“You will never know what's behind my skull… You will never know what's under my skin”-Tyler Joseph. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, a group of men go to lynch Tom Robinson because of his skin color. Though innocent of the crime he was convicted for, they felt he was guilty because they couldn’t see past the melanin pigmentation in his skin. In this excerpt, Scout learns through Mr. Walter Cunningham Sr.'s clear discomfort but end reaction to her conversation making skills, that true maturity is realizing that people are people, and it's best to treat them as such.
After one of the protagonists of this influential novel speaks to Walter Cunningham, Scout jumps into the middle of the circle, and the “smell of stale whiskey…” (203) …show more content…
Cunningham, she asks about his son and entailment, as if they passed one another on the street. By doing this, he is able to see a little girl treat him kindly, and realizes what the folks of “Ol’ Sarum” are doing is unjust. The internal conflict going on inside Mr. Cunningham is clear. As Scout begins the conversation with him, he “...blinked and hooked his thumbs in his overall straps.” (204). He came with a plan in mind, and his plan was to lynch Tom Robinson. But as soon as Jean Louise attempted to strike up a conversation with him, his discomfort became clear, as if he wasn’t sure he really wanted to kill Tom. Mr. Cunningham’s uneasy nature in the section of selection is displayed once again when he “shifted his feet, clad in heavy work shoes” (205). The internal conflict within Walter Cunningham is eventually resolved when he shouts for everyone to go home. Through Scout’s simple conversation with her friends father she was able to change the course of this entire novel, and was able to see that to call people to their wits she has to know what's in their skull, and under their skin. People are people, no matter their skin, no matter what it seems they’ve done, and despite what they might
After one of the protagonists of this influential novel speaks to Walter Cunningham, Scout jumps into the middle of the circle, and the “smell of stale whiskey…” (203) …show more content…
Cunningham, she asks about his son and entailment, as if they passed one another on the street. By doing this, he is able to see a little girl treat him kindly, and realizes what the folks of “Ol’ Sarum” are doing is unjust. The internal conflict going on inside Mr. Cunningham is clear. As Scout begins the conversation with him, he “...blinked and hooked his thumbs in his overall straps.” (204). He came with a plan in mind, and his plan was to lynch Tom Robinson. But as soon as Jean Louise attempted to strike up a conversation with him, his discomfort became clear, as if he wasn’t sure he really wanted to kill Tom. Mr. Cunningham’s uneasy nature in the section of selection is displayed once again when he “shifted his feet, clad in heavy work shoes” (205). The internal conflict within Walter Cunningham is eventually resolved when he shouts for everyone to go home. Through Scout’s simple conversation with her friends father she was able to change the course of this entire novel, and was able to see that to call people to their wits she has to know what's in their skull, and under their skin. People are people, no matter their skin, no matter what it seems they’ve done, and despite what they might