Skip to main content

In Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, what is so hypocritical about the discussion of the J. Grimes Everett at the time?

One afternoon, Aunt Alexandra hosted a social with refreshments for the missionary circle.  Scout listened to "Mrs. Grace Merriweather giving a report in the livingroom on the squalid lives of the Mrunas" (To Kill a Mockingbird, chapter 24).  The Mrunas were an African tribe.  Mrs. Merriweather spoke with emotion about the poor conditions of the Mrunas, and noted that no white person, except for the missionary J. Grimes Everett, would help them.  She acknowledged his compassion and called him saintly.


Despite Mrs. Merriweather's praise for Mr. Everett, she did not seek to help the African Americans in her own community.  She spoke positively about Mr. Everett helping the Africans in poverty, and yet she and the other ladies in the missionary circle ignored the poverty in Maycomb.  She was more concerned about the work of a man on the other side of the world than about those living in the community.  This was also after the trial, where the cards were stacked against Tom Robinson because it was his word against the word of a white woman.


Mrs. Merriweather even complained about "a sulky darky."  She spoke in a degrading way about the African Americans living in Maycomb.  She behaved in a superior way.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more