Mrs. Merriweather is trying to say that Atticus is the one who is misguided. When Alexandra has all of her church friends over for tea, Mrs. Merriweather makes this discreet comment, it really isn’t obvious at first, but she is actually talking about Atticus. She is trying to say that Atticus is stirring up the black community by defending Tom Robinson. Mrs. Merriweather thinks that Tom should have been given a worse lawyer, because then the black community wouldn’t be as angry about the loss, and she hates it when her maid isn’t happy, as she says: “Gertrude, I tell you there’s nothing more distracting than a sulky darky. Their mouths go down to here. Just ruins your day to have one of em’ in the kitchen.” This quote just shows even more of the horrible racism that was shown in the south in the 1930’s, from the women’s point of view.
I agree with Nic that Mrs. Merriweather is speaking about Atticus when she says "there are some good but misguided people in this town" (Lee 265). Mrs. Merriweather believes that Atticus is a good person but he is just not driven in the right direction. Mrs. Merriweather believes that whoever helps out the African American community is "Misguided". While socializing, Mrs. Merriweateher also said"Might've looked like the right thing to do at the time" (Lee 257). IN this quote Mrs. Merriweather is suggesting that freeing Tom Robinson looked good for Atticus at the beginning until he started to get attacked both physically and verbally.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Mrs. Merriweather is talking about Atticus in the quote. Mrs. Merriweather believes that Atticus is "misguided" because he is defending Tom Robinson against Bob Ewell. Mrs. Merriweather can be seen as a pretty racist and unkind person, as she treats her maid Gertude pretty badly. She sees Tom Robinson's case as a distraction for her maid. She believes that Atticus is a good person, but isn't seeing things her way.
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