ipl-logo

Ambiguity And Irony In Sarah Koenig's Serial

1223 Words5 Pages

The art of storytelling is one full of powerful devices. In Sarah Koenig’s Serial, our world is crammed full of narrative acrobatics and linguistic precariousness, courtesy of a podcast so grounded in language, the audience is ultimately lead to one of the most prevalent themes: ambiguity. Koenig consistently provides her listeners with such damning evidence throughout the podcast, and then almost always provides a stream of doubt: “Maybe Adnan misspoke… maybe he’s lying… maybe he’s hiding something…”. Serial becomes a courtroom, Sarah Koenig becomes the defense and prosecution, and the podcast’s audience becomes the new jury to the Adnan Syed case. However, unlike Adnan’s real jury, who left the courtroom with enough conviction to sentence …show more content…

However, the Nisha Call happens at 3:32 pm that same day. The problem is that Nisha says she spoke to Jay and she spoke to Adnan during that time, not only placing them together, but discrediting Adnan in front of the jury. The prosecution, of course, uses this evidence to their biased advantage: Adnan called Nisha during the time he was supposedly in school, proving Jay’s story to be true, and Adnan to be a liar. The prosecution paves their narrative perfectly for the jury. Aside from the fact that detectives showed Jay the call logs, aside from the fact that Jay had not yet begun working at the porn store Nisha mentioned, and aside from the fact that prosecution purposely hid that information from the jury by cutting Nisha’s testimony off… the wording of Prosecutor Kevin Urick’s questions towards Nisha on the stand paint a subjective narrative that basically convicts Adnan for the jury. Prosecutor Kevin Urick asks Nisha about when the phone call was placed, and she replies “I would think towards the evening, but I can’t be sure.” This isn’t good enough to place Adnan with Jay at 3:32 PM. So, Prosecutor Urick specifically asks Nisha if “the 3:32 call on the log, could it be that same call…?” Nisha says “It could be, but I’m not sure.” Prosecution

Show More
Related
601 Words | 3 Pages

In order for the people whose job it is to determine innocence or guilt of a person need more than just expert testimony in the form of a long drawn out explanation. Videos, photographs, or audio recordings are all helpful tools when presenting a case to a jury. In this case with Andrea Yates, there was so much evidence presented that could either have a positive or negative effect on the outcome of the trial. Prosecuting attorneys gave the jurors quite a horrific scene to digest mentally.

Read More
667 Words | 3 Pages

This is what checks out about the conviction. The neighborhood boy that witnessed Adnan showing Haes body to Jay, seems to be the exact same story that Jay confirmed at the trial. However, Koenig explains how the neighborhood boy saw a movie and it could be possible that it adapted to this story; witnessing something traumatizing would be something to be able to tell

Read More
1013 Words | 5 Pages

All of these questions and more are answered, or contemplated, throughout a series of twelve episodes that dive straight into the facts, the evidence, and the holes in each suspect 's

Read More
1225 Words | 5 Pages

He was ‘almost falling asleep’ within the trial of evidence. This evidence suggests that the choices made by jurors were not about the consequences of their decision instead about how they can be somewhere else. Likewise, On The Waterfront showed similar disregard for the consequences of their

Read More
1404 Words | 6 Pages

Framing Truths How do we know what is true? How do we know if a man sentenced to death was truly a murderer? A question echoed by thousands of people revolting against the death penalty as the story of Todd Willingham made it to the headlines. In The New Yorker, under the title of Trial by Fire, came the terrifying enigma: “Did Texas execute an innocent man?” followed by a thorough listing of the evidence that was used to convict Willingham of setting his house on fire and resulting in the death of his three children, and how they were later disproved. There is a great misconception about the source of controversy in issues like these.

Read More
681 Words | 3 Pages

As you are shown in the film, after the identification of Brenton Butler and his so-called testimony to investigators, the police and prosecutors just stopped working on the case. Thus, evidence that would have supported Butler’s innocence and help find the actual killer weren’t discovered until Brenton’s defense attorney, Pat McGuinness did some investigation and research of his own. Thus, flowing from film from the trial to McGuinness’s investigation scenes shows the how he attained the information that he and his partner could present in the courtroom. While the prosecutors only had the one eyewitness, who claimed to have only caught a glimpse of the shooter and gave description that did not even match Butler. The film presents the conclusion that the police did not actually do the work to find the actual killer and if it wasn’t for Pat McGuinness and his partner wanting to find the culprit, it would never actually be solved.

Read More
642 Words | 3 Pages

When Sarah found this case, it was about 15 years after Adnan had been accused and convicted. At that point, surveillance footage had been thrown out and memories that could be used as an alibi were inevitably forgotten. A great example of this is the testimony of Aysha Mclain. Sarah interviewed Aysha and discovered she told the court she had been in contact with Adnan in the library at the exact time of the murder. This would have given Adnan a clear alibi, so why wasn’t this looked into further?

Read More
548 Words | 3 Pages

They have told you the true story of what happened that fateful night on June 17, 2016. Their testimonies show you that the defendant was not helpless and that she had many opportunities to leave her husband. In addition, their testimonies showed you that the defendant knowingly and premeditatedly murdered her unconscious husband. Unlike the defense, the prosecution and its witnesses have no gain by lying to

Read More
482 Words | 2 Pages

When someone has committed a crime, they are put on trial and they go through the motions of the judicial system. In 12 Angry Men, Reginald Rose creates a play that displays the judicial system in its truest form. It tells the story of the jury, as they have to come to a unanimous verdict of whether the defendant is guilty, innocent, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, of murder. The main conflict that the jurors face in the play is whether to charge him as guilty or not. Through the conflict in the book, the flaws in the justice system are illustrated and reasonable doubt appears.

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

Think back to the very first time you got dumped. How did you feel? How did you react? How long did it take you to get over it? I’ve heard it said that it usually takes about one month for every three that you were together, but that’s not always the case.

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

This may cause the jury to be indecisive between what the actual case and what the media portrays it to be. The amount of media released for cases creates a negative impact within the courts and makes it difficult for a fair trial. When juries are uncertain about a case or a suspect, they result to social media platforms and news coverage that will provide them with more information and depth into the case. ‘’But if the case unfolds in the media, by the time a case gets to court, the supposedly impartial jury (or even the judge) may have already heard information and allegations (not admissible by court standards) that have caused them to seriously prejudice the parties’’. (Nedim, 2014).

Read More
215 Words | 1 Pages

Finally, I would like to look at a podcast called Serial. The first season of Serial follows the murder of a high school senior Hae Min Lee in 1999. After searching for six weeks, her body is found buried in the local park. Her ex-boyfriend, Adnan, is arrested and charged with her murder. However, Sarah Koenig, host of Serial, believes there is something fishy about the case from the start.

Read More
1008 Words | 5 Pages

She states “A year after Adnan was arrested and the case came to trial, Jay walked up to the witness stand. There’s a moment when Adnan muttered something to him” (45). By Adnan calling Jay pathetic he showed that he couldn’t believe Jay would rat him out. This incident shows that Adnan is a liar and is mad at Jay for going to the police, showing that he is guilty. Even after controlling himself through the whole case he snapped when he saw the man that betrayed him.

Read More
1499 Words | 6 Pages

This story alone ultimately convicted Adnan. No physical evidence was ever found. Reporter Sarah Koenig realized the patchy story of this case

Read More
1164 Words | 5 Pages

Adnan is Innocent Do you remember what you did on this day, exactly one week ago? You might remember some things about that day, or you might remember nothing. How about if I asked what you did 6 weeks ago on this day? Could you tell me?

Read More

More about Ambiguity And Irony In Sarah Koenig's Serial

Related Topics

Open Document