12 Socially Conforming Jurors

If one looks closely at the film 12 Angry Men (the Henry Fonda version, none of the other ones) one sees multiple themes and messages about a whole cornucopia of justice-related topics. From the difference of legal justice and moral justice; the effect of bias; commentary on the death penalty; and many others, one in particular stands out to me: the power of groups. So how does this relate to English Class? Well, in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces one gets subjected to almost constant group-thinking. For example, Claude blames every negative aspect on his life on a single group, "'communiss"'(265). Claude does this as an easy way for him to not face the negative aspects of the world, it is simply much easier to group problems on to an already demonized group because accepting that some people we know and like cause some of the problems in the world. Mrs. Reilly, though, easily has the worst case of this issue. I have heard this point brought out countless times in class; that she simply conforms to what others say, just agreeing with the last person to speak an opinion, no matter how uninformed, hurtful, or biased it may have been. Ignatius also portrays a slightly different version of this trope; he gets shunned against society, even when people haven't met him, Ignatius is the factor causing the conformity in this case. In 12 Angry Men nearly all of the men get subjected to this kind of social ousting at sometime throughout the film, whether it stem from their opinion on a piece of evidence, the guilt or innocence of the accused, or simply their actions in the deliberation room. Characters form their opinions on what others think, and it comes through as a major part of the message; that one should hold true to their ideas if they collide with the group's opinion. Well, now I think it has come time for me to needlessly plug that I and fellow classmate Elise Manchester are both in the High School's production of 12 Angry Men (titled 12 Angry Jurors for obvious reasons) and you should all come to see it this weekend.