Dead Man Walking The film “Dead Man Walking” is a film about redemption. The film is directed by Tim Robbins. Susan Sarandon plays a Nun called Sister Helen Prejean. She is asked by a convicted murderer to get him a lawyer, and then later is asked to be his spiritual advisor. The convicted killer is named Matthew Poncelet, and he is played by Sean Penn. The film is set in the Angola state penitentiary, in Louisiana. Matthew Poncelet first asks her to get him a lawyer so he can repeal his…

DEAD MAN WALKING Dead Man Walking is a great book that deals with one of our nations most controversial issues: capital punishment. The books narrator, Sister Helen Prejean, discusses her personal views on capital punishment. She was a spiritual advisor and friend to two death row inmates; Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie. From her experiences, she developed views on the death penalty. She believed it was morally wrong and spoke openly about it. Sister Helen successfully defends…

The 1995 film Dead Man Walking portrays the story of Sister Helen Prejean as she struggles to serve as a spiritual advisor to Louisiana death row inmate Matthew Poncelet. The film scrutinizes and criticizes the practice of capital punishment in the United States. The narrative is constructed in such a way that the audience is encouraged to draw their own conclusions, moving through an experience exposed and open to all its effects. It is a sensitive and complex look at Christian forgiveness in the…

The Use of Religion in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” Flannery O 'Connor is a Christian writer, and her work shows Christian themes of good and evil, grace, and salvation. O’Connor has challenged the theme of religion into all of her works largely because of her Roman Catholic upbringing. O’Connor wrote in such a way that the characters and settings of her stories are unforgettable, revealing deep insights into the human existence. In O’Connor’s Introduction to a “Memoir of Mary…

Introduction The theoretical perspective I found most convincing when analyzing the behavior of the main character, Mathew Poncelot, in the film, Dead Man Walking, are the ideologies of sociologist Max Weber. He believed that rather than only focusing on one’s social actions, it is instead important to understand why people do the things that they do (Long-Crowell). Empathizing with individuals and identifying their perspectives explains one’s rationales behind each choice and behavior (Long-Crowell)…

and Culture of Life and Death By: Maria Camila Cuellar “Dead man walking” is an expression often used by a police officer when accompanying a criminal walking towards his death. How can a dead man walk? This is a contradicting sentence that makes no sense. It dehumanizes the person walking and lets the person know that is going to die for the infraction committed. This is one of the last sentences Matthew Poncelot in the movie “Dead Man Walking” heard. Ironically, the last sentence Matthew said…

Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets He was standing on the ledge and was frozen, not knowing what to do. He was thinking, thinking about falling. He stood there frightened. His mind was in a whirl, thinking about what he would lose if he fell; his wife, the family that he could have, his life, his friends, his wonderful job, he would lose all of it. Then he thought about falling. Would it be so bad? His adrenaline went up as he thought about this. Tom’s mind went off again thinking about leaving…

“Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket” The short story, “Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket” is a simply told story, of a man, Tom Benecke who is faced with many decisions in a short amount of time. One night when he is trying to work, one of his more important sheet of notes flies out of his apartment into the dark abyss of New York but it caught by the ledge outside of his room. As his greed and hunger for business status and money take over his mind and body, he finds himself on the edge of his apartment…

Dead Man Walking The film, Dead Man Walking was made in 1995, and was adopted from Sister Helen Prejean 's 1993 autobiographical book, which has the same title. It examines one of the most highly debated controversial issues of our time - capital punishment. Since the protagonist of a film is regarded as the "good guy," I would apply this label to Sister Helen Prajean, played by Susan Sarandon, and that of the antagonist, or the "bad guy" to Matthew Poncelet, played by Sean Penn. However…

Hadleigh Garza Ms. Vernon English 1302.05 March 26, 2015 Is it Hard to Find a Good Man? In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” Flannery O’Conner introduces the story with the characters, the grandmother, her son Bailey, his wife, his two children June Star and John Wesley, and the baby, on the way to Florida for a vacation. Soon after the trip begins, the grandmother states that she wants to go Georgia to see a friend, but with her awful memory, she remembers it is actually in Tennessee…