Mrs.
Merriweather while at Aunt Alexandra’s gathering says this quote. In this quote
she is trying to say that Maycomb is filled with people that want to do good,
but when they try their sense of good is different from people like Atticus's.
This is mostly aimed at the racism in Maycomb. An example of this comes on page
282 when Judge Taylor asks for the jury’s verdict they answer with "Guilty
... guilty ... guilty ... guilty..."(Lee 282). This jury believes they did
the right thing putting away Tom Robinson due to the fact that he was black. Because
of the way they were brought up they thought that all "negroes" were
far from law-abiding citizens. This isn't because the men who made up the jury
were bad people but simply because they were brought up in a racist town. That
is what Mrs. Merriweather meant when she said "I tell you there are
some good but misguided people in this town.”
The jury members also felt compelled to convict Tom because of the pressure they would receive from the rest of the community if they didn't. Because the community is so racist, the Jury may have been afraid of the reactions of others if they failed to convict the black man over the white. The Jury was not only misguided in their own minds, but were steered in the wrong direction by their fellows.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Merriweather has a futuristic view of the world as we see on page 310,"There's one thing I truly believe Gertrude, but some people just don't see it my way, if we just let them know we forgive 'em, that we've forgotten it, then this whole thing'll blow over." In this context the group discussion they are talking about prejudice towards religion, but could this branch off to thoughts about racism? The United States is beginning to transition to the point of where slavery needs to be forgotten, and blacks need to be treated more equally. At this point in time things are beginning to blow ever, sadly not in the town of Maycomb.
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