“Nine Ten” by Warren Leight

In reaction to the one act play “Nine Ten” written by Warren Leight. The research I have done and the evidence found in the play proves that this was written about the day before the events of nine eleven in two thousand and one. This play is about jurors complaining of how bad things were when they were called for jury duty and how a couple characters were going to try to get out of jury duty. At the end, a Court Officer won’t listen to their excuses and makes a statement ending the play. What my reaction to the significance of the statement is that, it was kind of ironic because of what happened the day after, and how the jurors thought that things were bad. The Court Officer said that in two to three days that they could go back to their normal lives not knowing about what was going to happen the next day. I think that it taught the jurors that being called for jury duty isn’t bad and it is a simple way of serving their country. Also in context, it would show the assumption that the jurors would be oblivious to the nine eleven events. And that after that day their lives would be changed forever and they would not be able to go back to their normal lives again.

After reading the Court Officers final statement again, I realized that it was talking about the day before the terrorist attacks on the United States of America. My impression of the jurors before I found out the date is that, the simple task of serving their country was like a burden to them and that they couldn’t bother to do this because it was ruining their day or daily routines. After I found out newly gained information and realized the date, my attitude changed from neutral to being negative towards the actions and thoughts of the jurors. My impression of the jurors changed from their attitudes as being strict and selfish to them being unknowing and uncivilized. The juror’s attitudes changed to being unknowing and uncivilized because each citizen has a duty whether it’s voting, working, etc. and that they must live up to their duty and if they don’t in some cases they can be looked down upon. And citizens don’t know when things are going to happen and how things are going play out, therefore if a tragic event occurs they are daunted with guilt from the act of having their actions and thoughts.

I believe the play should have a major impact on its reader’s even if it is on any event that had happened in history. How it had impacted me and how I think it had impacted many of its other readers is how people take their right to citizenship for granted. And that they don’t realize their freedom can be taking away easily and through, in this case, terrorist attacks or a simple thing like; being persecuted for stealing food. Warren Leight’s purpose I believe for creating this one act play is to highlight the issue of being a citizen and the duties that follow being a citizen; including the citizen’s beliefs and how they are against certain duties of being a citizen. The message that was created in this one play by Warren Leight that I had gotten is we as citizens shouldn’t complain about doing a simple thing because in the long run something tragic could happen to bring on guilt. Another message I got is things can get a lot worse than they already are.