Friday, October 4, 2019
Chapter 22/23: Explain Maudie’s two important quotes about Atticus in Chapter 22. How is she showing her support? (Tyler)
Miss Maudie has a respect and understanding of Atticus’s decisions and actions more than many of the other citizens of Maycomb. She doesn’t show it much but she understands. During chapter 22 Jem, Dill, and Scout go over to Miss Maudie's after the night of the trial, they end up getting into conversation about Atticus and Miss Maudie expresses her thoughts about him. She says, “... there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them…” What Miss Maudie is trying to say is that Atticus doesn’t care about the job he has to complete he just completes it. She continues, “We're so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us” (Lee 245-246). Miss Maudie shows a lot of admiration of Atticus toward Jem, Dill, and Scout. She is trying to say that whatever challenge or “dirty work” is thrown at him he will work hard trying to solve the problem. This shows in the Tom Robinson case, when it was given to Atticus everyone thought it would be impossible for him to win but he did his duty and put up a good fight. Miss Maudie understands this and supports Atticus by being proud that he is making baby steps towards equality.
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I agree, Miss Maudie shows a lot of support after what Atticus did for Tom. She admires him even though she and many others know a black man's word will never win against a white woman's word. Miss Maudie also says, "Atticus won't win, he can't win, but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that." (Lee 289). She is explaining how Atticus is probably the only man in Maycomb who would be able to make the decision hard for the people of the trial, and he did.
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ReplyDeleteThough I agree that Miss Maudie understands Atticus' decision much more than the rest of Maycomb, I disagree with your interpretation of the quote. Atticus does care about the job, that's why he does it. As he said much earlier in the novel when he took on the case, "[he] couldn't hold his head up in town, [he] couldn't represent this county in legislature, [he] couldn't even tell [Scout] or Jem to not do something again"(86). Atticus is not like the other lawyers because, unlike them, he genuinely cares about the cases and people concerned. That is why he took Tom Robinson's case and tried.
ReplyDeleteI agree with with Miss Maudie's statement and how it means that unlike most people, Atticus is one of the only people who can face such a hard challenge of going up against the injustice and racism in the south (not literally, but symbolically), and almost winning his case against it. She shows admiration towards him because of this and Miss Maudie even says how he is one of a kind in order to be able to do this. He is a courageous man and faces the challenges he's up against and doesn't back down, even though everyone knows Atticus won't win. It is significant that Atticus doesn't give up and defended Tom Robinson, because even though he lost, he did what he could for him and was able to delay the inevitable truth.
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