1. After pages 3-4
"This isn't a movie about bars and locked doors. It is about being alone when you are not really alone and about being scared all the time." (Pages 3-4)
I can relate to Steve In this situation. About a year ago I was at a friends house and it got raided. When the police came in everybody took off running. My friend and I were still sitting on the couch. The next thing we know we are in handcuffs along with his dad and nine other people. We all went in a huge van. My friend and I were very scared but in the end they let me go to my parents and him go to his mom.
2. On page 19
"I didn't say it was bad, but wasn't it predictable? You need to predict without predicting. You know what I mean? When you make a film, you leave an impression on the viewers who serve as a kind of jury for your film. If you make your film predictable, they'll make up their minds about it long before it's over."
I think that he is talking about that when you think you got if figured out they change it on you. I think this because in life and in movies when you get it down things seem to change. It happens all the time to people.
3. On page 21
"Most people in our communities are decent, hardworking citizens who pursue their own interests legally and without infringing on the rights of others. But there are also monsters in our communities--people who are willing to steal and to kill, people who disregard the rights of others."
I think for the most part this statement is true. Most people are hard working citizens who do most things within the law. But other people do kill and steal and disregard the laws. But I think there is a reason for people who kill and steal. Sometimes the person or persons are crazy. Other times the people might be in need of money. I am not saying that it is right to go out and pull a job like that or anything. But that is society and people need to realize that.
4. on page 26
"...the laws also protect the accused, and that is the wonder and beauty of the American system of justice. ...We apply the law equally to both sides. The law that protects society all of society.
I think in some ways this statement is fake. I think this because you see some people only doing 30 years for murder and others doing 107 years or something crazy. I also think that the law is on the side of the police because they can be in a hand to hand fight and just blast the suspect away. But on the other hand they do have good laws to put people away for things like rape. Ya dig.
5. On page 46
"I hate this place. I hate this place. I can't write it enough times to make it look the way I feel. I hate, hate, hate this place!!
I have never hated a place as much as Steve is saying. So really I don't know what he means.
6.on page 59
"It's funny, but when I'm sitting in the courtroom, I don't feel like I'm involved in the case. It's like the lawyers and the judge and everybody are doing a job that involves me, but I don't have a role. It's only when I go back to the cells that I know I'm involved."
I have never felt like Steve is saying. I really have always felt involved in something that has involved me. Maybe that is because I have never been innocent or have had a charge like felony murder or something crazy.
7. On page 78-79
"Half of those jurors, no matter what they said when we questioned them when we picked the jury, believed you were guilty the moment they laid eyes on you. You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?"
I think that a lot of people go by the first impression. Like the first time they see you they instantly make up there mind. Most of the time they look at the way you are dressed or the you talk. SO if you talk with an southern accent they think you are an idiot in the north.
8. On page 89
" 'All they can do is put me in jail,' he said. 'They can't touch my soul.' "
I know what this character means when he says they can't touch my soul. No matter what someone does they cannot touch your soul. You will always be the same person.
9. On page 91
"I think about myself so much, about what's going to happen to me and all, that I don't think about my folks that much. I know Mama loves me, but I wonder what she's thinking."
I know what Steve is saying here. The last time I was in a house that got raided I was thinking about what was going to happen to me I really wasn't thinking about anybody else. That could be because I was so scared I would never see the light of day because the cops were pointing guns a me.
10. On pages 115-116
"Seeing my dad cry like that was just so terrible. What was going on between us, me being his son and him being my dad, is pushed down and something else is moving up in its place. It's like a man looking down to see his son and seeing a monster instead."
I have never thought that my dad or step dad had looked down on me and seen a monster. I believe that they have always seen me for who I am and not the things I have done in the past. I believe this because they have done some things in the past and hated it when people looked down on them in anyway.
11. On page 140
"What did I do? I walked into a drugstore to look for some mints, and then I walked out. What was wrong with that? I didn't kill Mr. Nesbitt. . . Sunset said he committed the crime, Isn't that what being guilty is all about? You actually do something?"
I think what Steve is saying here makes a lot of sense all he did was walk in the drugstore and then he walked out he didn't even talk to Sunset about what he saw in the store. Sunset is the one who killed Mr. Nesbit so he should be the one on trial.
12. On page 237
" His film footage shows me what he's seeing and, to a large extent, what he's thinking. And what he sees, the humanity of it, speaks of a very deep character...
It is my belief that to make an honest film, one has to be an honest person."
If you want to do anything the right way you must be an honest person. The other way to do things could get you in even more trouble.
13. on page 261
"They are all equally guilty. The one who grabbed the cigarettes, the one who wrestled for the gun, the one who checked the place to see if the coast was clear."
I do not think that all of the people are equally guilty because all the look out did was go in the dtore and walk out he didn't even talk to Bobo. I think that the only one who is guilty for felony murder is the person who killed the store owner. The others should be tried for a lesser charge and the look out should be let off because he really didn't do anything in my eyes.