Thomas C. Foster says that “irony trumps everything” (244). There is a deep irony to Harper Lee’s novel when it comes to the attitude of the townspeople towards the actions of Adolf Hitler in Germany and the Tom Robinson case that’s happening right in their backyard.
Cecil Jacobs comes to class with a news article in hand that discusses the persecution of the Jews in Germany. Then Miss Gates describes that the United States is a democracy, while Germany is a dictatorship. She continues by saying, “over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudice” (Lee 245). Overall, Miss Gates told her students that Hitler’s actions were awful and that nobody would ever get away with that in the United States. But her thoughts are fallacious; Prejudice is alive and well in Maycomb county, where just months earlier an African American man was charged guilty of rape when all of the evidence pointed toward the other suspect. Harper Lee’s use of juxtaposition shows the clear irony that exists in the beliefs of white people in America. …show more content…
This was inserted to put a time period to the text in the beginning, but as the story continues there becomes an irony to this quote. During the trial, Atticus asked Tom Robinson why he ran, in which he responded with “I was scared, suh... Mr. Finch if you was a nigger like me, you’d be scared, too” (Lee 195). To the readers living in today’s world this seems strange because they would think, but if you weren’t guilty you wouldn’t have ran. But he did run because he was an African American and he had everything to fear, proving that Roosevelt’s quote was only true for White
Cecil Jacobs comes to class with a news article in hand that discusses the persecution of the Jews in Germany. Then Miss Gates describes that the United States is a democracy, while Germany is a dictatorship. She continues by saying, “over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudice” (Lee 245). Overall, Miss Gates told her students that Hitler’s actions were awful and that nobody would ever get away with that in the United States. But her thoughts are fallacious; Prejudice is alive and well in Maycomb county, where just months earlier an African American man was charged guilty of rape when all of the evidence pointed toward the other suspect. Harper Lee’s use of juxtaposition shows the clear irony that exists in the beliefs of white people in America. …show more content…
This was inserted to put a time period to the text in the beginning, but as the story continues there becomes an irony to this quote. During the trial, Atticus asked Tom Robinson why he ran, in which he responded with “I was scared, suh... Mr. Finch if you was a nigger like me, you’d be scared, too” (Lee 195). To the readers living in today’s world this seems strange because they would think, but if you weren’t guilty you wouldn’t have ran. But he did run because he was an African American and he had everything to fear, proving that Roosevelt’s quote was only true for White