Taylor Schwarz
Stout
Comm 101
10/13/13

12 Angry Men

There are many variables that affect communication with the everyday world. Watching 12 Angry Men is one movie where there are many examples as to why certain things affect the way we communicate with other people. Communication is part of everyday life, whether it is verbal or non-verbal. Sometimes we need to think before we speak and realize how things we say can come across in a negative way, even if we didn’t mean it the way it sounded. In the movie 12 Angry Men, they were jurors who had to decide on the fate of a young man. They either convict him and he gets the chair or they can find him innocent. Twelve different men, who were completely different from each other had to come to a unanimous decision. The first vote was 11 to 1 guilty. These men had to communicate on why they felt the way they did. This is when certain variables affected the way they communicated with each other. When trying to come to a decision, you see that past experience influenced their decision at first. Juror 3 had problems with his son and hasn’t communicated with him for two years. He was loud and vocal on saying that the kid was guilty from the very start. He was portraying what was going on with his own child onto the person who was up for murder. He didn’t want to find the logic with why he wasn’t guilty. Juror 3 was so mad at his life that he wanted an innocent person to pay for no reason. Past experiences can affect the way you communicate. For example, if you had a bad experience at a restaurant one time you may not want to go back, but if you do, you can put your bad experience on a person who doesn’t deserve it. I remember when I had a bad experience at the grocery store. I still went back and tried to keep an open mind that it wouldn’t happen again. I ended up being stuck in a line that wasn’t moving and it wasn’t the cashiers fault. I took my frustration out on the cashier even though I knew it wasn’t her fault. I think the computer went down. Sometimes it’s hard to separate your past experiences from what is happening right then. You can only realize what you have done wrong and change it. That cashier didn’t need my attitude when it was obvious she was already having a bad day and it didn’t affect her mood. In the movie, the weather was hot and sticky. It was supposed to rain later that day so it was humid out. The jurors were in this room with three windows but the fan wasn’t working. These men were sweating. Their shirts were soaked and they were constantly wiping their brows. This made them more agitated and they yelled a lot. Many of the jurors mentioned on how hot it was. It seems they can’t sit still and they are always disagreeing about things, even if it doesn’t have to do with the case at hand. They were miserable and that affected the way they talked and dealt with each other. Weather and temperature is a big variable when communicating with other people. If it’s hot and sticky out you’re not going to want to stand in the heat and have a chat with someone. It’s hard to concentrate on a simple task when the weather is like that. It’s the same way if it’s freezing cold and snowy, or down pouring. I remember being in math class in high school and it was like 95 degrees outside and the air conditioning was broken. It was so miserable. I couldn’t pay attention to what