Case Closed

    The excitement of the surroundings, actions, characters and the life itself of the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is increasing at an amazing speed, filling me with more and more intrigue with each word I read. The trail against the Negro Tom Robinson was just about to start. Atticus took his place and then slowly the courtroom started filling. Jem, Scout and Dill found some seats with Reverend Sykes in the Negro balcony. It was a secret that they were there; Atticus had no idea about this. The trial begun with the Ewell witnesses testifying how Tom hit Mayella Ewell and how he took advantage of her. It was common to trust the white men and indeed never trust black folks, so the jury clearly believed every single word the Ewells spoke. Afterwards it was Tom Robinson’s turn to speak about the events of that evening. He actually testifies the complete opposite of what the Ewells had.
He said Mayella asked him for several favors through many days and that one of those days she asked him to come inside her house to fix a chiffarobe. Before he was able to say something or even think about something, Mayella jumped into him, hugged him and kissed hi. As he was trying to leave, Mayella kept forcing him to kiss her back, by the time he was able to ran away, Mr. Ewell approached Mayella and had beaten her up. Even if Tom’s words sounded true, he was black and black men were not to be trusted. It was time for the jury to determine whether or not Tom was guilty, if he weren't, he would be a free man, but if he were, he would be sentenced to death. After a moment Atticus found out that Scout, Jem and Dill were there, however he allowed them to stay to hear the verdict. Hours and hours had passed and still the jury was debating about the evidence presented in the trial. Finally the jury entered the room again and gave the answer to the judge for him to tell everyone the verdict. Guilty, guilty, guilty, was the answer. Tom was to die and the Ewells were to be free, and why? Because they were white and Tom was black.

While I was reading this set of pages, I encountered several quotes that reinforced my opinion about the racism in Maycomb. One of my favorite ones was:

"The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption-the evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber." (273)

This quote refers to the white folks that testified in court against Tom Robinson. Through this words I can highlight the idea that Maycomb folks thought back then that black men were monsters, almost

White=Black

not even human beings. Here it states what humans thought of black people. In a few words, people thought colored folks were trash meant to be kept away from the fineness of white people. Again I state that this is completely absurd. For me and for most nowadays, black or white are the same thing, both are human. This phrase takes us to the roots of human behavior, showing the minds of humans back then and allowing us to see the minds of the exact same specie in present days. I don't understand the humanity of that time, and I might as well never understand it. Anyways I am most certainly glad those times are more than over by now, at least in an average majority.

A second quote that deeply grabbed my attention while reading these pages stated the following:

"Don't fret, Jem. Things are never as bad as they seem." (288)

  Though this quote talks about a different subject than the one I have been mentioning for the past couple blogs, racism, in a simple sentence it talks about a life-lesson that most of us can say but can't apply. "Things are never as bad as they seem," eight words that we should tell ourselves every morning. This relates to something my dad tells me quite often: "Don't worry too much about stuff,
everything in life can be solved except death, so smile and be happy, life is good." Both the quote from the book and the one from my dad are knowledge imperative for us to include in our lives, no matter how hard it is to do so.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is a simple love story, said Harper Lee, its amazing author. If this book is what the author says, it's the love story from which I am learning the most lessons about life and about humanity. If this masterpiece of American literature is simple, it is the most amazing and full of life simple novel that teaches more about life than life itself.

Here is a picture I found remarkable at showing the absurdity of discriminating black men: