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To Kill A Mockingbird Chapter 18 Analysis

Decent Essays

At this time, slavery is not too far in the past; a mere 60 or so years. Being in the south, prejudices and negative connotations towards blacks still loom at large. Place yourself in the setting of how blacks were treated and how they were still considered to be a lesser race, and how put off they were. In chapter 18 of To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson is being put on trial for beating and raping Mayella Ewell. Despite the fact that there is no way Tom could have committed the crime, he was still convicted because of the prejudiced jury. In our current time, we still often judge blacks without trying to understand, but it’s not to the extent of what it was back then (at least we’d like to hope not). A group of men had tried to lynch Mr. Robinson while he was in his jail cell awaiting trial. “...don’t read with your eyes. What I really mean is, don’t read only from your own fixed position in the Year of Our Lord two thousand and some. Instead try to find a reading perspective that allows for sympathy with the historical moment of the story, that understands the text as having been written against its own social, historical, cultural, and personal background.” (chapter 25, HTRLLAP) In this day and age, defending a black man doesn’t hold any major significance. It’s just another person that may or may not have committed a crime and they are on trial for it. However, in the time of this story, the fact that Atticus is taking on this case is a big deal in the small town of

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