Page 153 - Demo

241QUESTIONS Understanding and Interpreting 1. What is Bryan Stevenson%u2019s overall purpose in this argumentative essay? Is there a sentence (or more than one) that you can identify as a thesis? If yes, identify the sentence(s). If you think that the thesis is implicit, formulate it in your own words. 2. Stevenson jumps from his recent personal experience to the historical period following the Civil War (pars. 6%u201311). What is the impact of this choice on the development of his argument? Extending Beyond the Text Following is an excerpt from the opening chapter of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption , attorney Bryan Stevenson%u2019s 2014 memoir about his defense of Walter McMillian, an African American man wrongly convicted of murder. 5 Bryan Stevenson 1. In what ways does the argument Stevenson makes in these three paragraphs support and anticipate the one he makes in %u201cA Presumption of Guilt,%u201d which was published three years later? 2. How does the tone of this earlier work differ from his 2017 essay? from Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson I%u2019ve . . . represented people who have committed terrible crimes but nonetheless struggle to recover and to find redemption. I have discovered, deep in the hearts of many condemned and incarcerated people, the scattered traces of hope and humanity %u2014 seeds of restoration that come to astonishing life when nurtured by very simple interventions. Proximity [to people who are incarcerated] has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we%u2019ve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I%u2019ve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned. We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it%u2019s necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and %u2014 perhaps %u2014 we all need some measure of unmerited grace. Copyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.