How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
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. (5.2)
Steve is like a floating ghost man, hovering near the ceiling and looking down on the proceedings. Have you ever felt like this? Why?
Quote #2
It's only when I go back to the cells that I know I'm involved. (5.2)
Prison snaps Steve back to reality time and again. Nothing like a series of doors closing behind you to make you face your problems.
Quote #3
STEVE
I thought you you're supposed to be innocent until you're proven guilty?O'BRIEN
That's true, but in reality it depends on how the jury sees the case. (6.81-82)
You can count on O'Brien not to sugar coat anything, and here she is smacking down the harsh reality yet again. If a jury says you're guilty, you're guilty—life just ain't always fair.
Quote #4
When you were first born, I would lie up in bed thinking about scenes of your life. You playing football. You going off to college. I used to think of you going to Morehouse and doing the same things I did when I was there. I never made the football team, but I thought—I dreamed you would. […] I never thought of seeing you in a place like this. It just never came to me that you'd ever be in any kind of trouble… (8.82)
Reality hits Steve's dad with a sledgehammer. Would Steve have made different decisions if his dad had been around more? What's the role of a parent in his/her child's decisions?
Quote #5
The mops were heavy and it was hot and I didn't like doing it. Then I realized that the five guys doing the mopping must have all looked alike and I suddenly felt as if I couldn't breathe. (11.4)
Steve suddenly sees himself as an outside observer might—as a prisoner, a convict, and a bad person. No wonder he feels like choking.
Quote #6
It was me, I thought as I tried not to throw up, that had wanted to be tough like them. (11.6)
Steve used to dream of being a tough guy. Too bad he forgot to think through the reality.
Quote #7
There was a baseball game on but it didn't look real. […] They were playing baseball as if baseball was important and as if all the world wasn't in jail, watching them from a completely different world. (15.6)
We often see from our own lens, without realizing that others see the world with very different eyes. Will Steve's version of reality return to what it was before the slammer, or will he have compassion for other young men like himself?
Quote #8
I looked over the movie again. I need it more and more. The movie is more real in so many ways than the life I am leading. No, that's not true. I just desperately wish this was only a movie. (15.14)
This is kind of like waking up from a bad dream and feeling relieved it's not real. But the opposite. Unfortunately for Steve, his bad dream is also his reality.
Quote #9
Why is he dressed in a prison uniform? […] With him in prison gear, that prejudices my client. (16.74)
No matter what we want to believe, appearances mean something. Even if Bobo's an innocent angel boy, in a prison uniform the jury will see him differently. That's the reality.
Quote #10
Cases are won on closing arguments only on television, not in a real courtroom. (18.69)
Flibbidy jibbets, that's a shame. If only Perry Mason ruled the world.