The Chamber: A Look Into the Novel and Film
Stories about crime prove to be a strong part of America's entertainment in
this day. In The Chamber, John Grisham writes about a Klansman who is convicted
of murder and a grandson who tries to save his grandfather is on death row. This
story is now a major motion picture. This story carries a strong emotional
following to it because it both questions and supports the death penalty in
different ways. Grisham shows this when he writes: " ‘ I've hurt a lot of people,
Adam, and I haven't always stopped to think about it. But when you have a date
with the grim reaper, you think about the damage you've done.' " The messages
about the death penalty are brought about in different ways in the film and in
the novel. Although the novel and film adaptation of The Chamber have some
significant differences, the plot and character perspectives are used to convey
a political message about the death penalty. (378)
The various characters in The Chamber have different traits and
backgrounds that affect their perspectives on certain issues. Sam Cayhall is
one of the main characters in the story whose background is filled with hate
because of his connection with the Klan. "The second member of the team was a
Klansman by the name of Sam Cayhall," "The FBI knew that Cayhall's father had
been a Klansman, . . . " (Grisham 2-3). Sam, who is brought up under the
influence of the Ku Klux Klan, uses "politically incorrect" terms for other
minorities when he talks with Adam Cayhall in death row. " ‘ You Jew boys never
quit, do you?' ", " ‘ How many nigger partners do you have?' " " ‘ Just great.
The Jew bastards have sent a greenhorn to save me. I've known for a long time
that they secretly wanted me dead, now this proves it. I killed some Jews, now
they want to kill me. I was right all along.' " (Grisham 77-78). These
statements reflect Sam Cayhall's intense hate for others which is derived from
his young upbringing in the Ku Klux Klan. Sam's background as a Klansman is told
by Grisham using Sam telling Adam about generations of Klan activity:
" `Why did you become a Klansman?'
`Because my father was in the Klan.'
`Why did he become a Klansman?'
`Because his father was in the Klan.'
`Great. Three gene...
... middle of paper ...
...onster, Ruth Kramer thinks David
McAllister is a hero for demanding justice. These are the two sides of the coin
which is the death penalty in The Chamber. As Grisham writes it, Ruth Kramer's
situation is well described by Lee in this line:
" ‘Bitter? She lost her entire family. She's never remarried. Do
you think she cares if my father intended to kill her children? Of course not.
She just knows they're dead, Adam, dead for twenty-three years now. She knows
they were killed by a bomb planted by my father, and if he'd been home with his
family instead of riding around at night with his idiot buddies, little Josh and
John would not be dead.' " (61).
The Chamber is a story about life and death and how it is treated by
different people. In the film, The Chamber more about relationships. " ‘The film
is about a young man, very alone in the world, connecting with his grandfather
and trying to understand who he is.' " (Greer 4). Despite the differences
between the two, The Chamber proves to show a political message on the
infliction of the death penalty in America.
Between the years of 1954 to 1968, racism was at its peak in the South. This occurred even though the blacks were no longer slaves as of 1865 when slavery was abolished. The blacks were treated very poorly and they were still considered unequal to whites. Hiram, the main character of this novel, is a 9 year old boy who is clueless about racism. He is moved from the South to the North, away from his favorite grandfather. He wishes to go back to Mississippi and to be with his grandfather again. He never understood why his father, Harlan, wouldn't let him go. Hiram, who moved from Mississippi to Arizona, is in for a rude awakening when he is visiting his Grandfather in Greenwood, Mississippi at 16 years old. In the novel Mississippi Trial 1955, there were many complicated relationships among Hiram, Harlan, and Grandpa Hillburn. These relationships were complicated because of racism at
... incident with Sam or his affection with Betty Jo could be used to show that he still cared about the African Americans but was also superior. Many of the White children in Wade had this problem; they felt that they had responsibilities to hold but still knew to care and show respect towards the African Americans.
Sam Woods is a very important character in the novel In the Heat of the Night. He is a racist, and throughout the novel you will notice many changes in his attitude towards Negros.
Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.
He refers to all the immigration groups in a judgmental way. He complains about the intelligence levels of the Italians, how dirty and deceitful the Jews are, and even the immaculate cleanliness of the Chinamen. Although he does possess quite a bit of bigotry that boarders on the line of prejudice when it comes to African Americans he recognizes that they are suffering from racism and he sympathizes with th...
This lead to one of the biggest questions from the movie, how did he become that way? Hirschi’s Control Theory is a theory that states “that social control depends on people anticipating the consequences of their behavior”(Macionis 248). It was shown in the movie that Sam had a complicated relationship with his family, so his past is a big reason as to why he acts so deviant in the future. On of the four types of social control is attachment. Attachment is family, friends and school relationships. Sam was first introduced as one of Benny’s friends “crazy cousin”. It was clear that he did not enjoy having Sam around. This can reveal that Sam has a weak relationship with his family as a whole because he wasn’t even living with his parents. This would lead Sam to acting deviant without worrying about what they would think of him. It was also later revealed that Sam was kicked out of school based on his actions. Sam never had to worry about his family or school once that relationship broke off. Another type of social control is involvement. Involvement can mean many things, but it’s basically about holding a job, going to school, or participating in a sport. The character of Sam, as stated before, was kicked out of school. So, he didn’t have school keeping him away from deviant behaviors. And then there 's the reveal that Sam can’t write or read well. Sam had made an attempt to get a job at a movie store, but he would 've had to do an application, which required him to write. He was shown to be scared and nervous after he attempted at write on the form. Sam had little involvement in anything because he was a poor writer and reader, which lead him to act more deviant. A final reason as to why Sam acted so deviant, was because had little opportunity in life. He was self conscious about that fact that he couldn 't write, so he never made attempts to move up in the world. He
The “Allegory of the Cave” and Fahrenheit 451, both display the difficulty of a prisoner. If the prisoners in the Allegory of the Cave receive the chance for freedom, they will not take it. Instead, the prisoners fear any form of reality that lies beyond their seats, and prefer to stay in the cave. If they do become free, instead of leaving their world, they will, “turn away and run back to the things he could make out, and would take the truth of the matter to be that these things are clearer than what he was being shown.” The prisoners, accustomed to their routine of sitting and staring at a wall, liked watching shadows pass by every day. They would rather stay staring at the wall than undergo enlightenment, one of the scariest experiences
I’m going to talk to you about the death penalty and how it associates with the three branches of government. I will also talk to you about how the death penalty affected people’s lives from the past to present day. The death penalty is the process by which you are sentenced to death for a foul crime the person has committed, whether that crime is murder, espionage, treason, or military justice. Other crimes, like sexual crimes have death penalties for rape, adultery, incest, and sodomy while militaries death penalty crimes are cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny. In some parts around the world, death penalty is called capital punishment because of the many controversy in many parts of the world.
James B. McMillan was about 5 when he saw the Ku Klux Klan horsewhip his mother.
In "The Klan's Fight for Americanism," the Klan's Grand Wizard Hiram Evans believed the only people entitled to American membership are the "pioneers" that founded it, the white Nordic race. He states in his manifesto the general frustration of the Nordic whites being uncomfortable with the integration of other races and the liberal organizations being formed who support them. "To understand the Klan, then, it is necessary to understand the character and present mind of the mass of old-stock Americans." (Doc 4) The new immigrants also brought turmoil to the "old-stock Americans" by practicing Catholicism and not conforming to white Protestant methods of traditional living. One cannot be loyal to the white race if they do not match the traditions of America and conforming to Protestantism, "which has been an essential part of Americanism ever since the days of Roanoke and Plymouth Rock." (Doc 4) This was a radical way of protest, another way they described it was eugenics, or selective breeding.
The Ku Klux Klan, otherwise known as the KKK, was flourishing with its second era in the 1920’s. The KKK was reinvigorated by William J. Simmons, a man who was a frequent joiner of clubs, through the period of the 1920’s, The KKK launched a campaign of political correctness as well as a hidden, dark movement which included lynching, beatings, tarring and feathering, and at some points, even murder of what they believed was the inferiors. Although this status was short lived, it was a dark, mysterious portion of the United States’ history and should never be forgotten.
Another inmate’s story that was told was Dallas Scott, who was one of the organizers of the infamous white-power gang, the Aryan Brotherhood and also Norman Bucklew, a killer, bank robber, escape expert and insecure professional criminal. Earley also chased the stories of the guards of Leavenworth, including Eddie George, Bill Slack and Robert Matthews, the new warden, who is anxious to grow in the system, but is at first greeted with hostility by the guards because of the color of his
Sam Bowers, the imperial wizard of the white knights of the KKK of Mississippi, sent word in May, 1964 to the Klansmen of Lauderdale and Neshoba County that it was time to activate “plan 4” (Linder). Plan 4 provided for “the elimination” of the despised civil rights activists, was at Mount Zion church during a meeting. It was unsuccessful because they couldn’t find who they were exactly looking for. After getting news of the attempt of execution the three civil rights activists left the Mississippi summer project to go to Longdale to learn what they could about the disturbing news of the attempted execution.
Jim Crow was a white actor who had a popular television show mocking African Americans. This is how the “Jim Crow Law” came into existence. This law described primarily how the south in the 1877 to the 1950 use to describe the segregation system. It was a state law passed in the South that established different rules for blacks and whites. Every African American life in the south was effected during the Jim Crow laws. Black textile workers could not work in the same room as whites, nor enter through the same door. They were not allowed to even gaze out of the same window as the white employees. During the times of this law, industries employment were hard to come by for blacks. When they were hired, many of the unions passed rules to exclude them. Some black workers acted as “clowns” for white men. This was done to order to gain favors with the whites, make extra money to move north. But Wright was determined to make a better name for himself after seeing his family belittle themselves. He knew this type of foolishness would never allow him to save enough money to be able to leave. The only thing that gave Wright comfort and peace, came in reading books. He begins a serious effort in self-education in Memphis, and reads enough that he feels he has gained some knowledge of the world beyond the American
During the depression time in 1930 , black were highly persecuted and repressed from society that Black could not mingle with white people in public people as shown in the courthouse which white separated from black. Moreover , there was no such intermarriage between white and black and it was rarely to happen. Scout had a long conversation with Mr.Raymond , a white man who married a white lady. Mr Raymond denoted that he pretended to drink wine while he was drinking coca-cola inorder to let the citizen gave him an excuse for marrying such a black woman. Scout asked her black nanny calpornia to visit her because she missed her , calpornia agreed but it did not done because scout’s aunt Alexandra put a stop to it. Tom robinson who accused of rapping white lady that condemned as a guilty because he was such a black guy and the American judgment gave a false allegation because the offender was a black one .Atticus defended him and tried to prove tom was a victim of satanic thinking of bob ewell’s family but he lost the trial and tom also