Balance Sheet Detective

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- Develop at least three examples of prejudices in the play? Explain who held the prejudice and against whom.

One example of prejudice in the play was the 10th juror was against the defendant just because he was from a slum. Juror 10 was classifying the boy as a slum even though he may not even act like the other slums. Another example of prejudice in the play was that the 3rd juror was prejudiced against the defendant because the defendant reminded the juror of his own son which he is no longer close with. Both the previous prejudices were looking at the bad but on the other hand Juror 4 and 8 looked at the other side. The 8th juror had a hard upbringing and comes from a poor background. The 4th juror said “The children who come out of slum backgrounds are potential menaces to society.” Juror 4 and 8 were trying to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt that just because of where he grew up did not mean he have to be like that.

- Select one juror to analyze by using Korzybski’s Structural Differential.

The 8th Juror voted not guilty which is the event that happened. The object is that they should have a discussion before they just send the boy to get killed because maybe the boy did not do it. The description is that Juror 8 felt that it was not right, they did not look into the facts and evidence very good. He thought the boy may have not killed his father. He went and bought the same switchblade that people said was hard to find and so no one would have the same switchblade that supposedly fell out of the boy’s pocket. He felt that there was no way that the old man could get to the stairs in time to be able to see you was running down the stairs. Nor would he be able to hear what the boy and father were saying. He also does not think the lady across the street would be able to clearly identify the victim because she was lying in bed and rolled over and she would not be able to put her glasses on in time to see who was stabbing the father. Inference is that the old man’s story and the lady across the street story are not accurate so the boy may not be guilty. Arrow-feedback is that him and his father used to get into fights and people say I am going to kill you but do not actually mean they are going to kill you.