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Similarities Between To Kill A Mockingbird And 12 Angry Men

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English assessment - oral task

"But if we expect justice for ourselves, we must support it for others."

If we expect justice for ourselves, we must support it for others. Both To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, and Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men portray themes of justice and challenge the audience's moral and ethical values. They both depict how a personal perspective of justice can lead to hypocrisy and injustice through the legal system. This is evident through the racial comments being made by Mrs Merriweather in To Kill A Mockingbird, and the trial in 12 Angry men that resulted in a man who had no way to prove he was guilty or not, being declared as non-guilty.

Firstly, Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men and Harper Lee's To Kill A …show more content…

Injustice and justice are also shown in 12 angry men, where deciding the future of a man by choosing if he is innocent or guilty. Some of the jurors, such as 8th believes that the man may not be guilty, and is out in the positing where they feel more lenient towards the man being accused because there is hope that they can have a shot at winning the case. Others, such as 6th juror, points out that he might actually be guilty, despite everyone talking about his bad upbringing. This shows that every perception of justice has something to do with personal experiences, values and morals, as some jurors could relate to the man and sympathise, whilst others chose to take a clearer approach and look at hard evidence. Personal experiences and relationships affecting the way people perceive the concept of justice is also shown in To Kill A Mockingbird, when Tom Robinson is declared guilty, purely based on the fact that he is coloured. Prejudice plays a big role in this aspect of the text, and it proves that, despite Tom not being guilty, injustice was still served due to the way white people were raised to believe that coloured people were considered 'misguided' and worth less than white people. If Tom had

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