Dill starts to cry because he is too young to have learned to be racist. When Mr. Gilmore is cross-examining Tom Robinson, he acts very disrespectful and “calls him boy all the time an’ sneered at him,” (Lee, 266). This really upsets Dill and he has to leave the courthouse. When he goes outside, Dill explains to Scout why he began t0 cry. Dill is so young that Mr. Gilmmore’s disrespect for Tom seems unusual and wrong to him. Everyone in the courtroom notices that Mayella thinks Atticus is being rude to her when he calls her “Miss,” but when Mr. Gilmer says to Tom Robinson, “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?”(Lee 264) no one minds. This correlates with when Atticus says “Maybe we need a police force of children,”(Lee 210). Young children, like Dill, haven’t yet been influenced by the ideology of the South back then. They are uncorrupted and do not filter their emotions as much as adults do. I think that Dill is a good example of how society teaches people to be racist.
Do you think that Scout and Jem are also like Dill? Do you think that any adults could have reacted the way that Dill did?
I agree with what Colin said, I think that Dill started to cry because he has never encountered racism in his life. Because of that, to him its just one person being rude to another person. But in the south, during that time frame african americans were viewed as lesser than whites. I don't think that Scout and Jem are like Dill because they know so much about what Atticus and what he does at work. I think that Scout and Jem probably know more about the situation with blacks than some other adults. I don't think its likely that any adults reacted the same way that Dill did because they've probably been exposed to what's happening through Magazines, or just word on the street. For example, in Chapter 19 Scout talks about how Mr. Underwood is going to write about the case in his magazine.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with both of you. It seems that there is a power in innocence. Although being naive or inexperienced with the world can often be a disability, in the sense of court and law I think that it is a great asset. Children do not pick up on unnecessary or unrealistic biases which weaken most adults because they do not know about them. Mr. Raymond understands Dill "' You aren't thin hided, it just makes you sick, doesn't it?" (Lee 266).
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