Kara Barrepski
Ms. Morrow
English II
19 May 2004
John Grisham is one of America’s
best-selling author, he said one day, “I started thinking that it would be nice
to have a novel sitting on my desk, something I could point to and say, ‘Yeah,
I wrote that’” (Authors 97). Grisham’s
life has influenced his fourteen back-to-back best-sellers (Authors 96). His books have been influenced by his
previous job as a lawyer; his settings, the places he lived or visited; and
there were also many other influences.
Most of Grisham’s books were
influenced by his previous job as a lawyer. Grisham started off being a tax
attorney, but then changed to criminal law.
Soon he grew tired of this field too and switched to civil law. He won a lot of cases in this field but
eventually lost interest in it too (Authors 96). Even though Grisham was no longer a lawyer,
courtroom drama was a main topic in most of his books. Grisham’s first book, A
Time to Kill was influenced by a trial he attended. He witnessed, a girl testifying against a man
that raped her. Grisham couldn’t stop
thinking about this case, and he wanted to know what would happen if the girl’s
father had actually killed his daughter’s rapist (Authors 97).
It took Grisham 3 years to write his first novel. He would get into work very early to write
for an hour or two until work started (Current 222).
Grisham wrote many other books that
were influenced by his law experience. The
Firm was about a man named Mitchell McDeere, a new lawyer fresh out of
Harvard Law School, gets himself into trouble with the curiosity of his new
firm. Since he becomes so curious his
firm and the authorities ask McDeere to work as a spy within his
firm (Authors
98). Another legal thriller called the Pelican
Brief was about an attractive female law student named Darby Shaw. Throughout the book Darby is trying to figure
out a theory as to why people commit crimes.
This eventually got Darby into a lot of trouble with the law firm that
were responsible for all the killings.
Even though she still courageously continues explore her theory, she
finds herself scared for her life from this firm (Authors 99). The Runaway Jury is about a man, who
smoked a lot, for about 30 years, and died.
Then, his wife decided to sue several large tobacco companies. The defending tobacco company hires a man,
Rankin Fitch, to try to persuade the jury to acquit them of the crime that they
are accused of. However Rankin is soon
challenged by Nicholas Easter who is on the jury. Easter has a stronger influence on the jury
than Fitch does. The Summons is
a book about a law teacher who receives a letter from his nearly dead father
just after a traumatic divorce. The
letter requests him to come to claim millions of dollars that he left to him
(Author 103). Most of Grisham’s books
were about “disenchanted attorneys who are bucking the establishment” (Ferranti
42) and courtroom drama.
Mostly all of Grisham’s books were
set in a Southern town or in Brazil. Since
Grisham grew up in the south most of his books were set there (Current 221). The Runaway Jury, The Summons,
and A Time to Kill were all set in a town on the Mississippi Gulf
(Authors 100). A Time to Kill was
set in the fictional town of Ford County, Mississippi (Current 222). The Painted House was set in the
Arkansas Delta, where Grisham was born.
It is about one harvest season narrated by a boy whose father and grandfather
are both cotton farmers (Authors 102). Grisham
also had one novel, The Testament, which was set in Brazil. It was about a man living in Brazil searching
for his spirit. It was easy for him to
write about Brazil because he traveled there often to do
mission work for
the poor by building houses, and because of this he knows a lot about the
country (Authors 101).
As well as his law experience and
settings, Grisham’s novels had many other influenced. The Firm was inspired by the Writers
Digest. One day, he found guidelines
in it on how to make his book better (Authors 97). Personal experience also plays a big part in
a lot of Grisham’s novels (Ferranti 42).
A Painted House was Grisham’s first book not about lawyers. This book was about the fictional life of a
seven year old boy. Grisham says the boy
is very much like him, but the story is not quite the same (Authors 100). Grisham says that he couldn’t write a novel
that would embarrass him in front of his children who would read his books when
they get older. This means that there is
no sex, profanity, or violence in any of his books (Ferranti, 43).
Grisham said his childhood and
different people also influenced his writing.
When he was a child he didn’t watch much television because his mother
didn’t like it. In effect, Grisham
turned to books and was taught to read earlier and spent most of his time doing
so (Academy 3). Because of his love for
books at an early age, this made him become a writer later in life. Another person who helped inspire Grisham was
his twelfth grade English teacher. She
made his class read a lot of good books written by mostly American writers. This was when he figured out his favorite
authors. His most favorite was John
Stienbeck. Stienbeck was also an
inspiration to Grisham. He once said
that he would “love to be able to write this clearly” (Academy 4).
In conclusion, there were many
events, people, and experiences that influenced what Grisham wrote about in his
books. Grisham worked as a lawyer for
many years and this caused him to write many court room drama based
novels. Grisham lived in the south for
his whole life, and he also visited Brazil, this impacted the settings of his
novels greatly.
John
Grisham: Life and Writing
Thesis statement: John Grisham’s life has influenced his
fourteen back-to-back best-sellers.
I.
Previous job
II. Settings
III. Other
Works
Cited
“John Grisham.” Authors
and Artists for Young Adults. Vol. 47. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2003.
Ferranti, Jennifer.
“Grisham’s Law.” The Saturday
Evening Post March/April 1997 42-45.
Judith Graham, ed. Current Biography Yearbook, New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1993.
“John Grisham.” Academy of
Achievement. 1995. 1 May 2004
<http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/pag/gri0int-1>
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