Blog #6 - Fiona Feng - Period 9 - 2/12/2020

February 12th, 2020

Fiona Feng

Period 9

Aim: How does characterization contribute to the development of the theme of JUSTICE?

Do Now: Think/Pair/Share

How can we define “justice”? How do we know when “justice” has occurred?

• Moral code for punishment; if you do something unjust, you have to face the consequences of it

• Sometimes we don’t know the circumstances of the situation; a crime could’ve been committed out of self defense/survival, it makes justice a moral gray area

• Justice is an add on to equality; just like equality, it has a different definition for everybody 

• Justice has occurred when you feel avenged or satisfied

Poetic Justice: where everybody gets what they deserve in the end

False Equivalence Fallacy: when two opposing sides of the argument are set as equal weights, when they’re really not; Can lead to misinformation and propaganda

Ex. There is scientific evidence that says that GMOs are safe, but the opposing side says otherwise with no real evidence, they make their argument through their exposure in the media. Both claim their argument is valid when in reality, the argument that GMOs are safe has more evidence supporting it

Twelve Angry Men

Act 1 (Pages 18-26)

• Eight continues to defend his claim that the kid is innocent

• Boy has a record of stabbing someone, Eight says that ever since the boy was five years old, his father beat him up regularly; suggests that the action is justified due to the abuse he faces

• Brings in the knife; argued whether he lied about losing the knife or not

• Eight keeps defending the kid

• Only 10 jurors felt the kid was guilty→ different from the beginning when 11 people thought the kid was guilty

Reflection

Today I learned about justice and how it can be interpreted differently between different people. It was said that it depends on the circumstances that the person was placed in. We learned about this because it applies to Twelve Angry Men. In Act 1, the argument was whether or not the kid was guilty for the father’s death. But the question that came up for me was: did the father really deserve justice? The kid was abused by his father, and when putting that into context, that’s when justice becomes a moral gray area. Does someone who's abused his kid deserve justice even though that kid commited a crime by killing him? Is the kid really the one to blame for his actions when they were shaped by the actions of the father? Knowing this, it made me question what justice is and how it should be interpreted. Justice doesn’t really have a specific definition, it’s abstract and really depends on the person. Knowing this, I’m more aware of the fact that some words may have a more abstract meaning, in this case, justice. When reading more of Twelve Angry Men, I’ll see how justice is shown throughout the story.