In Chapter 15 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is sitting outside the jailhouse that holds Tom Robinson, his African-American client. Close by Scout and her brother Jem are hiding with a clear view of their father. As they watch a mob forms in front of him with one member being Mr. Walter Cunningham. Scout acts fast and runs to greet Walter to protect Atticus saying, “Hey Mr. Cunningham. How’s your entailment getting’ along?” After the brief conversation the mob disperses, leaving Atticus to take his children home. During this scene the members of the mob had a “mob mentality”. This scene is an example of many things, one of which is peer pressure. Like it is today in school, people can be over powered by their peers and do things that push them out of their comfort zone. A second example of how a mob can be more forceful than one’s self is that when someone is in a group they tend to feel the strength of the entire group. This could cause them to do things abnormal to their normal behavior. Do you think that most people would be feeling that way in a group?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Chapter 15: What is it that caused the mob to form? To disperse? Why do people do things while part of a mob they would not do on their own?
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Although peer pressure can be a contributing factor as to why mobs form, I think it is not the primary cause. The author was showing that mobs are not made from mid-air, and each included in the mob is a person with real feelings. Granted, most mobs regarding racial discrimination initially begins with misguided emotions, there is also sympathy lurking in the backs of their southern lifestyle, closed minded thoughts. I agree that Scout acts as a reminder of innocence and the prospect of peace. She is, in a way, a mockingbird herself. Mockingbirds are animals that, regardless of their hardest efforts to please those surrounding them, are sometimes caught in a crossfire of issues that long precede them in importance and lack of control. Scout is a innocent child surrounded by corrupt events and by carrying out a simple conversation with a mobster threatening her fathers life, the author is demonstrating pure ignorance. Children are largely recognized to be a symbol of irreproachability, and Scout, Jem and Dill are no exception.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Scout was the Mockingbird in this situation. Her sole purpose of starting a conversation with Mr. Cunningham was to be polite and to please Atticus.
ReplyDeleteShe said "Atticus said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they are interested in,"(205) she was trying to be proper and and polite and without knowing stopped a mob and maybe even a lynching from happening. It was because of her innocence and being the soul person in that crowd that hadn't yet been corrupted by Maycomb. Possibly the mob thought thought that to destroy Scout's innocence would be a sin as if they were shooting a mockingbird. Scout saw through the tough angry men and saw friends that had lived beside them in Maycomb for her whole life, and like she said "Entailments seem all right enough for living room talk,"(206) these people had been in and out of Scout's living room her whole life, and to seem them as her enemies must seem preposterous.