John Grisham's Leading Character example essay topic

John Grisham's Appeal to Contemporary Viewers The success behind the Grisham's novels has come from the author's ability to focus the suspense and drama around the character, rather than the cases the character is involved in. When one looks back into time at the novels and TV shows about law, the authors tended to focus on the cases rather on the drama surrounding the event that took place. In John Grisham's book The Firm, he turns the focus of the audience away from the actual case (s) and instead focuses on the life of the lawyer (Mitch McDeere). This allows Grisham to add drama, suspense and anything else that would help support the plot.

If Grisham decided only to write about the technical aspects of law surrounding a case, then his following of viewers would probably be much smaller then it is today. Matt Zoller Seitz, an author who wrote an essay that reaffirms this point, by claiming that the contemporary viewers are attracted to Grisham's work because of his real life like stories surrounding the main characters, like the lawyer, Mitch McDeere, in The Firm. John Grisham's leading character in this novel is Mitch McDeere, he is the center of the plot. Grisham uses supporting characters such as Mitch's wife, and other partners in the law firm, that brings life to Mitch McDeere. Grisham creates conflict between these characters and Mitch to form the drama of the plot and find a resolution to the problems that results from it. John Grisham uses persuasive "melodramas" that contemporary viewers are compelled by the way they can relate to the plot.

Seitz argues that "Grisham understands how to meld thrills with intelligence and idealism with Page 2 honesty". Grisham makes his characters that any viewer would envy through their lifestyle. In The Firm, John Grisham uses greed, envy, corruption, and murder as a part of his plot to satisfy the hunger that contemporary viewers look for. In the beginning of this novel Mitch McDeere is offered a large salary, high-end car, and a house just to work for the Bending, Lambert & Locke law firm. The viewers are especially drawn to large amounts of money, and expensive material objects. In the novel, John Grisham puts Mitch McDeere in a crossfire between the FBI, the Mob, and the Firm, these groups played a major part in the plot, this is were Grisham uses the "David and Goliath Sagas", (solo man vs. FBI, Mob, and the Firm).

Seitz confirms "Grisham has a disarmingly genuine sympathy for 'little people'". Contemporary viewers demand law based movies / TV shows, for the reason that law controls the way we live our lives, viewers like to see the law bent or broken for results or punishments. They want them to be exciting and suspenseful, something that's going to keep them entertained. The movie A Civil Action is based on a single case and the drama stays within the case that only attracted those viewers interested in law, compared to John Grisham's movies that are based on the character.

The majority of the time the character is an inexperienced lawyer where one can relate with the problems that the character encounters, through experience or viewpoints. Seitz argues "With each book, Grisham's canvas grows in scope, mixing together rich, middle-class, and poor, black and white, men and women, adults and children". Meaning that with each book John Grisham writes it appeals to all of the groups mentioned above (his audience). Page 3 John Grisham is successful because he portrays big time lawyers as being "evil". Which is evident in The Firm, where Mitch McDeere is surrounded with greed and conspiracy. John Grisham uses this drama in some of his other books like The Street Lawyer, The Brethren and The Partner, where greed plays a major role in the plots.

Contemporary viewers can relate to these claims against lawyers in general. This is another reason why John Grisham is a popular writer since he has the same viewpoints as his audience. In The Firm, Mitch McDeere, talking to his brother in prison, and mentions, "that he went to Harvard and you went to jail and were both surrounded by crooks... ". in this phrase Grisham shows that some lawyers are crooks. John Grisham does an excellent job persuading his viewers in the plots with his books. The viewer wants all the riches and power Grisham uses in his novels. This keeps the viewer sucked into the plot, which is about to unravel the consequences for have such fortunes.

Society as a whole dwells on the law, if you chose to obey it or not it's a part of our life. Law affects us all on the way we live, especially in our democracy were everyone has the right that's a part of the electorate to vote for new or revise old laws.