“Down here we just say you live your way and we’ll live ours.” Quote (Ch21-25)

When I think of “down here” I think of the South. The South is where slavery was most common. It was eventually spread around the world, but it was more dominant in areas or plantations in the South. It can also stand for how the whites are treated higher and blacks are treated in the lower range in society. However, there is nothing that we can do about it. Slavery is somewhat of a personal choice and it’s hard to change other people’s views. People that have to deal with slavery face much hardship in their life. Therefore, people just have to deal with it. We live our life and everything goes on just the way it is. Racism does not have a reason; it just is the way it has to be. However, we can think of it as a disease. The disease is not biased or racist; it can choose anyone that it wants to. However, sometimes there is no cure for a disease, and we are faced to live with it throughout our lives. Therefore, we CAN compare racism or discrimination to a disease, they all share one thing in common, and it’s because it spreads.

I only see in black and white (Ch21-25)

In To Kill a Mocking Bird, racism is always becoming a constant battle. We have the blacks on one side. Calpurnia, who takes care of the Finch kids, is a prime example of slavery. However, she is treated as an equal. Calpurnia brings us back into a whole different realm of understanding. We can’t see it all but would we want to? People have to live like this everyday. When Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to her church, I think that’s when we start to feel a greater respect towards the blacks in the community. I admire the way people handle racism because it’s always an ongoing battle. This town is truly, unmistakably a place that is filled with so much hate. Atticus is not someone that can be compared to any body else in the book. It takes absolute bravery to do what he has done. How would you feel if you were the only one standing a room full of people sitting? Atticus stood for what he believed is right. When no one else will stand for Tom Robinson, he was the one that took his case. Atticus believes for the greater good of the community and I think that he is proven to be one of the most influential people in the book. Nobody is perfect in the book because they all can be categorized as the same. This category can only be named as racist. We are all like that in one way or another, but some show it more than others. However, the more I read and look into each and every character, I see that they are all just stuck in Maycomb. Like Boo Radley is stuck in his house, they have nowhere to go. Therefore, the people of Maycomb can not change their views.

T.I My Life Your Entertainment (21-25)

I chose this song because it perfectly represents Tom Robinson’s situation. The people who live in Maycomb, do not even care that Tom is a real person, and they just think that his life is for their entertainment, hence the title. Tom Robinson is in a very serious predicament, that may end in his death, and the only people who care about him are his “adoring fans”, aka the black population of the town, Atticus and his family (not counting Alexandria), and Miss Maudie. I believe that if the town’s people began to view Tom Robinson as a person rather than an object for them to observe then he might have survived this predicament.

The Deliberation Image (Ch21-25)

For this section, I choose a picture of a jury respectively. In this section we know that the jury is deliberating on the case of Tom Robinson. My previous image post was a picture of an unbalanced scale. Both of these images represent what is going on in this section. The jury is an all white jury in the prejudiced times of the Great Depression. Tom Robinson is being falsely accused of rape by Mayella even though she is the one that was doing the things to Tom Robinson. I think that Mayella is totally wrong and a coward for what she is doing. 

Racial Progression (21-25)

There are many signs of racial progression in Maycomb at the end of To Kill a Mocking Bird. Some of the main signs are that a Judge was willing to appoint a very good lawyer to Tom Robinson’s case in order to give him a good chance at winning. Another sign was that Atticus accepted the Judges offer, and proceeded to try to give Tom Robinson the best chance possible. Yet another sign of progression was the length of time that the jury was out, previously the jury would have only been out for a very short time, however this time one of the jurors even wanted to vote the other way, until the other jurors convinced him, either way the jury was out for quite a long time when it was a back man’s word against a white man’s word. The final major sign that Racial Relations were improving in the south was that Mr. Underwood was able to write a long article about the injustice in the death of Tom Robinson without facing serious repercussions, including his own murder. I believe that the fact that these things have happened in Maycomb is proof that not just a few people have changed in Maycomb, but proof that the majority of the town is becoming more tolerant, and that if Maycomb is an accurate representation of the South, then the whole South may be going through these same changes.

The Jury (Ch21-25)

In this section, we hear that the jury takes a long time to deliberate. I found this quite odd and profound for a few reasons; the main reason is the fact that Tom Robinson is black and I believe that the normal outcome or this would be a quick guilty verdict. The children came back expecting the jury to have finished deliberation. This was not what happened. Jem was confident, however I was not. Although Atticus is one of the best lawyers in Maycomb and white, the prejudice and ignorance of Maycomb and this era was too much for a innocent verdict. We learn that Tom Robinson is convicted of r*pe and was transferred to a prison further away. Rape is a high offence in Alabama and Tom would get the electric chair if he did not get pardoned. 

I find the electric chair a high price to pay for r*pe, especially for an INNOCENT man. Tom Robinson tried to escape which I did not expect. I think this was a foolish move as now he is dead anyways. I think he was scared and upset that the U.S. legal system failed him due to its ignorance and prejudice of the era. 

The U.S. Legal system is nowhere near perfect, even today. Our legal system has improved over time but there is still room for improvement in my eyes. Bob Ewell is one person I harshly dislike in this book. He is rather rude, ignorant, and prejudiced. He doesn’t seem to care about anyone (especially Tom) besides himself and possibly his daughter. I find this man to be very selfish. Atticus, of course, is nothing like this. Atticus isn’t biased nor prejudiced. Atticus is one of the only real men I have seen in this book so far. Boo Radley may be another of the real men and I hope to see more of Boo in the remainder of the story.

Wrong Way -Sublime (17-20)

I chose this song becuase it is about a young girl, who takes care of her father (who is a drunk) and her siblings. While in the book Mayella is abused physically, in the song her father abuses her sexually, by forcing her to become a prostitute. Then along comes a man who can help to get her out of this situation, who in the book is Atticus, but she then refuses, or can not get away from her situation for some reason, and goes back to her previous predicament. All in all i believe these songs are very similar because they are about young girls trapped in a predicament that they should never have been trapped in.

“You’re a strong girl, what were you doing all the time, just standing there?” (Ch17-20)

Mayella is the one that is on the stand.  What she does is lie to the court and say that Tom Robinson raped her. She’s ashamed that she has to go for a black man and she can’t find someone that is her own color. Her ability to make an innocent man go to jail shows that the town is unable to stop segregation from happening. Mayella is someone that does not have any morals because she basically is an example of one of the forces in the book that is cruel. It seems like she can’t get her story right. This shows the indifference of someone that is clearly wrong, not getting blamed for wrong doing.

Mayella was the one that was in control of Tom Robinson. If she was clearly being molested, she would have done something to stop it. However, the fact that Atticus presents does not do so much to help with her story. She could have screamed or tried to protect herself. However, she did not; proving that her story is completely false.

Unbalanced Courtroom Image (Ch17-20)

I choose the picture of a scale that is already unbalanced. This represents the fact that Tom Robinson has an unbalanced chance to win the case because he is black. The  courtroom has an all white jury which makes it even more unbalanced! Atticus himself said he has no chance to win the case. Bob Ewell is defending Mayella who simply lied about the entire rape case because she was ashamed. The racially divided times of this era (Great Depression) show the deep ignorance we had and still have partly. This image represents the entire case and this section of the book. All courts and cases should have a balanced scale but this is sadly not the case. Even in modern day America, this is still sometimes the case.

Prejudice, Immorality, and Shame (Ch17-20)

For this section of this book, I choose the aspect of the fact that Mayella accused Tom Robinson of raping her simply because she was too ashamed to admit that she wanted Tom to kiss her. In these racially separated times, Mayella Ewell is simply afraid to admit that she was the person that was going for Tom Robinson and not the other way around. Mayella Ewell scared Tom Robinson, hugged him, and then asked him to kiss her. When they were caught, she was scared and made up the entire story of being raped by him. Atticus, simply doing the right thing, is trying to  defend someone who is innocent. Sadly, this is hard in these racially segregated times. An innocent black man is basically guilty for being black. I think Mayella is totally wrong and a coward for doing what she did. She was selfish and willing to put Tom at risk. I don’t see her nor Bob Ewell as very good people. I think people of this time need to wise up and stop being so ignorant.

Throughout the book we see racism. We see simple things from the Church that Calpurnia took the children too to more intense racism such as the Tom Robinson  case. These people are  followers and don’t form their own opinions of the people. I think Mayella needs to apologize for what she did as it was very drastic. Tom Robinson did nothing wrong expect for being black. He was born black and that is not under his control. This aspect is nothing short of expected. The entire book shows the era of the Great Depression in which prejudice was the norm. I think people need to wise up.