"Hitler is the Government"-- A Resemblance to the Case

In chapter twenty six of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout describes how her teacher, Miss Gates, asks all the children to study Current Events for school. The student, Cecil Jacobs, shares with the class news about Hitler. Cecil explains, "old Adolf Hitler has been after Jews and he's puttin' 'em in prisons and he's taking away all their property and he won't let anyone of 'em out of the country and he's washin' all the feeble-minded and--". After Cecil finishes explaining about Hitler, another student raises their hand and asks, "I mean how can Hitler just put a lotof folks in a pen like that, looks like the goamint'd stop him." Miss Gates replies by saying that "Hitler is the government". But Miss Gates's response has a lot of irony relating to the Tom Robinson case. If Hitler is the government, then the government is bias, just like Tom Robinson's jury. His jury consisted of all white males, almost all with the same opinion of blacks. With Hitler being the government, his opinion is the only one that "matters". And it is the same situation with the white jury. They're verdict is the one that counts.

Miss Gates then wrote on the board the word DEMOCRACY. When she asked what the word meant, Scout replied, "'Equal rights for all, special privileges for none,'" quoting Atticus. The word democracy in this chapter is a symbol for what Alabama during this time really wasn't. If Alabama and the United States were considered a real democracy, then Tom Robinson would've gotten a fair trial, and a chance that would have actually been accounted for. But even Miss Gate's understanding of democracy, and even the "hate" that she has for Hitler, cannot control her prejudice against blacks.

-Nicole