The first truth is that there will always be people that don’t play by the rules and are always wanting an edge by any means. This is shown in the way Fitch conducts his business. The second truth about human nature is that people will always want revenge if they feel that they have been wronged. We see this in the way Marlee gets back at the tobacco companies because some of her family was killed by smoking. The last truth is that justice will come. We see this when Fitch gets played by Marlee after Fitch has done so many shady things.

The Runaway Jury by John Grisham is basically about a case in which Mrs. Wood, whose spouse died of lung cancer, sues the tobacco industry. Something is different about this case however. The tobacco industries have already been sued eight or nine times already and the lawyers for the plaintiffs had started getting better arguments while the speculators on Wall Street were starting to get weary of the situation. The case goes on and on and the jury eventually uses all of its three alternates. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, both the defendant’s and the plaintiff’s lawyers are cutting deals and playing games to manipulate the jurors. The most notable of which is the ten million dollar deal the defense makes with an outside source connected to one of the jurors. At the very end of the trial the jury is persuaded to vote against the defense while at the same time sources for the defense find out that part of the person’s family that they cut the deal with had died due to lung cancer. Also at the same time, the person uses the ten million in the stock market to make a profit and then gives the ten million back.

After reading The Runaway Jury I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested. It has unique characters, a deep plot, and a pretty good ending. However, I would not recommend this to someone who wouldn’t possibly be interested because if you don’t have some sort of legal interest then you might find this book a bit boring. The only thing that I would have personally changed if I had written the book is to spend less time on the specifics of the case and the other unimportant parts of the book, but, again, this might be because I only have the slightest interest in the law.

The major change in the characters that I spotted would be the change within the jury itself. Throughout the whole book, the jury is buying Mrs. Wood’s case, accepting that cigarettes are addictive and that they cause lung cancer. However, they also realize that smoking is a choice and that everyone consciously makes the choice knowing the possible outcomes. In short, the jury is pretty much up in the air and no one really knows what is going to happen. However, given our insight into the jury and each of the characters, we notice the jury becoming more one-sided toward punishment for the tobacco industry. Finally at the end of the story, we see the jury become quite decisive and there is really no hope for the tobacco companies. So, in a nutshell, we see the jury shift from a wide spectrum of ideas and opinions to a centering to a final opinion.

The main characters in The Runaway Jury by John Grisham are all unique and deeply thought out. This book is quite unique in a way because it has an abundance of deeper characters. What I mean by this is that we know more about each character than you would most books. Each character has an obvious opinion, personality, and ideology along with a complete background story provided through Fitch and his investigations of most of the characters.

I definitely like Nicholas as a character because he’s not your average bear. He’s extremely intelligent given his college and law school experience along with his cunning social skills, however we don’t know a whole lot more than that. We don’t know much about his childhood, what he’s done in the two or so years preceding the book, and we don’t know where his income or money is really coming from. So I do like Nicholas as a character however he is kind of shady.

I also think Fitch is a pretty comical character. He always tries to be harsh and serious throughout the book while also possessing a quick temper making it quite hysterical when things don’t go his way. He is also easily manipulated and gullible as shown many times throughout the book and especially around the ending, which again leads to more of his fits.

The one thing I don’t like concerning the characters is the lack of information on some of them. Although we know the general information of most characters, we seem to be lacking certain specifics even at the end of the book. Some of the things missing are like the a fore mentioned problems with Nicholas and his recent past and other information of this sort.

The setting in The Runaway Jury by John Grisham is actually pretty recent to the time it was written. We know that the story takes place around the early to mid 1990’s and we know this because the main character, Nicholas, graduated from college in 1993 and the action in the book isn’t too far afterwords. The trial itself takes place in Biloxi, Mississippi where most of the characters participate in the various activities that the city has to offer. Given the fact that the book is relatively modern and takes place in an existing place, this book could definitely happen today. In fact, it may be more probable to happen today because medical research and technological advancements have provided definitive proof that cigarettes and the smoking of any tobacco in general can lead to lung cancer. Lastly, The Runaway Jury is a very realistic book in which very realistic characters and events take place in a extremely realistic circumstance.

In the book The Runaway Jury by John Grisham, the title does a remarkably accurate job of depicting and portraying the events of the book. Most of the time, authors sit down and try and figure out a efficient title to their books. These titles are so important because they serve a few purposes. First, titles are used to attract the readers. In most cases, a book with a catchy or intriguing title lead to higher sells, implying more readers and greater success. The second thing that titles are used for is some kind of insight into the book, whether it be some sort of iconic symbol or a rather ironic phrase when read after reading the book itself. In this instance, Grisham uses the title to depict the events in his book. The book is basically about how the jury becomes so contaminated and hectic that is is unlike any previous one. As the book progresses, the tension within the jury and in the trial itself grows to a point of insanity. Grisham’s title hints toward this state of being out of control. We may also assume that Grisham could be alluding to the commonly heard phrases of a “runaway train,” the phrase ‘runaway’ depicting something that cannot be controlled any longer. I do not, however, believe that the title is used symbolically in any way.

This week in class we learned how to make comparisons of multiple things. I other words, we learned how to say something is better of worse than something else. In order to better understand this concept we used a sight called animoto. In it, we made a slide show consisting of pictures of some things we think are superior to others along with sentences describing these these pictures. I personally enjoyed this activity because it was very simple to do and it helped me to better understand the material through practice.

Photo Credits:

chispita 666, Wordbuilder, Benstein, Jack Cai, Bill.Rhoehl, J. Samuel Burner, Darren Hester, dusterdb88, Lemon s, Warren McLaren

Creative commons is a search engine that is used to find material that is legally available to use. I’m not saying that if you go grab a copyrighted image and use it without consent that the government is going to hunt you down but we should use creative commons because it gives proper credit to the person who did the work to create whatever you are using. It’s playing it safe while at the same time respecting the creators. Give me a reason that you shouldn’t use creative commons besides the bland argument that it takes longer. You’ll have a tough time doing it.

Here are just a few examples of how to use creative commons to find the information you need:

Creative Commons on Flickr ; Creative Commons website