~*~ Blondes the new Pink~*~

Since I have read this book more than once, it was easier for me to pick out all the themes and plots that are the main points in the story.  When I had read to the end of the story, there were a few areas of the story that I had forgotten about, so it helped alot when I reread the passages and picked out some of the things that I had missed.. but helped me better understand the ending of the story

I loved how it ends.. how everyone knows that Boo Radley killed Mr. Ewell, but they let him go free with a fake story that even the sheriff is going with. The sheriff knows what happened.. but I honestly believe that the trial with Tom Robinson had a huge affect on the county, and because the man that was trialed was innocent, I believe that the sheriff didnt want to convict another man of murder, when he knew that Mr. Ewell probably would of hurt Atticus’s children if Boo hadn’t stepped in. Even though no one knows what would of happened if Boo Radley hadn’t came to help, most of the people would of suspected it wouldn’t of been good.

“So it took an eight-year-old child to bring ‘em to their senses, didn’t it?” said Atticus. “That proves something that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they’re still human.” – I chose this passage because this is explaining the prejudice in the town, and how even through all the hate that is in the town for this one man… a single child can make a dozen men stop in their tracks and turn around and leave.

“Aren’t you goin’ down to watch?” asked Dill. “I am not. ‘t’s morbid, watching a poor devil on trial for his life. Look at all those folks, it’s like a Roman carnival. – This was important to me because even the kids are starting to take the opinions or actions like the whole town, by going to the trial to see this man’s conviction, where as Miss Maudie looks at it as something sinful, and not right .

“If her right eye was blacked and she was beaten moslty on the right side of her face, it would tend to show that a left-handed person did it.” pg 178— Seeing that Tom Robinson has a crippled left arm, and is right handed, but Mr. Ewell is left handed it pretty much makes it obvious who the criminal is in this case, but later on shows that maybe just because all the evidence points to that one person, prejudice gets the best of it.

“This case is as simple as black and white.” pg. 203 – When atticus says this, its such irony because people use the term, its as simple as black and white but in this case it really is choosing a black man who is clearly innocent or a white man who is guilty, but because this is a prejudice act… it shows who will win.

When I was reading these chapteres, I noticed that the prejudice in the town is getting stronger the futher the reader goes into the story. Its not so much focusing on Jem’s and Scout’s lives anymore… it more or less focuses on their opinions about their father.  Atticus is certainly becoming one of the main characters in the story at this point. From what I can tell from the story, he is a lawyer who is sticking up for Tom Robinson, a black man who was accused of rape. Because Atticus is defending him, the reader doesn’t really know if Tom is guilty or actually innocent. Atticus obviously believes he is innocent because he fights so hard for him. When he sits outside the jail cell waiting for the people to try and come get Tom, this just proves to the reader that Atticus is really taking this trial seriously.

When I read, To Kill a Mockingbird, the aspects of prejudice seem to pop up most in this story. To relate to this story we have to think about something in our life that we can relate to prejudice in the book.

My past experiences…. and present experiences have a lot to do with school, and the different “clicks” in the story. It could be considered prejudice when people are categorized by the people or the different groups they hang out with. You have the popular kids, or otherwise the jocks.. who seem to get the reputation of being snotty, jerks, and judgemental people that think they are perfect. They also can be labeled as daddy’s girls… or the rich kids that get to spend daddy’s money. There is also the nerdy groups, which they are like the smart kids, that are bookworms and no life. 

Many people don’t realize it but, this is getting just as bad as racism. It seems like a small issue, but many people don’t realize how big of an issue it is.   This can connect with Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson in the story, because Tom Robinson is a victim of racism, as to Boo Radley, who is a victim of prejudice, where he is labeled a bad person, because he doesn’t come out of his house.. even though no one really understands. They just seem to make up things about him, which the children pick up on and pass it along to other people.  This is how prejudice starts.. with something small that gets passed on and manipulated and twisted until it is made into something big and and unaccepted into normal life.