Media Analysis

Media Analysis

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Media Analysis

Racism has been poisoning our society for centuries. For years this social evil has ruined the lives of many. It has shattered dreams, broken hearts, wounded souls, and backed off many beautiful people of this world. Even in this modern and liberated world bitterness of this social injustice haunts the lives of millions. Media has played a very significant part regarding racism. This paper is the media analysis of movie A Time to Kill. I will discuss all 4 frames of colorblindness (abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism, minimization of racism) that whites use to decipher for the existence of racism in this movie and analyze them.

This movie is based on John Grisham’s novel. The plot of this movie proves that the life of a human is undoubtedly priceless. But those who are monsters in the body of humans have any right to be called a person? On this argument, the entire plot of the movie circles and viewers get an idea about the characters of this movie. This intellectual movie fuses two major plot problems, lines, or issues of the entire human race- racism, and violence. These major plot lines of the movie teach its viewers to be more responsible and honest for deeds. This movie forces viewers to think about conscience, court, law, subjectivity, honor, morality, and a lot of other concepts that are significant in this contemporary society.

A black little girl Tonya is raped and beaten by two drunk white men who left her to die. Miraculously, the girl survives after getting medical assistance. But doctors report to her family that she has lost her ability to bear children in her life. In the movie, this sudden tragedy is painful, agonizing and unbearable for the family, especially for the father of Tonya. He loves and cares for his daughter infinitely and he could not bear it that his girl has experienced such a horrible incident in her life.

This movie makes its viewer think from a complex angle, and they find it hard to decide whether a person has committed a bad deed or a good deed. It gets hard to decide who is the villain and who is a hero, a rapist in this movie wanted to kill a little girl and the father of the victim, who committed justice’s real act to take revenge. The father, Carl Lee Hailey’s act did not only portray that he committed the sin of murder. His soul was wounded and he was in extreme pain for the act of brutality of two white men. In one scene, he says, “Yes they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!” His love for his daughter boiled up and he killed both of those men. It proves that above everything, Carl was a caring father who wanted the criminals to feel as much pain as his daughter felt. More importantly, the movie showed that it gets extremely hard to count on justice if a person has skin in darker shade and lives in the south (Naiman, 2016). Viewers of this movie recognize that acquittal is a dream when one is strained for killing. Furthermore, it does not even matter that you simply avenged something inhumane that happened to your child.

This movie portrays the struggles of black. It raises questions that if the law speaks of equality for all races then why do dark-skinned people are backed off, lowered and mistreated if they seek same rights and justice that the white community enjoys. It is the global issue that people with darker skin suffer more (Catanese, 2011). The population of blacks tries for sure to get equal and same rights like white people, but the ugliness of racial conflict declares a real war between these two races. This movie used the issue of racial discrimination to portray that human race inequality is growing and increasing every single day and that it extinguishes all of the character’s positive traits.

Furthermore, the movie highlights the irony that how normal and casual it is for a group of people in our society to think racial discrimination is just the way how things should be. It is shown that even though the world is liberating, people still admit it as a fact that blacks are meant to be mistreated. People forget that all the concept of racial segregation are made by themselves and they do not naturally exist. It seems like equality or justice is a fantasy in this world and it is impossible to achieve. However, if people break such ugly notions and stand up for what is right, justice can be prevailed. This bravery is shown in the movie, the main character, Jake Tyler Brigance stands up against racial discrimination. He finds no shame to stand as a black man's lawyer because he thinks and aims that justice is necessary to exist in this world. The character of Brigance represents that there is still a light of goodness in this world, which can beat the darkness and stand strong in front of evil. He defended the case of black family and spoke up against the inhumane crime white men had committed. He described their brutality as:” Now they climb on. First one, then the other, raping her, shattering everything innocent and pure with a vicious thrust in a fog of drunken breath and sweat. And when they're done, after they've killed her tiny womb, murdered any chance for her to have children, to have a life beyond her own, they decide to use her for target practice.” In this powerful scene, he questions everyone in the courtroom to imagine the brutality, inhumanness that little girl faced. He made them feel the pain of broken bones, wounds and traumatic emotions of Taylor. He successfully gives a message of shameful bitterness of racial discrimination by powerfully arguing: “Can you see her? Her raped, beaten, broken body soaked in their urine, soaked in their semen, soaked in her blood, left to die. Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she's white!”

The story of a little girl shakes the soul of every human heart, and Carl Lee Hailey was a loving and caring father whose little girl meant everything to him. Therefore, Brigance defends Carl Lee Hailey by explaining his feelings and from what he’s been through after the incident. Brigance’s smart closing arguments convinced the judges that Carl Lee Hailey was not in his senses. In the end, because of the reason of insanity, Hailey was not found guilty. Brigance succeeded in what he believed in because he did his work without involving any racial discussion. He detected that all the members of the jury were white, so he made arguments in which race wasn't the issue. He made it clear that it does not matter who is white and who is black, the only thing that matters is humanity. It only takes a heart to feel the pain of a little girl, her father, and her family. She and her family are as human as other whites are (Phillipps, 2012). “A Time to Kill” gives a message to its viewers that in living their lives and in leading state, people must look beyond color, creed, and race for equality and justice in the purest form, else there is no future of this world.

References

Catanese, B. W. (2011). The Problem of the Color [blind]: Racial Transgression and the Politics of Black Performance. University of Michigan Press.Phillipps, N. (2012). An American Mess: How Colorblind Racism Prevents an Enlightened Conversation on Race in Television Media.

Naiman, G. (2016). Plugging Into Movement Work: White Racial Justice Action in the Era of Colorblind Racism.