Chattahoochee River
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Section 2 - Brittney
There seems to be a lot of segregation and oppression towards things that "just don't fit." Starting with the black man behind the dump that Atticus is defending. Granted it is before MLK's time and segregation and maltreatment of African Americans. Then there was the mistreatment of Atticus and Scout because Atticus is defending the man. Stuff like that is abnormal, as he refers to black oppression as "Maycomb's disease," this is shown by Scout being made fun of at school and by her cousin, resulting in her fighting. It then is shown with the rabid dog, and even though it is a small example, it shows the intentions of the town that anything not fit to their cookie cutter isn't accepted. They killed the dog, unfortunately instead of being a nice person caring about animals. The last example, Atticus gets called away for two weeks for a legislative emergency and the children are left with Calpurna who takes them to the First Purchase American ME church, where they are told that white children don't belong in the church. Calpurna argued that they were all made by the same God and that they should be welcomed. This section just goes to show that this town has a very narrow mind set and anything not fit to that stereotype is an outcast and is dealt with however the town wants.
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I too found it very interesting that something as small as a "mad" dog could invoke the hysteria that it did. I agree with you, Brittney, that the author continues to show the narrow mindset shared by all of Maycomb's population.
ReplyDeleteYou do mention that this is before MLKs time, however do you think that if the civil rights era was during this time period it would have influenced the town of Maycomb (given that Maycomb is so narrow-minded)?
ReplyDeleteYou bring up the issue of the narrow mindset of the people of Maycomb, but wouldn't you agree that it is in human nature to agree with things and events that fit into our "ideal" society. We find the events taking place in the book as prejudicial, immoral, and against the interest of the good of society, yet we live in a completely different time where the norms include fighting for gender and racial equality; for them the events were completely normal. How do you think you would have reacted to Atticus taking on the case of a black man were you a white southerner who felt economically challenged by their freedom?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me because the book takes place before any great civil rights acts were put into motion, but Atticus is one of the older people the town. Many of the people who throw insults at him and his children are from a younger generation. Shouldn't it be the other way around? If Atticus is older, shouldn't he be more racist than the rest? And yet, he's much more open than his younger peers.
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