The Runaway Jury
70 pages • 2-hour read
John GrishamThe Runaway Jury
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Symbols & Motifs
Phones/Phone Calls
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of addiction and emotional abuse.
The various phone calls that take place throughout The Runaway Jury, particularly Marlee’s calls to Fitch, are a motif that inform themes related to manipulation and influence. The first appearance of a phone in the novel is when Fitch’s female operative gives Nicholas her phone number at work after smoking inside the store. The woman hopes that Nicholas will call her not because she is romantically interested in him but so that she can gain more intel about him for Fitch to exploit. Marlee in turn manipulates Fitch via phone calls, turning the manipulation on its head. She calls Fitch repeatedly to predict what Nicholas will wear, what magazine another juror will carry, or how the jury will behave. These predictions manipulate Fitch into trusting her, allowing their phone calls to increase in frequency in tandem with the increase in Marlee’s influence over Fitch. While Fitch works to manipulate the jury, Marlee manipulates Fitch. In addition, Marlee calls the deli to delay the lunch on the first day of the trial, allowing Nicholas to assert himself as the leader immediately and gain influence over his fellow jurors. She also calls Stella Hulic in Miami and tells her that she’s being watched, which leads to Stella’s ultimate dismissal from the jury, illustrating Marlee’s control over the jury.
The Krigler Memo
The memo that scientist Lawrence Krigler describes during his testimony is a symbol of the truth. The memo, first mentioned during Krigler’s testimony, describes Krigler’s creation of a tobacco that contains less nicotine. The tobacco companies have claimed that they did not know nicotine was addictive and were not exploiting nicotine’s addictive nature to increase sales, but the memo that Krigler describes destroys that assertion. The memo instead states that various tobacco companies and executives knew that nicotine is addictive and deliberately buried Krigler’s new strain to avoid selling a less addictive cigarette. Grisham describes the memo clearly:
The infamous memo from the 1930s had been seen by a handful of people, but never produced in litigation. Krigler’s version of it for the jury was as close as any plaintiff’s lawyer had come to the real thing. The fact that he’d been allowed by Judge Harkin to describe it to the jury would be hotly contested on appeal, regardless of who won at trial (217).
The memo, symbolic of the truth, was historically suppressed. The memo was stolen from Krigler, like his ability to tell the truth was stolen from him. Grisham critiques the justice system when he says that the presence of the memo will lead to an appeal of the verdict, as he suggests that the financial power of the tobacco industry may allow them to win through sheer persistence. The truth is not what matters in this trial; instead, whichever side is willing to continue with a legal war of attrition the longest is likely to succeed.
Written Materials
The written materials that appear throughout The Runaway Jury are a symbol of misinformation and falsehoods. Firstly, Nicholas’s notes to Harkin throughout the trial are rife with lies. One note that Nicholas pens to Harkin states that Fitch’s operative, Doyle, has been following him. Nicholas hopes to have Doyle arrested, but he doesn’t yet tell Harkin about the break-in at his apartment. He gives Harkin half-truths in his notes, not wanting to foil Fitch’s plan too soon, as his and Marlee’s plan requires Fitch’s unknowing cooperation. Nicholas also uses written materials to get Frank Herrara kicked off the jury. He stashes a copy of Mogul, which contains an article about the trial, beneath Frank’s bed and then tells Harkin that Frank was reading the magazine in the breakfast room. Nicholas wants Frank off the jury because Frank feels strongly in favor of the defense, so Nicholas uses the written materials about the trial to get Frank wrongfully removed. Again, the written materials serve as a symbol for the lies that Nicholas spins in order to obtain the outcome he desires. Finally, the false memo about the plaintiff witness Robilio serves as a symbol of the lies that Fitch creates in order to win the trial. The memo itself is literally filled with lies discrediting Robilio, but it is also symbolic of the myriad lies that Fitch tells, as he gives Hoppy the paper along with the instruction to lie to Millie to convince her to support the defense.
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