Atticus Finch Monologue Analysis

Atticus Finch Monologue, analysis Gentlemen, I shall be temporary, however I want to use my remaining time with you to remind you that the case of Mayella Ewell vs. Tom Robinson just isn’t a difficult one. To begin with, this case ought to have never come to trial. The state of Alabama has not produced one iota of medical proof that reveals that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever happened. This case is so simple as black and white.

It requires no minute sifting of difficult facts, but it does require you to make sure past all cheap doubt as to the guilt of the defendant.

Miss Ewell did something that in our society is unspeakable: she is white, and he or she tempted a Negro. The defendant is not responsible, but someone in this courtroom is. I even have nothing however pity in my coronary heart for the chief witness for the state, however my pity doesn’t lengthen as far as to her putting a man’s life at stake.

She knew full properly the enormity of her offense, however as a outcome of her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted. The state of Alabama has relied solely upon the testament of two witnesses who’s proof has not solely been called into severe question, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant.

I needn’t remind you of their appearance and conduct on the stand. They have presented themselves in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted.

They have been confident that you simply, the jury, would go along with the evil assumption that every one Negro’s lie, and are immoral. Mr. Robinson is accused of rape, when it was she who made the advances on him. He put his word against two white people’s, and now he’s on trial for no apparent reason- besides that he’s black.

Thomas Jefferson once mentioned that all males are created equal, a phrase that the federal government is fond of hurling at us. There is a tendency on this yr of grace, 1935, for sure people to make use of that phrase out of context, to satisfy all situations. We know that each one men aren’t created equal within the sense that some people would have us imagine.

Some persons are smarter than others, some folks have extra opportunity as a end result of they are born with it, some males have more money than others, and a few people are extra gifted than others. But there’s one way on this country by which all males are created equal. An institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the ignorant man the equal of any president, and the stupid man the equal of Einstein.

That institution is the court docket. But a courtroom is just as sound as its jury, and the jury is simply as sound as the men who make it up. I am confident that you simply gentlemen will review with out ardour the proof you have heard, decide, and restore the defendant to his household. In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, gentlemen, consider Tom Robinson. I may shoot all the blue jays I needed, if I might hit ’em, however to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird…Well, I reckon as a end result of mockingbirds don’t do something however make music for us to take pleasure in.

They don’t eat people’s gardens, don’t nest in the corncribs, they don’t do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us. Atticus represents morality and cause in To Kill a Mockingbird. As a character, Atticus is even-handed all through the story. He is among the only a few characters who by no means has to rethink his place on an issue. His parenting fashion is quite unique in that he treats his children as adults, honestly answering any question they have.

He makes use of all these cases as a possibility to cross his values on to Scout and Jem. Scout says that “‘Do you really assume so?’ . . . was Atticus’s harmful question” as a outcome of he delighted in helping folks see a state of affairs in a model new mild. Atticus makes use of this method not solely with his children, however with all of Maycomb. And but, for all of his mature remedy of Jem and Scout, he patiently recognizes that they’re kids and that they’ll make childish mistakes and assumptions. Ironically, Atticus’s one

insecurity seems to be in the child-rearing division, and he typically defends his ideas about raising children to these extra skilled and extra traditional. His stern however truthful attitude towards Jem and Scout reaches into the courtroom as well. He politely proves that Bob Ewell is a liar; he respectfully questions Mayella about her position in Tom’s disaster. One of the things that his longtime pal Miss Maudie admires about him is that “‘Atticus Finch is identical in his house as he is on the public streets.””

The solely time he critically lectures his kids is on the evils of benefiting from these less fortunate or much less educated, a philosophy he carries into the animal world by his refusal to hunt. And though many of the town readily pins the label “trash” on different people, Atticus reserves that distinction for these individuals who unfairly exploit others. Atticus believes in justice and the justice system. He doesn’t like felony regulation, yet he accepts the appointment to Tom Robinson’s case.

He is aware of earlier than he begins that he’s going to lose this case, but that doesn’t cease him from giving Tom the strongest defense he probably can. And, importantly, Atticus doesn’t put so much effort into Tom’s case as a end result of he’s an African American, but as a end result of he’s harmless. Atticus feels that the justice system must be colour blind, and he defends Tom as an harmless man, not a person of color. Atticus is the grownup character least infected by prejudice within the novel. He has no problem along with his kids attending Calpurnia’s church, or with a black girl primarily elevating his children. He admonishes Scout not to use racial slurs, and is careful to always use the terms acceptable for his time and culture.

He goes to Helen’s home to tell her of Tom’s demise, which suggests a white man spending time within the black community. Other men in town would’ve sent a messenger and left it at that. His lack of prejudice doesn’t apply only to other races, nevertheless. He is unaffected by Mrs. Dubose’s caustic tongue, Miss Stephanie Crawford’s catty gossip, and even Walter Cunningham’s thinly veiled menace on his life. He doesn’t retaliate when Bob Ewell spits in his face because he understands that he has wounded Ewell’s satisfaction — the one real possession this man has. Atticus accepts these individuals because he’s an expert at “climb[ing] into [other people’s] pores and skin and walk[ing] round in it.”