighborhood could hear him? I don't think so - he's much too bright for that.”Juror 8 wanted to make justice. He knew that every witness and the jury was going by judgement. Everyone was going by the what they saw for example in the color of the child’s skin instead about the false facts that the witnesses were giving. Juror 8 decided to make the difference even if he had to be independent and stand up by himself, however, that didn’t bother him. Both Juror 8 and Atticus stood up for what they believed was