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Beneath the slow and languid appearance of
life in the small Southern town of Maycomb, is a powerful undercurrent
of violence always ready to erupt. The harmony that seems to exist
between white and Negro in this town is disrupted daily by minor outbursts
of friction. The Tom Robinson trial allows us to witness a major explosion
of racial hostility.
At one point in the novel (Chapter 10), Atticus
shoots a once friendly dog that has become rabid. Similarly, Atticus
must take an offensive position against Bob Ewell, who threatens
to destroy the Negro population and its white sympathizers. A sudden,
cry to justice means that a violent and unreasonable man like Bob
Ewell must be stopped from wreaking havoc among temperate people.
Racial hostility in the novel is not merely
one way, as we realize when one Negro woman voices a menacing complaint
against the Finch children when they enter the Negro chapel with
Calpurnia. Friction between members of the same race is also aroused
during this incident, for this same woman also suggests that Calpurnia's
loyalties are suspect because she is the servant of a white family.
These bitter words indicate the resentment with which the Negro
population regards the oppressive white community. Such maltreatment
as the Negroes have endured is certain to lead to retaliation through
reverse discrimination.
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