Dialectical Journal Chapters 19-25

Dialectical Journal Chapters 19-25
Vocabulary
1. Expunge- To strike or blot out; to erase or destroy.

2. Iota- A very small quantity; jot.

3. Unmitigated- Not lessened; unqualified or absolute.
4. Cynical- Distrusting the motives of others.

5. Brevity- Shortness of time or duration; briefness. Vocabulary
1. My teacher told us that we weren’t allowed to expunge anything we had already written on our test.
2. The iota of depth in the book made it a hard plot to follow.
3. Henry shouted with unmitigated happiness when his name was called in the raffle.
4. At that moment I couldn’t feel any more cynical about the way my friend was acting out.
5. When my mom got mad, her brevity was frightening.
Interpreting/Making a Prediction
“Mr. Underwood simply figured that it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting or escaping. He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children…” (Lee 323) Interpreting/Making a Prediction
While Mr. Underwood was seemingly always on Atticus’ side, it was hard to expect him to have pity for Tom when he was shot. Like Mr. Underwood, I predict that there will be more and more awareness for the injustice towards blacks in Maycomb and the rest of the South. It is very odd and unusual to see someone who does not automatically consider themselves inferior to blacks during this time. This is why Atticus is considered so distinct compared to most of his community during this time. By Mr. Underwood then continuing to provide pity for Tom after he already helped Atticus when the gang was going to attack him at the courthouse, he both shows his respectability to Atticus and represents a beginning change in society. Being that he is the writer of the newspaper, he seems...

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...uth to fully understand that it is typical to act superior to those with colored skin. All Dill sees is a man being rude to another, just because of his skin color. While Atticus clearly shows everyone in the court that it was almost impossible for Tom Robinson to have beat Mayella, he still loses the case just because he was a black man against a white woman. Lee includes, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (Lee 323) This enforces how it didn’t matter what Tom was really doing or why Mayella was screaming, but just by the way Tom looked they were able to essentially pin the rape and the beatings on Tom. Of course this was not true and he did not receive the justice he deserved, but that didn’t matter to Maycomb. All that mattered was the color of his skin and what the teenage white girl named Mayella Ewell said about him.