Stevenson also used ethos in his writing to appeal to his reader’s view. The author uses ethos to build his credibility with his audiences and show them that he is trustworthy, respectful, and authorized to talk about this subject. A great example of this is when the Stevenson gives his background story and reveals why he became a lawyer. Stevenson discloses that “[d]eveloping the skills to quantify and deconstruct the discrimination and inequality I saw became urgent and meaningful” (13). This explains that the author was motivated to learn about the discrimination and inequality that is going in the American court systems. Stevenson being a lawyer already give him the right to talk about this issue. Furthermore, Stevenson reveals, “I’ve represented …show more content…
court system, and wrongful incarceration and extreme punishment are only adding onto this already out of hand problem. Much of this has to blame on how we treat people based on their current economic status. After years of work Stevenson concludes, “Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true commitment to justice.. fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich... The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned” (Stevenson 18). Nowadays, a very wealthy person who can afford a top-notch lawyer can get with away with never seeing inside walls of the prison while the poor who committed the same crime can end up living his entire life inside the prison walls. Stevenson wants his fellow lawyer, his intended audiences, to help the poor get the same treatment as a multi-millionaire would get in the court system. Stevenson also addresses other intended audiences which are the U.S. taxpayers by telling them how their money comes into the play regarding this problem. Stevenson informs the taxpayers that we spend $80 billion today from $6.9 billion in 1980 and with private prison builder demanding more people to be in prison, harsher punishment, and created now crime so they can make a more profit. The government is forced to spend more money on incarcerated people instead of improving public services, education, health, and welfare (Stevenson
In the book, Stevenson talks about the moment he realized that his life and the work he does, was full of brokenness. IT occurred after he talked with Jimmy Dill, right before Dill was to be executed. Despite the fact that he had intellectual disabilities, and could not afford a decent lawyer, Jimmy Dill was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die. After fighting to get stay requests, the requests were ultimately denied and Dill was executed. After being denied and talking to Dill, it was then that Stevenson realized how broken the criminal justice system was. In the book he recognizes that “his clients were broken by mental illness, poverty, and racism.” (Stevenson 288) At that moment, he wanted to given up.
He believes that a society is evaluated by how they treat the poor, the people truly in need of help. He believes that many places in the world treat those in need very unfairly. “The opposite of poverty is not wealth… in too many places, the opposite of poverty, is justice.” Stevenson only makes this a very brief point, he again does not elaborate very much. This is one of the many times he has bounced around from topic to topic, making several points with more room for interpretation rather than
Stevenson uses a combination of: horror, supernatural, moral messages, and mysteries. The use of horror captures us because it’s normally shocking and frightening to think about. When you combine that with mystery you get an effect that makes you feel edgy and nervous to read on but you want to read on because if you don’t you’ll never get the answers to your questions. His uses of moral messages is effective in keeping the reader’s interest because it will make the reader question and doubt themselves on things because they might feel more like Hyde than they would like to.
Stevenson wants the reader to feel enraged on behalf of the people about whom he wrote. Using that anger, he wants the readers to be motivated to change the outcome so similar bad situations are less likely to happen again. For example, Stevenson writes about Charlie, a 14-year-old boy who was sentenced as an adult and taken to the adult county jail (120). There, Charlie was sexually abused and raped by multiple people in three days (123, 124). Stevenson tells this story knowing that people will get angry on behalf of Charlie. Since Charlie was a child people become more upset because in society children are precious and should not have their innocence taken from them. Stevenson wants the anger to motivate people to make changes to the system so there will be no more
Stevenson effectively uses logos to show this. Stevenson tells readers about a man Horace Dunkins. Horace Dunkins was a man that had intellectual disabilities. He was sentenced on death row. This was very cruel because this man had disabilities since he was young. He basically had a mind of a child. Stevenson said “Mr. Dunkins suffered from intellectual disabilities, and the trial judge found he had “mental retardation” based on his school records and earlier testing” (169). Knowing that he was mentally ill they still decided to put him on death row. The way Horace died was very cruel. “The officials plugged the electrodes into the chair incorrectly, so only a partial electrical charge was delivered…” (170). Because of that they kept electrocuting him until he was dead. This was very cruel because this man did not deserve that at all. But, he wasn’t the only mentally ill person that was treated
In conclusion, Stevenson expressed his thoughts on the attributes of loyalty, how friendship contributes to loyalty, and how his own life affected his writing on loyalty extremely well. His writing techniques were very creative, he truly has a skill for setting a deeper meaning.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for a number of reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. The ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system is caused by mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism.
Stevenson discusses his journey as an attorney for the condemned on death row. He speaks of
Bryan Stevenson grew up poor on the Del-Marva peninsula, a grandchild of Virginia slaves. He is a public interest lawyer, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery Alabama. He has dedicated his life to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the unjustly condemned (Stevenson, 2012). He writes this book to allow the reader to get close to, “mass incarceration and extreme
Young, white, upper-class males who engage in crime are significantly less likely to serve jail time or even be arrested, than their black male counterpart. That being said, lower class white males are more likely to be arrested than their upper-class white counterpart. Is money truly the root of all evil? NO, it’s not. It is however what drives both sides of the criminal justice system. Of course, those with a higher SES or less likely to be arrested in general but there is more to it. In class, we discussed the issues of privatized jail and the revenue they make only when filled to capacity. The “If you build it, they will come!” mentality is fully functioning in the prison part of the criminal justice system. Many police forces are set up with numbers in mind, and in order to be successful a certain amount of arrest must be made. The War on Drugs spurred this ideology as the higher amount of arrest led citizens to think that crime was being lowered. Additionally, those with high-class status can afford to be represented properly in the criminal justice system and do not have to fear the extra fines placed on prisoners or even those just convicted of crimes. VICE – Fixing The System showcased stories of returning citizens who faced the stigmas of jail, the fines of the court, and were lead back into a life of crime just to make ends meet. This vicious cycle leads back into the criminal justice system with these returning citizens being rearrested or by violation of parole/payment, due to financial
Mass incarceration has caused the prison’s populations to increase dramatically. The reason for this increase in population is because of the sentencing policies that put a lot of men and women in prison for an unjust amount of time. The prison population has be caused by periods of high crime rates, by the medias assembly line approach to the production of news stories that bend the truth of the crimes, and by political figures preying on citizens fear. For example, this fear can be seen in “Richard Nixon’s famous campaign call for “law and order” spoke to those fears, hostilities, and racist underpinnings” (Mauer pg. 52). This causes law enforcement to focus on crimes that involve violent crimes/offenders. Such as, gang members, drive by shootings, drug dealers, and serial killers. Instead of our law agencies focusing their attention on the fundamental causes of crime. Such as, why these crimes are committed, the family, and preventive services. These agencies choose to fight crime by establishing a “War On Drugs” and with “Get Tough” sentencing policies. These policies include “three strikes laws, mandatory minimum sentences, and juvenile waives laws which allows kids to be trialed as adults.
To begin with, Stevenson shows duality of human nature through society. During the Victorian era, there were two classes, trashy and wealthy. Dr. Jekyll comes from a wealthy family, so he is expected to be a proper gentleman. He wants to be taken seriously as a scientist, but also indulge in his darker passions.“...I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality/ of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in/ the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said/ to be either, it was only because I was radically both..."(125).
Thus in conclusion, the concept that texts are a reflection of their context is applicable in Robert Stevenson’s novella: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. This is due to the values of the nineteenth century Victorian England such as technological advances, reputation and masculinity being reflected through the main characters of the text through Stevenson’s use of literary devices support.
..., and also used subtle contrasts between characters and places to create in depth detail and to portray the popular secrecy that bound the Victorian era. His feelings and thoughts are cleverly wound into his writing. The morals of the story, it is thought that he wrote the books as an allegory, however discreet are very important. Stevenson believed that gentlemen were hypocrites with outward respectability and inward lust and greed, and in this novel there are several occasions where hypocrisy is brought into the lime light.
... or desires and inner struggle to make this happen. His duality is ever present in this scene. With all of this, it is safe to say that many texts in the literature world support what Stevenson has to say and that duality exists in everyone and is unable to avoid.