Johnny Friendly On The Waterfront Conflict

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The overcoming of assumptions and dismissing of prejudices can prove to be difficult challenges, but triumph is impossible to achieve without being willing to confront ourselves and others. Johnny Friendly lacks compassion and empathy, creating fear throughout the waterfront community. His inability to feel remorse for those effected by his decisions and actions results in the necessity for conflict. Throughout ‘On the Waterfront’, Johnny Friendly has a rough upbringing and his taste for power does not let his overcome conflict. Because Friendly is a very stubborn and cold hearted man, with control over the unions, he does not want to develop over the course of the text. This is shown when Terry fights against Friendly, when he wont accept change and therefore fails to put aside his pride. While antagonists Johnny Friendly, Juror 10, and Juror 3 both present a very stubborn front when confronted with conflict, unlike Juror 3, neither Friendly or Juror 10 develop or change in ‘On the Waterfront’, and do not, therefore, triumph. …show more content…

Similarly, Juror 7 refuses to engage in the discussion around the boy’s innocence, passively accepting the opinions of those around him and siding with the majority, and is confronted for this by Juror 11, who asks him ‘don’t you have the guts to do what you think is right?’ In ‘Twelve Angry Men’, the Jurors who voted guilty at the beginning of the play, made a quick assumption about the case without putting much thought into it and holding onto past experiences. Juror 3 and 10 hold onto these judgments the longest, and allow their prejudices to keep them from agreeing with Juror 8. This prejudice creates tension in the room, as the other jurors slowly begin to confront their own assumptions and accept the way that their ‘prejudice can obscure the

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