Harper lee has prepared us for the trial by giving us a hint of what the atmosphere, the jury/audience and judge will be like.
Miss Maudie compares the trial to a ‘Roman carnival’ which give us an insight into how the atmosphere will be like and also how the jury and audience will be like, the trial will have a barbaric/savage atmosphere to it as people attending the trial are only going to try to hurt Tom Robinson physically and shout abusive language at him, they are also going to see Tom Robinson convicted of rape as he is black a ‘negro’ so the odds are definitely stacked against him of him proving to be innocent in raping a white woman; if found guilty he would mostly likely be sentenced to death which everybody is hoping for.
Miss Maudie In response to why she isn’t going to the trial she says “I am not, ’t’s morbid, watching a poor devil on trial for his life”. Miss Maudie refers to the trial as ‘morbid’ and Tom Robinson as a “poor devil”, from the use of the word ‘morbid’ which we usually associate with death tells us of the outcome of the case no matter what as he is a black man a ‘negro’. Miss Maudie describes Tom Robinson as a “poor devil” which shows how she feels about his fate which she believes is doomed and that’s why she doesn’t intend on going to the trial to see someone basically die.
In the chapter Jem talks about the racism and discrimination in Maycomb county “ but around here once you have a drop of negro blood, that makes you all black” . This tells us of the racism and discrimination black people face in Macomb and how that no matter what you do or who you are you are always looked down upon because you are black, this is an important factor to take in as Tom Robinson is a black man being persecuted over charges of raping a white woman, that sentence alone is enough to convict him and sentence him death as Maycomb is a hugely racist society who looks down upon black people.
We also giving info on the judge taking this case whose name is John Taylor. Scout describes him as “amiable” and a “sleepy old shark”, she also says “he was a man who ran his court with an alarming informality”.
The word ‘amiable’ is associated with friendly and the sentence “sleepy old shark” tells us that even he’s considered friendly, quite informal and sleepy he’s still able to viscous, scary and take his job very seriously.
June 2, 2015 at 8:28 am
Your third paragraph shows some excellent analysis and you explore the word morbid well in relation to your argument.
Targets
Look at your first and second paragraph – where have you repeated yourself and how might you avoid this?
Look at your final two paragraphs – can you give use one more closing statement on the judge?