Note this example was created with solely integrated quotations (rather than expert reference to the text) in order to demonstrate this style. Ideally, you will have precise quotations chosen productively as the main points in each paragraph.
The attitude of the ladies circle to Tom Robinson’s trial is telling of the pernicious moral blindspot that exists for them throughout the novel. . It is telling, from Scout’s narration, that Aunt Alexandra never expresses her views (especially the dubious ones) clearly, but rather, instead, ‘obliquely’. Even Scout, a child narrator, can sense the unfair and desperate immoral treatment of the black community in Maycomb, even from women who question why the Jews cannot resist the influence of ‘Hitler’. This attiude is demonised by the ugly verb ‘squatting’recounted by Scout to describe how Alexandra refers to landrights. For those in 1930s America, the financial and economic uncertainty would make land ownership especially important, particularly amongst Americans (a young country). For a countercultural 1960s reader, however, such traditional attitudes would be seen as an unwelcome status quo, and hence worthy of challenge. It is with this recounting that Lee desires to mock the pious blindness of the so-called moral authority of Maycomb.
On the other side of the moral spectrum, Atticus shows immense bravery towards the trial. His inner resolve against the pervasive racist attitudes of Maycomb is to declare he must take the case, even though he knows he is licked’ before he has even ‘begun’. This colloquial language to evoke such a high moral point is significant. Atticus knows that if the racist attitudes of Maycomb are to change, then it needs to happen through the next generation. The anger and sullenness of Jem in the aftermath of the trial shows that the hope created by Atticus’ defence of Tom must be tempered by some.
It is through this desire for hope that Lee argues for the need for irreverence to past attitudes and social structures. Miss Maudie’s attitude of referring to the ‘sin’ of killing a mockingbird is fundamental: the infinitive verb in the titel means that this is a present attitude, not necessarily one in completion. However, it is Dolphus Raymond’s attitude of allowing… folks’to ‘think’that he drinks that shows the importance of irreverence to survival. The inevitability of racist guilt and blame, known to the reader through cases like the Scottsboro boys, that requires a defiant attitude characterised through the play by these characters, and a resolute attitude as demonstrated by Atticus, to both combat and survive in a lovely, yet úgly’ small American town characterised and symbolised by Maycomb and its inhabitants.
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