Social Unjustness In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

Mary Kwentus

Mr. Singleterry

ENGL 2250

22 May 2023 Social Unjustness In Bryan Stevenson’s novel Just Mercy Stevenson gives his first-person accounts of the social justice system in America and marginalized Americans who are unfairly punished. The novel retells the cases of Stevenson. Stevenson fights to end the justice system’s unjustness and racial discrimination. The novel follows Stevenson as he and his company the Equal Justice Initiative work to help prisoners on death row and give them the legal representation they deserve. In the novel, Stevenson explicates the theme of the importance of resistance to unfair institutions.

(“Pathos”). Stevenson uses pathos throughout the novel to help evoke emotion. One way that Stevenson uses Pathos is during the story Stevenson talks about a client that he helps named Walter McMillian. McMillian or Johnny D is a hard-working African American who owns his own pulpwood business. McMillian is convicted of the murder of a young woman named Rhonda Morrison. McMillian gets put on death row before he even gets the chance for a fair trial. Stevenson’s non-profit Equal Justice Initiative takes on McMillian’s case and appeals his conviction opening their own case. Pathos is used throughout the novel when Stevenson and the EJI uncover new evidence and convince the jury using newfound evidence of the case. An example of when Stevenson uses pathos in the novel is when he says “But Walter’s case also taught me something else: there is light within this darkness.” (Stevenson 28). This quote makes readers feel the passion Stevenson has for his job and, clients. Pathos is also used throughout the novel to explicate the theme of resistance to unfair institutions, for instance in the novel Stevenson writes about the unfairness in the prison systems and

Throughout the novel Stevenson talks about the failures of the criminal justice system, telling the stories of victims of horrible injustices. Stevenson uses ethos as a technique to pursuade the readers to feel the injustnice of the criminal system while showing his credibility of the topic and theme. Stevenson appeals to the audiences ethics showing his first hand experience’s of what is wrong with the social justice system. Stevenson shows his credibility throughout the novel by showing his background in education at harvard law. He also shows his credibility by his years of experience by working for the equal justice initiative. An example of ethos in the novel is when Stevenson describes when he was pulled over by two officers and gets held at gun point and gets his car searched illgeally by the officers. Stevenson says, “ I knew that he had no probable cause to enter my vehicle and that he was conducting an illegal search”(Stevenson ). This quote shows ethos in the novel because by Stevenson showing himself as a victim of racial prejudice it shows that he understands the unfairness in the criminal justice system. This encounter Stevenson adds to the novel helps build his intergity as an author and further pursudaes readers of the theme of the unfairness of criminal systems in