While reading chapters 20 and 21 of "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee, there were times when quotes jumped out at me and surprised me. For example, when Mr. Raymond is talking to Dill about him crying in court, Mr. Raymond says, "Cry about the simple hell people give other people without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people, too" (Lee, 201). This quote stood out to me in a positive way because it shows how Mr. Raymond is against racism. Dolphus Raymond is a white man who is married to a black woman and together they have biracial children. Even in a town where everyone thinks of white people as being better than black people, Dolphus has the ability to look past that and have his own opinion. It would be much easier for him to fit in if he had married a white women instead and gone along with the rest of the town, but he stood out from the crowd and stayed true to his belief that we are all people.
In addition, when Jem is talking to Reverend Sykes about how he thinks they will win the trial, Reverend says, "Now don't you be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain't ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man..." (Lee, 208). To me, this quote is significant because it shows the beliefs of the people in the town of Maycomb. The jury always ends up believing the white people over the black people even if the black person is clearly proven not guilty. This demonstrates all of the racism that there was during the time. Nobody would want to stick up for a black person simply because of the color of their skin. White people thought they were superior to black people, therefore they believed each other. Reverend Sykes said he had never seen a black man win in court, and odds are some of those times the white man was actually at fault.
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