12 Angry Men Juror 8 A Hero

Who in the “Twelve Angry Men,” is the hero? While some may think deeper to show that other jurors are the hero, but the real hero is, in fact, Juror eight. Not only was eight the voice of reason in the group, he is the one that got all the other jurors to get past their prejudice and really look at the facts of the case. Juror eight was the one from the start that stood up for his beliefs even in a room where all eleven other men were against you. So, Juror eight is the hero of this story because he got the others to really look at the evidence and testimonies, stood up against the others for his beliefs, and got the others to get past their prejudices to make the vote purely on the facts.

The first reason that Juror eight is a hero is

because he made everyone really look into the facts and not just take everything at face value. While the others were just believing two testimonies and not questioning them, eight really looked into the testimonies. The first testimony that he questioned was the store owner’s, who was the one to sell the boy a switch blade and said that the blade was one of a kind. Juror eight questioned that and while walking around thinking about the blade, he walked into a corner store and bought the exact same knife as the murder weapon and the same as the store owner said he sold the boy.

The second testimony that he questioned was the old man’s. Juror eight did not believe that the old man could have gotten across the room fast enough to see the boy running down the stairs.

So he told his thoughts to the other jurors and together they tested on where or not the old man could have crossed the room in the time that he said it would. When they tested it, they proved that he couldn’t have made it across the room in the amount of time that he said he had. When Juror eight brought both of these points and really showed the facts to the others, he slowly got others to see that maybe the boy isn’t guilty, based on the evidence and testimonies that they have. This makes Juror 8 a hero because if it wasn’t for him questioning everything, he wouldn’t have gotten the others to start voting not guilty, which would mean that the boy would have been convicted for killing his father.

The second reason that eight is the hero in the story is because he stood up against the others for his beliefs.

In beginning when the jurors were taking their first vote, he stood against them, by himself, for his belief that the boy was not guilty based on the evidence that the jurors have been given. He even stood up against the others when it seemed that the other jurors had made up their minds about the boy. This is very different from what Juror three did at the end of the play because at the end of the play Juror three saw that he was the only one that still thought that the boy was guilty. After three saw this he backed down and went with everyone else. This makes Juror eight the hero because heroes need to stand up for what they believe in if they think that they are in the right. Also if eight would have not stood up for what he had believed in, then the boy would have gone to prison with evidence that didn’t prove he killed his father. The example of what three did at the end is used to show what someone who is not a hero would have done. Someone who is not a hero would not have stood up for what they believe in, they would have just gone with what everyone else was

doing.

The last reason why Juror eight is the hero of the story is because he got the other jurors to look past the prejudices that they may have and just look at the pure facts. This is mainly seen with juror ten. For most of the play, juror ten is very bigoted and is seen to strongly opinionated. However, after eight starts everyone really looking at the facts of the case, he starts to believe that based on the evidence at hand, the boy couldn’t have kile his father. He even leaves juror three at the end on the side of guilty to go over the side of not guilty. This makes him a hero because if juror ten had stayed on the side of guilty with juror three, then three would have stood up against the others to make a hung jury.
In conclusion, juror eight was the hero of the story. He got the others to really look at the evidence, he stood up against the others for his beliefs and he got the jurors to look past their prejudices and just look at the facts of the case. These were all things that made him a hero. These made hi a hero because if it wasn’t for juror number eight doing all these things, then the boy would have gone to prison for killing his dad and could have got the death penalty when the evidence didn’t prove that he 100 percent killed his father.