This week in my literature circle I was the Illuminator. Everybody contributed in my group because everyone got the homework done on time. A question I answered this week as the Illuminator was: a symbol that is important from the book. The symbol I chose was that the jury is entirely white when Tom Robinson was in court. That symbolized that blacks didn’t have equality with whites even though they were supposed to be equal. The author creates a setting that I can clearly envision in my mind by her describing words of the courtroom. It also helped me picture the courtroom by what I already know about a courtroom and movies that I’ve seen with courtrooms in them.
The only big conflict in this section this week was in the courtroom when Atticus was defending Tom Robinson. This shows a man vs. man conflict because Mr. Gilmer is trying to defend Mayella Ewell against Atticus who is defending Tom Robinson. The author made this conflict intense by not giving much hints of whether or not knowing if the jury was racist or not. The author solved the conflict by when the judge announced Mr. Robinson was guilty. It was solved this way because the jury is racist and it showed it because the evidence clearly showed Mr. Robinson was not guilty.
The author creates emotion by the word choice she uses and by how the characters react in the book. The primary tone of this section is suspense because as you read you don’t know if Tom Robinson will be found guilty or not. If I had Jem in my literature circle he would probably talk a lot if he was interested in what we were talking about. A sign he was interested would be listening intently and may interrupt at times to give his opinions. I know this by the way he was intently listening to the trial going on down below in the courtroom and how he would whisper to Scout or the air if he didn’t agree with something the jury said. My group discussed our opinions of what should have been the outcome of the trial and that it was a shock to us all how Mr. Dolphus Raymond wasn’t really a drunk like everybody thought he was, it was coca-cola he had been drinking.
