lts who could understand from the time they are infants. However, Atticus knows he lives in a community and era when so many people lack education and remain intolerant to others that an innocent black man can be murdered on merely the testimony of a white man whose own character is untrustworthy. We see this best dramatized when Atticus gives his closing arguments while defending Tom “The witnesses for the state…have presented themselves to you gentlemen…in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the…evil assumption…that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber” (Lee, 1960, 207).
Scout is a symbol of opposing prejudice and ignorance. She is a tomboy who hates wearing dresses and beats up friends who offend her. She spends most of her time readin
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