Thursday, March 7, 2019
An Interesting Description
In this post, I would like to focus on one piece of writing that really reflects one of the main points that I think the author, Bryan Stevenson, will be trying to make throughout this book. The section in question is a description in the introduction of the book on page 9 and goes as such; "The man who walked in seemed even more nervous than I was. He glanced at me, his face screwed up in a worried wince, and he quickly averted his gaze when I looked back. He didn't move far from the room's entrance, as if he didn't really want to enter the visitation room. He was a young, neatly groomed African American man with short hair-- clean-shaven, medium frame and build-- wearing bright, clean prison whites. He looked immediately familiar to me, like everyone I'd grown up with, friends from school, people I played sports or music with, someone I'd talk to on the street about the weather." Now, by itself, this description doesn't really seem out of the ordinary. What makes it so interesting is the build-up of this passage. Everything written before the above passage comes across with a sense of foreboding, with a feeling that everything's building up to the reason for the author's journey, a death row inmate. There are numerous things that help you to feel that something sinister is coming. "The intimidating barbed wire fence," "it's dark corridors," "each step echoing ominously," "The room was an empty cage,". Hearing these words we build up the picture that the man Mr. Stevenson is meeting is going to be some kind of monster, not the totally normal and seemingly kind and worried young man we meet. This right here is the problem that Bryan Stevenson is trying to address. Because the man, whose name is Henry, is an African American man on death row, we automatically form this image in our head of what he is going to look like, what kind of personality he's going to have, how he's going to behave. Instead, we are presented with Henry, and we feel guilty for making those assumptions, or at least I did and Bryan Stevenson did. It is the source of this guilt that is one of the main points Mr. Stevenson addresses, that all death row prisoners are monsters and that in many cases we view them to be, even if that couldn't be farther from the truth. No-one is totally lost, and everyone has a chance to find redemption.
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Hi Sam,
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job of explaining your analysis of the passage you gave from the book. I could really understand exactly what Stevenson meant in the passage because of your analysis. As for the quote itself, it somewhat ties into the book I'm reading: "Race". The author of my book (Marc Aronson) discusses how Columbus and some religious figures made those who were not similar to them seem to be "monstrous men" and how that idea is integrated into someone's mind until they get to see the "monstrous men" for themselves. The original formation of stereotypes has been so built into our nature from the beginning of history that it makes us create terrible images of someone even if we have never seen or met them before.
Hi Charlie,
DeleteI'm glad that you and the other commenters were able to relate to the reactions that I had originally wrote about. Having continued on from this part of the book and meeting other characters, I was surprised to find that many of the men Stevenson interacted with on death row could have fit the description of the demeanor of Henry(the prisoner mentioned in the original post). For me, this helps to push away the thought that Henry was the exception and that everyone else was considered normal for their position, something that caused me to think deeper on the topic.
Sam, good discussion of the effect of the organization of the passage you've selected.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion would be to consider paragraphing more carefully, as long paragraphs can be hard to read on a screen.
Hey Sam,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very well written first blog, good job! I thought your analysis of the passage was very in depth and thoughtful. I found it very relatable because when I read that passage I also made those same assumptions that you and Stevenson made. It is undoubtedly true that a lot of us, including me, make hasty judgments on people we don't know. Simply knowing that someone has broken the law doesn't give us enough information to assume anything. As cliques as this may sound, I feel like Stevenson is reminding us to never judge a book by its cover.
On my Intro to Law field trip, we toured the Hillsborough County Department of corrections and were given an opportunity to meet an inmate. In the tour, we were able to see what a cell looked like and other facilities such as the cafeteria and showers. As I walked around I kept comparing what I saw to what Stevenson wrote. Death row and the Hillsborough County DOC were both cold and miserable places. But what really stood out to me was when I met the inmate, Michael. When you wrote about how Henry ended up being a kind and worried man, it reminded me of Michael. I assumed that Michael would be this tough guy but as he told us his life story I realized I was completely wrong. He talked about his 9-month-old baby and how one of the hardest things is having to be away from him. He talked about how he was participating in programs to help him manage his anger and drug use. He didn't have to share his story with a bunch of strangers but he voluntarily did. Still a monster? I think not.
What I'm trying to say is that I agree with Stevenson in that we shouldn't assume something of someone if we haven't met them and that I think you did an excellent job in explaining that in your blog.
-Maxine Asmussen