Overall Organization and Structure
Greetings, Word Nerds!
If you've read a third or more of the book, you are aware that although Stevenson's primary thread is the story of Walter McMillian, he does not stay exclusively focused on that story. What are you noticing about how Stevenson has chosen to structure his book? Why do you suppose he has chosen this shape? How is Walter's story related to the many other stories Stevenson tells?
Do any of the non-Walter stories stand out particularly strongly for you? If so, explain which one(s) and why they struck you so hard.
The chapter outline grid I shared with you will be a helpful resource in answering this question, but you can do a fine job without it simply by reviewing the content (and hopefully your annotations) on each chapter.
If you've read a third or more of the book, you are aware that although Stevenson's primary thread is the story of Walter McMillian, he does not stay exclusively focused on that story. What are you noticing about how Stevenson has chosen to structure his book? Why do you suppose he has chosen this shape? How is Walter's story related to the many other stories Stevenson tells?
Do any of the non-Walter stories stand out particularly strongly for you? If so, explain which one(s) and why they struck you so hard.
The chapter outline grid I shared with you will be a helpful resource in answering this question, but you can do a fine job without it simply by reviewing the content (and hopefully your annotations) on each chapter.
Stevenson had chosen to range a variety of stories to offer some fresh, new reading and to see a diversity of somewhat similar cases throughout the autobiography. By providing more cases into the book, he tells the common, overall conflict in many forms; a reoccurring pattern of sorts shared in all of the accused victims. One of the stories that personally struck me was the story of the young fourteen year old accused of murdering his abusive step father. The coldness of his accusation shoved into adult court and how blatantly young he was to be dealing with such horrific situations were all factors that
ReplyDeletemade me drop-jaw in disbelief. How corrupt the court system can be, and how life or people in general can be as well!
*Story on Charlie is the one discussed.
DeletePreston
ReplyDeleteBryan Stevenson decided to write his autobiography as a collection of multiple cases along with the main story line following Walter McMillian. All of these stories are related to one another due to the unfair and cruelness of the court system. I believe he decided to write his novel like this to bring in more than just one example of the main point in his story. By branching off into different thread lines of other people's stories he can not only bring out the truth in the court system, but also relate their stories to Walter's. In each case that was explored in Just Mercy, examples of the unfair court system and it's sending of "convicted" to people to death row is prevalent. One of the stories that stood out to me was the one of Trina Garnett. All she had wanted to do was use a match to find her way around her house and was therefore convicted as an adult (at 14!!!!). She was already abused before heading to prison but prison abused her to the limits. The physical abuse she endured there is heartbreaking and tragic that no one should have to experience, but the court doesn't seem to care. All they do is punish and punish without even blinking and thinking of their consequences when wrongly convicting someone.
Overall Organization and Structure:
ReplyDeleteLucy Tarpley
I completely agree with both commenters before me, Stevenson wrote this bestseller with Walter McMillian as the main headliner while providing stories of other EJI cases every other chapter. I believe that by doing this over and over again he proves the overall commonality of an unfair court system and racial injustice. By weaving all of the stories together he brings out the truth but also relates them directly to Walter's experience.
Personally, Charlie’s story really hit me hard. Although other’s stories were worse and didn’t have as lucky of an outcome, this one gave me the most trouble. His time in jail for adults when he was only fourteen was probably the worst part. When he broke down in front of Stevenson, telling him he had been raped and beaten. Just imagine what that would be like. We can’t because we will never be in that situation. But the happiness I felt hearing about his fortune in having Mr. and Mrs. Jennings as an almost adopted family was real. This book no matter the story pulled me in, I felt every emotion and became a part of every person’s story.
ReplyDeleteStevenson is continually changing between the story of Walter McMillian and other death row prisoners throughout the book. I believe he set up this kind of structure to allow the reader to have a break for the Walter Mcmillian case, while still being engaged by learning about other death row prisoner stories. Once I realized this pattern in the book I was quite excited for the next new prisoner story, and whether or not he was going to end up off death row. I was always kept on my toes. Walter’s story was related to most cases by racial bias and wrongfully accused victims, often with very complicated back stories.
One non-Walter story that stood out to me the most was the case of Charlie. This story entirely broke my heart. He was just a (14-year-old boy) who was trying to save his mom. He was being condemned to death row for killing his mom's abusive boyfriend after his mom was attacked, and almost killed by this man. It was absolutely horrific. I will never forget this quote “I took a chance to put my arm around him, and he immediately began to shake. His trembling intensified before he finally leaned completely into me and started crying.” No child should ever have to be exposed to the horrors he was, and although he ended up having a good ending that most of these stories were absent of, I will never forget the feeling of helplessness and pure sadness I felt while reading this.
-Brianna Davenport
Throughout the book, the reader can notice that even though Bryan Stevenson’s main thread is Walter McMillian’s story, he intertwines other peoples stories and experiences that have helped him become a better lawyer. I think one of the reasons Stevenson has chosen to do this is because it shows he’s an experienced lawyer which stands to his credibility. People don’t want to hire a lawyer for a case that has to do with someone on death row that’s inexperienced and incompetent. Also, by adding in other prisoners stories, Stevenson is showing he not only cares about one of his past cases, but all of them have been significant to his life. He wants people to be aware of the unfairness and mistreatment towards prisoners, which is why he chooses to share more then one story to support his case.
ReplyDeleteWalter’s story and the other stories Bryan shared all have a few things in common. These commonalities include the mistreatment of prisoners, the corruption of the judicial system, the unfairness of trials, and the effect lies and misunderstanding have on other people. Walter’s story shows all of these points. He was mistreated in prison and when he was being transported from prison to the trial. Corruption was shown in how the trial and questioning was handled. The cops threatened Myers to tell a lie saying that Walter did kill Ronda Morrison. This lie caused Walter to go to jail and be placed on death row. Nobody believed Walter was speaking the truth because he was of a different color and the police didn’t have any other suspects. The way that Walter was imprisoned and treated unfairly reminds me of Antonio’s case.
Antonio was abused when he was younger, got involved with men who faked a kidnapping to get money, and unfortunately was charged with kidnapping and sent to adult prison for life at age 14. Nobody under the age of 16 can be sent to life imprisonment without parole, but since there is no age on kidnapping, they sent him anyway. Walter and Antonio both didn’t get a fair chance. They both had to suffer the consequences they didn’t deserve.
One story in the book that particularly stood out to me was Herbert Richardson's case. Herbert was a veteran who served in Vietnam and was later diagnosed with PTSD. He later became obsessed with a nurse who took care of him at a hospital in NYC. They dated very briefly and she tried to break up with him, but he ended up moving close to her. Herbert thought that if he placed a bomb on her doorstep she would rush back to him for protection, but instead he accidentally killed a 10 year old little girl. Herbert’s lawyer didn’t do a good job of defending his case. Herbert was sentenced to be executed and his one request was that they play the hymn “The Old Rugged Cross” on his way to the electrocution. How someone in his position was not given a fair chance to live and how he kept his faith I’ll never understand.
This story stuck with me because nobody defended his mental state, nobody cared for his well-being, and he still kept his faith in God. The things he experienced in life were tragic, but he kept pushing until the end.
Stevenson's structure of the book was to follow Walter's story while also taking time to branch off into the stories of other people' experiences. All of the stories are closely woven together with their common thread of the unfairness in the justice system. The main and most obvious continuity through the stories of Stevenson is their connection to death row. The story that affected me the most was the Charlie's story. He did not deserve to be put on death row. Charlie was only 14 years old, not even an adult, yet clearly treated like one. It's hard to believe that this boy being put on death row was younger than us. Charlie's story was the most heart wrenching because he was trying to protect his mother. Sure, he was protecting his mother in a rather twisted way, but that was the only way he saw to protect her. After his mother was being repeatedly abused by her boyfriend, he murdered him. Charlie even confused to the crime. I only wish that this crime had taken place in the present, because maybe he wouldn't have put on death row in the first place and maybe he would not have had to experience the horrors he did while on death row. This case really broke my heart and stuck out to me the most of all the cases.
ReplyDeleteJulian,
ReplyDeleteI assume that Stevenson chose Walter because his story can easily relate to all the other branches in the book, like Joe. Joe's story stuck out to me the most, because I can relate to it, because the very fact of having a mentally disabled person in prison disgusts me, because of the utter cruelty of the matter is completely disturbing. A family friend, has a son who is mentally disabled and about as old as Joe currently, I imagine him there and it feels completely wrong, because no one who is that innocent, deserves to be in prison. The shape of his story branches and he usually connects the stories some way or the other, like for Joe's he talks about the grey hairs on Joe's head whilst comparing to the next page "Walters decline came quickly" comparing Joe's physical decline to the emotional and mental decline of Walter " the details of his business slipped away from him and managing work became complicated in ways he couldn't understand, which depressed him."