When his younger brother Jerry is not allowed to visit Steve because he is a child and the prison is a dangerous place, Steve realizes that if he himself were a visitor, rather than an inmate, he would not be allowed in the prison, either. Although Steve is only 16, he is placed in a prison for adults. The prison system in Monster is also depicted as dehumanizing, refusing to acknowledge that inmates are also complex and emotion-driven human beings. Racism makes it more likely that the jury will view black defendants not as complex, individual human beings, but merely as stereotypes. Furthermore, Steve’s defense attorney Kathy O’Brien warns him that, since he is a black teenage boy, half of the jury will believe he is guilty as soon as they see him, suggesting that on top of Petrocelli’s dehumanizing remarks, the jurors’ racial prejudice also dehumanizes Steve and other people in his position. Petrocelli dehumanizes Steve in order to accomplish her goal as a prosecutor, which suggests that prosecutors do not view their defendants as human beings, but simply as targets to take down. Petrocelli wants Steve and James King (another man charged in relation to the crime) to be convicted of felony murder, and by labeling them all as irredeemable, inhuman monsters, she hopes to immediately sway the jury towards seeking as harsh a punishment as possible. However, in her opening remarks, state prosecutor Sandra Petrocelli labels anyone tangentially related to the murder, including Steve, as a monster who does not value other people’s right to live. Sawicki’s character witness establish that Steve is a sensitive and dynamic human being. Steve’s own artistic interpretation of events and Mr. Sawicki, testifies that Steve’s films are optimistic and honest, highlighting the best aspects of his violent neighborhood. He depicts all of the courtroom scenes and much of his time in prison through a screenplay he is writing, and Steve’s film teacher, Mr. Though only 16, Steve is a filmmaker at heart.
#MONSTER WALTER DEAN MYERS THEME FULL#
By depicting the legal system’s dehumanization of Steve and the way that this causes him to also dehumanize himself, Monster suggests that both the court and the prison system do not treat people accused of crimes as full human beings, but rather as moral degenerates who deserve to be deprived of all rights and humanity.Īlthough Steve is a sensitive and creative individual, the state prosecutor sees him as a monster and a criminal rather than a human being. In a similar fashion, Steve finds during his weeks in prison that he is still not recognized as a person unto himself, but instead seen as merely an inmate. Even though Steve’s alleged role in the murder is minimal, the prosecutor sees Steve only as a “ monster,” completely disregarding the rest of his life and identity. Nesbitt, the result of a botched robbery. Steve is accused of being an accomplice to the murder of an immigrant shopkeeper named Mr.
#MONSTER WALTER DEAN MYERS THEME TRIAL#
Monster depicts the murder trial of Steve Harmon, a 16-year-old black kid from Harlem.
0 kommentar(er)
