RATIONALE

It was in the year of 1960 when the classic of modern literature novel, written
by the North American Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird was first published.

Jeremy Finch, also known as Jem, is one of the main characters of the novel,
which is a brave, curious and kind boy that occurs to be Scout’s older brother and
closest friend as well. During the progress of the story, Jem enters to the adolescent
phase and deals with injustice itself thanks to the trial of Tom Robinson, from which
he got pretty much into, since Atticus Finch, lawyer of Maycomb and father of Scout
and Jem, happened to be the defendant of Tom Robinson. Jem’s thoughts about
Maycomb’s society suffer tragic changes after the trial. Injustice won and Jem started
to understand the level of cruelty in one man’s soul, and he was very disappointed
about it all.

The task I chose was a Diary Entry from Jem Finch about the results of the
trial. They got home late in the night from the Court and he was feeling disillusioned,
angry and a bit confused. He couldn’t stop asking himself how... why... It was the
first time he had experienced unfairness in its finest level. In this Diary Entry Jem
describes his feelings about the trial results as soon as he gets home from watching
it, and starts to notice things he didn’t notice before about the society and what it is
capable of.

Word count: 244.

 TASK
Dear diary,

It ain’t fair. It ain’t fair. It ain’t fair at all. I truly believed Atticus would win the
case, I really reckoned. The whole trial was stark unfairness, and while Judge Taylor
kept saying “guilty” over and over, all I did was grip the balcony rail as hard as I could
with both of my hands and shiver by the sound of the word “guilty”. I just feel so
angry, so riled. Why would the Court and the Judge even take for sure Bob Ewell’s
words?
How could they? How could they do such thing?

And Atticus… he doesn’t have a single clue about it, about how they could do
it. He has just left my room, said goodnight and went to sleep, and maybe I should
get some too. But today was just too much. While heading back home after the trial
in this pitch black night, I walked with these feet of mine that felt heavier than ever
and angry tears rolling all over my face, but then I realized this sort of… I don’t know.
It’s like something that has been hidden under a big old blanket all this time, big
enough to hide the truth just well, but now I see no blanket no more, all right, not
even a bit. Just cruel and well-defined truth. I mean, I thought folks in Maycomb were
different. Less cruel? Less unfair? Better than this. Better than

I guess Reverand Sykes was right when he told me he ain’t ever seen any jury
decide in favor of a colored man over a white man. And I guess Atticus was wrong
when he said that a courtroom was a place where everyone is seen as an equal.
Today, yonder in the trial, no equality was seen, no sir. Maybe things are like this
sometimes, people are wrong no matter how much you believe in their words, and
unfairness gets to win no matter what the truth is. It feels like everything’s possible
now… well, everything has been always possible, but the difference is that I didn’t
know then, I didn’t really reckon that until this day.

I should get some sleep now, I really should, but Judge Taylor’s voice is still in
my head repeating the word “guilty” countless times, and I can remember the feeling
of disillusion and angriness because… it. Ain’t. Fair. One of the worst parts, all right,
one of the worst parts was that Atticus showed the truth to everyone in the trial, no
folk can deny it. The truth was right there, and Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewel were
wrong, but no matter how wrong they were, no matter how much temerity they have,
and no matter how much of frauds they were, the Ewells aren’t niggers like Tom
Robinson, and that fact is far way more than enough to win at a Maycomb’s trial. It
sure is, happened in front of my eyes.
Boy, do I get angry easily? I don’t really know how to describe the feeling very
well. Atticus told me, right before he told me goodnight and left to get some sleep,
he told me that only children seem to weep when the Court do things like today’s, I
wonder what does that mean. ‘Guess I’ll just think about it, so I can get to hear
“Guilty…Guilty…Guilty…” no longer, no more.

Word count: 562.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird.
 http://masterrussian.net/f31/kill-mockingbird-vocabulary-idioms-19402/
 http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/04/we_learn_tom_robinsons
_fate_an.html
 http://www.shmoop.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/jem-jeremy-atticus-finch.html
 http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/