Brian Stevenson's Hope In The Strange Case Of Walter

Brian Stevenson was the man who took on Walter McMillan's case with the hope that he could prove Walter not guilty. Even though at times things seemed hopeless and impossible Walter was able to hold on to the feeling of Hope. Brian had to go through many cases while in the case of Walter. Brian was stressed out to his max with the amount of work and cases he had to do. No matter what he stayed optimistic and never gave up hope. This got him through his cases and helped him win many of his cases. It is obvious that Walter keeps hope throughout the entire novel, which helped him win his cases.

Stevenson was given hope by the community/supporters of Walter multiple times. “Giles led us inside. The small home was packed with more than thirty people,

Walter was able to keep his mindset positive for the sake of his cases and for the sake of walter. “My hopefulness was genuine, in spite of everything that had already happened today.” (108) Stevenson had just had some very negative news with Walter's case and things weren't looking good for them. Stevenson decided that hope was the way to go. Hope can change things many ways positively. Hope in my opinion won walter and stevenson the case. Because of stevensons hope he kept on pushing harder and harder until he was able to find a way to win the case. Without his hope he would not have had the mental drive or belief that he could win the case, which goes a long way. “In spite of that history, I forced myself to be hopeful.” (107) Here is another quote from the novel where Stevenson is forcing himself to have hope even when it is not easy to have hope. The hope that he had is not easy to maintain but Walter was able to maintain it the whole time helping win the

Some of stevensons other cases were full of people that had no hope. Some people were able to shine some light on them and give them some hope. “Debbie Bariege became one of the few people in Ian's life who encouraged him to stay strong.” (130) after many years of solitary confinement and disencouragement Ian finally got some support and hope from the woman that Ian shot. For 18 years, he lived in a 7-by-10-foot room. For 18 years, he did not have a window. And for 18 years he only had been discouraged. Debby was able to give hope into his life once again which was very important for Ian to have. “We tracked down her sisters and arranged a visit where Trina could see her son, and it seemed to strengthen her in ways I wouldn't have thought were possible.” (136) Trina was charged with homicide as a child. She was living on the streets at the time because she had to get away from her father who was sexually abusing her, and physically abusing her. She was put into a women's prison that was run by men. She was raped inside of the prison where she had a child. Trina had her child taken from her when her child was a newborn baby. This is when she was crushed. Trina had no hope or encouragement in her life left. For more than 30 years, Trina had been denied treatment and care appropriate for someone with her disabilities because of her death-in-prison sentence. Trina finally got to see her baby after it was grown up and it had