12 Angry Men sociological analysis Essay Example for Free

12 Angry Men sociological analysis Essay 12 Angry Men focuses on a Jurys deliberations in a capital murder case. A 12- man Jury is sent to begin deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year- old Latino accused in the stabbing death of his father, where a guilty verdict means automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the Jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis bases his vote more so for the sake of discussion after all, the Jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. As the deliberations unfold, the story quickly becomes a study of the Jurors complex personalities (ranging from wise, bright and empathetic to arrogant, prejudiced and merciless), preconceptions, backgrounds and interactions. That provides the backdrop to Mr. Davis attempts in convincing the other Jurors that a not guilty verdict might be appropriate. A huge feel of the film is gotten through the time period it took place in. Peoples views on race were made very publicly within the Jury. Many of them seemed to have personal vendettas against different races. They deemed the boys Hispanic race to be slum and nothing more than that. A universal problem that is shown in several ways throughout the film is personal prejudice getting in the way of Judgment. Juror number tens reason for saying the accused boy was guilty was because he felt people from slums should not be trusted and that they kill one and another for fun. His prejudice lead him to discriminate against the boy initially by voting guilty earlier in the film, before being convinced in voting not guilty. This was during the civil rights era and all of that. We all know blacks werent treated equally and this makes it apparent that it wasnt easy for any minority within the US. Theyd rather lock them up and throw away the key than give them a fair trial. Tensions run high the second the Jury went into the private room to deliberate. It was a very hot day outside and the fan wasnt working nor would the windows open. No man wanted to spend more time than what they thought would be efficient to determine the verdict. Some even spoke about their plans for right after, thinking it would be a sure bet theyd be out of there soon with the whole night ahead of them. They were wrong. From then on the film turned into an example straight out of a sociology textbook. Everyone didnt deviate from the norm of the group All except one, Juror #8. The rest of the Jury was outraged and deemed him a radical. They could not believe two things. One, that he voted not guilty, and second, hat he went against the group norm. He tried not one bit to conform. Rather, he stood up in grand fashion and presented his doubts to his fellow Jurors. Slowly but surely his grand scheme was working. He did not know for sure whether he was guilty or not guilty, but he had a reasonable doubt and thats all about what the justice system stands tor. Its so interesting when you bring a group o t 12 random people into a setting like a Jury and see what you come up with. All of these men, from different walks of life , they all brought something special to the table that was ital to their key decision. The sociological theory that tone of this film could easily fall under is the conflict perspective. At the very beginning, viewers can clearly see the tension is between the Jurors whom most have a personal prejudice against the boy for certain reason. Some Jurors simply expected that a boy from the slums would commit an act like that they were stereotyping that all people who come from slums are criminals. Even if a person is not personally prejudiced against and individual or group, stereotypes can have them make discriminatory actions such as vote guilty. The reason most of the Jurors stereotyped the actions of the accused boys is because of socialization. The way of transmission was most likely through media; crimes shown by television new or new papers are frequently from neighborhood of low economics standing. Deviance a topic I touched on earlier, is another sociological aspect that can be examined in this film. Deviance is a very relative term where depending on the group and situation, it varies. Juror 8 was the only that felt from the beginning the boy was not guilty. When the first vote most of the other Jurors by he fact he could think the boy was innocent and even were upset at him for thinking that. As the film progressed the Jurors began changing their votes, eventually the roles were reversed; Juror number 3 appear to be the one committing the deviant act since it is revealed his own reason for voting guilty is because of issues with his own son. One of the most important things I learned in observing the sociological aspects of this film is how easy norms can change. The norms of eleven out of the twelve men voted guilty, changed entirely to guilty as the film came to a chose.

Stanley Yelnat in Louis Sachar’s Holes :: Holes Essays

In Louis Sachar’s Holes, Stanley changes his perspective of life through fear, courage, and perseverance. Louis Sachar began Holes as a basic concept of the area which would later be called Camp Green Lake (Sachar). The story puts us into the streets of Stanley’s neighborhood and immediately into the action. We meet the young Stanley Yelnats, who is about to embark on an unexpected journey that takes him through the extremely painful and unforgettable Camp Green Lake where he is forced to fight for survival against the unbearable heat and all of the dangers lurking in the sandy pit of a camp. Stanley is a typical everyday kid that finds himself in the wrong place and the wrong time. Although he is a good kid that never seems to bother anyone, his family has an alleged history of being cursed. It ran in his family for centuries and it was only a matter of time before it caught up to him. After taking a pair of used sneakers that had been thrown down from a nearby overpass, Stanley finds himself sitting in a prison camp bus seat with nothing more than a toothbrush, toothpaste, and some writing utensils waiting on the unknown. He can’t get much passed the guards on the bus despite his good behavior, they only ignore him or bash at him to be quiet. The bus ride is long and painfully boring as they travel further and further into the desert heat. Eventually the bus slows down and the patrolling guard tells Yelnats that this is his stop. Stanley steps right from the bus onto the grounds of what used to be a camp for young adults called Camp Green Lake. Now it is a fiery oasis filed with holes. The biggest mystery behind Camp Green was why that the once wonderful lake and campgrounds were nothing more than sand and rocks in a desert now (Sutton). Stanley is then introduced to the camp warden, a mean and vicious woman with no sympathy for any human that walks the gro unds of the camp. Stanley is walked around the camp to his new living quarters where he meets Zero. They soon become best friends and Stanley finds himself at peace with the camp. It doesn’t take long for the warden to ruin that, however, as she walks in and takes Stanley to see what must be done for the duration of the time he is at the camp.

Analysing Article: Only Immigrants Can Save Japan’ by Michael Hoffman Published in the Japan Times Online on 21st October 2012

Assessing the article's currency, this article was published a month back, which is relatively recent. The article is making a long term analysis as it referenced the need to welcome 10 million immigrants from now till 2050, hence the issue is valid because such a current and future issue will be monitored and reiterated in the news for the coming decades. Furthermore, there has been no major changes regarding foreign policies in Japan since the publication date and hence proves that timeliness is present. Under relevance, the article concerns about Japan's rapid decline in population and the need for Japan to open its doors for immigrants. There are pros and cons connected with inviting more foreigners but would it be a wise approach to just welcome immigrants for the sake of putting a brake to the accelerating population decline? And does it give a solution to those problem that Japan is facing such as stagnating economy or shifting away the reliance on nuclear energy? This is also relevant to us locally and many of the developed nations. In Singapore, foreign workforce policies are less tight compared to Japan, a sustainable supply in manpower is needed. The National Population and Talent Division stated this month that Singapore has little choice but to turn to foreign sources to fill the positions of construction labourers or healthcare sectors as they play a role in supporting Singaporean families. The question remains as to whether society in Japan is ready for it, because even immigrant nations like the US and Singapore is have never been entirely free from cultural friction. In analysing authority, the article is written by a regular contributor of The Japan Times, who is also a media columnist and author of the book ‘Big in Japan'. Established in 1897, The Japan Times is the only independent English language newspaper. It was only during World War Two that The Japan Times was used as an outlet for Imperial Japanese government as a propaganda tool. Mr Hidenori Sakanaka, major contributor of this article, is a former immigration bureau chief who spent 35 years urging Japan to bring in more immigrants. He wrote ‘immigrations Battle Diary', a book that details his own experiences and lays out a manifesto for the future of Japanese immigration policy. Overall, the article gives an insight of the issue from relevant authority of the issue. In evaluating accuracy, Mediacorp's Today published an article that might help to add reasons to Mr Sakanaka's assertion. It states the the direct relation to the ageing population and the increase in demand for foreign labour. Please see the attached Today's article. At the same time, within the article itself quotes declining population data from National Institute of Population and Social Policy Research which is a reliable authority. Additionally, they cited about Japan's failure in its mass-immigration program that welcomed Japanese-Brazilians in the 1980s, depicting that inviting Japan to multiculturalism would not work. The article mentions paradigm that conflicts to Sakanaka's notion. Such information offers a balanced perspective of the issue and therefore strengthens the reliability of the article. The purpose of the article is to examine about the possibilities that arises from welcoming immigrants by incorporating factual information from authorities, statistics and quotes. There are diversity of stakeholders presenting objective data and subjective solutions to the issue. The article offers both perspectives that supports and those against Sakanaka, therefore I feel that I have analysed a reliable article.

Critical Skills for Managing Your Time in College

Everyone knows that good time management skills are important for students if youre going to do well in school. But what skills are needed for good time management? The 5 skills listed below just might be the most important time management skills youll learn during your time in school. Sure, they seem easy on the surface -- but executing them on a daily basis can be harder than it looks. If youre having trouble, just try one a week until theyve all become habit. The Ability to Say No Party this weekend? Cool club to join? Overnight trip on Saturday? Quick pizza with your roommates that turns into 3 hours of just hanging out? Helping that cutie you have a crush on with the chemistry homework? Learning to say no can often feel darned near impossible during your time in college -- but saying yes to everything can often be impossible, too. Learning how to say no is difficult but important for good time management. Spacing Things Out Translation: Dont procrastinate. Do you know you have an ugly midterm/paper/lab report/research project due in, say, one month? Dont wait until the last week to get started. Space things out a bit so you manage your time and workload in a steady flow instead of one gigantic wave. Using Social Time Wisely College is amazing because there is always something fun going on that you want to be a part of. Unfortunately, college is also incredibly challenging for this exact same reason. Instead of feeling like youre missing out on something whenever you try to do your homework, work your on-campus job, etc., remind yourself that there will be something fun to go do once youre done. And then you wont have to feel guilty about enjoying yourself  since youll be all caught up. Prioritizing and Reprioritizing No matter how on top of things you are, life just happens sometimes ... which means, of course, that youll get sick, your computer will crash, your roommate will have some kind of drama, and youll lose your cell phone. Good time management often requires the ability to prioritize and reprioritize and reprioritize again as things come up. And having good time management skills also means that, when things shift around, youll be able to deal with it instead of suddenly finding yourself in a crisis. Keeping Your Health/Sleep/Exercise In Check Sure, you have about 25 hours worth of work to do each day -- and that doesnt count the time required to sleep, eat, and exercise. Yet filling in those 3 little things can really make all the difference in your ability to manage your time well in school. Staying up a little too late here or there? Maybe not eating a healthy dinner every night of the week? Usually okay. Making those actions not just exceptions but patterns in your college life? Bad idea. In order to stay on your game, you have to be physically and mentally able to play your game. Practicing a little self-care can really go a long way to making sure you can take care of all you need to do with your limited time while in school.