book

Documentary - Kevin's Sentence

21 Pages 1058 Words 1557 Views

Assignment Analyze how a text you have studied has been successful in making you think differently about an issue. Response In Bob Carty’s oral documentary Kevin’s Sentence, we follow the true story a youth, Kevin Holinski, who after one night drinking, drives home killing his two best friends. We follow his journey through the legal system. Carty structures the text through his dexterous use of editing, live recording and character development to achieve self-conflict in the listener. He challenges the listeners and society’s view of the impact of punitive versus restorative justice. Carty’s use of live recordings features Kevin speaking at high schools challenges the listener’s conscious and belief in punitive justice. Through the live recordings we are able to hear the deep regret and emotion in Kevin’s voice. We hear his voice choking up and the failure to his vocabulary to justify his true regret. All Kevin can do is state the sad fact that ‘I’m responsible for Joey’s and Andrew’s death, basically I can say, I killed them.’ We just constantly here adults telling us not to do it, but we never are told why – Kevin’s story is that why. Here is a kid of our age ‘no different then most of you’ (Lloyd Graham) admitting a truth that he can never take back, the normality and youthfulness of his voice is able to catch the attention of youth. We are put into the perspective of students watching Kevin’s speech. Carty’s use of a vox pox of a student who listened to the speech edited amongst the live recording summed up the experience perfectly when he stated: “When it’s a kid your age, you actually listen to them.” Society tends to believe that punitive justice is the answer to prevent crime, we believe in a jail sentence as that is the easier option as we never have to meet the people who we incarcerate, we can just forget about them. Carty uses live recordings to hear the raw emotion that would be

Read Full Essay