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The Face Of Adversity In Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men

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At one point in his or her life, everyone is faced with some type of difficulty or problem that seems impossible to solve. Whether it be trying to convince people with an opposing view that your view is correct, or the difficulty of choosing between two opportunities, that could change your life, everyone shares the experience of being faced with adversity. In these strenuous moments everyone reacts in their own unique way, allowing some people to overcome the difficult moment, while others are left unsuccessful. This begs the question, in the face of adversity, what causes some people to prevail while others fail? While there could be countless answers to this question for any given scenario, it ultimately comes down to one's attitude and fortitude. An example where the proper attitude and fortitude led to success, in the face of adversity, is in Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men. These traits are mainly possessed by juror eight. The situation he faces, is that he must convince eleven other men of a young boys innocence, all of which believe that the boy is guilty of killing his father. In the beginning of the story, as soon as all of the jurors got settled, they took a vote on whether the boy was guilty or not. The result was eleven to one in favor of guilty. Juror eight was the only voter on the side of not guilty, for which he was ridiculed, causing him to say, “There were eleven votes for ‘guilty.’ It’s not easy for me to to raise my hand and send a boy off to die

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