Question

As she thinks back on the events of the summer tom robinson was killed, scout muses, "there was one off thing, though, that i never understood: in spite of atticus's shortcomings as a parent, people were content to re-elect him to the state legislature that year, as usual, without opposition"(279). why is the fact that atticus was re-elected without opposition significant? what does it say about the values of the community? summarize the lesson that miss gates teaches about democracy and prejudice. what is ironic about this lesson?

Answer 1

1. Even though the people of Maycomb criticized Atticus when he defended Tom, they know in their heart and minds that he is the best person to represent their county. This happened because they genuinely believe that Atticus has a moral standrad that would serve their society best which make them think that atticus would always give his best to pass the legislation that benefit their collective society.

2 It says that the society able to make a rational decision despite of the flaw of character that may exist within a certain representative.
Despite his flaw, most of the civilians in that city respected the expertise that Atticus has (and all of his competitors are nowhere near as capable)

3. Miss Gates says that the U.S. is a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship. This is ironic because she says that Germany is wrong for persecuting Jewish people, while completely ignoring the mistreatment of african american in her own community. What the community does to the african american would be considered as a direct violation of the minorities' democratic right