Essay 9

                                                 Don’t Judge

                                              By Cole Blake

    2/11/12

Atticus says a lot of meaningful things in his speech to the jury but there is one quote I found that stands out, “The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Lincoln County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen -- to this Court -- in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted; confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption, the evil assumption, that all negroes lie; all negroes are basically immoral beings; all ***** men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is in itself, gentlemen, a lie -- which I do not need to point out to you.”. This quote, to me is saying that most white men make assumptions about blacks because one might be bad. This is a terrible thing to do and it is very racist. This quote relates to my life and is very important to the story of the book.

In chapter 20 of To Kill a Mockingbird, during Atticus’ speech to the jury he says, “The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Lincoln County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen -- to this Court -- in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted; confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption, the evil assumption, that all negroes lie; all negroes are basically immoral beings; all ***** men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is in itself, gentlemen, a lie -- which I do not need to point out to you.”. This related a lot to my life because most people including my self make assumptions about people before having the chance to know them better. I do this without realising it on many situations. If I heard something bad about someone I, thinking about that problem, would immediately assume that they are all bad and there are no good traits about them. After reading this far in the book I think that a theme of this book is that racism is bad. I also think this quote could relate to that theme of the book. the quote shows that blacks being all the things Atticus says are not true and are just assumptions. This quote also is important to the story of the book because it shows that Atticus is not a racist like most of Maycomb and the south. This is important because he is defending a black man in court and must succeed. This also might change racism in Maycomb forever. I am so glad Atticus used this in his speech to the jury, now he might have a chance to win the case.

    This quote was very important in the story of To Kill a Mockingbird. It showed a lot about Atticus’ character and that he not a racist man. It also taught me not to judge someone by something they did int he past. I am very glad that Atticus used this in his speech to the jury.