Atticus and Aunt Alexandra have different definitions of trash, but are both the same at their core. While Atticus was talking to Scout about racism, he says, “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day… whenever a white man does that to a black man… he is trash.” (Lee 295) By saying this, he has identified all of the jury as trash, because they all made their decision using racist bias rather than actual facts. While Aunt Alexandra was explaining to Scout why Walter Cunningham could not come over, she said, “Because-he-is-trash… I’ll not have you around him, picking up his habits and learning Lord-knows-what….” When she says this, she means she doesn’t want Scout to pick up any views from Walter that he may have got from his father. Walter may have inherited racist and biased views from his father, and she does not want Scout picking them up. Although both definitions are different, they both say that racist people are trash.
I believe that Aunt Alexandra's definition of 'trash' is based purely on opinion, while Atticus' has some logic to it; he determines what he thinks of a person by their morals. We’ve very clearly seen from Alexandra that she judges a person by their family. Therefore, she is calling Walter trash because she believes his family is this way, for they are very poor farmers. This becomes the entirety of their persona; they are defined by their family. However, examples like Mr. Dolphus Raymond show that it is possible to stray from your family name, though it may not be appreciated. Atticus does appreciate this though, as he sees people through no ‘family filter,’ we can call it, and is able to see one’s morals clearly. He also believes that people can change, like when Jem is shocked by Walter Cunningham Sr.’s change on the jury. “You mean you actually put on the jury a man who wanted to kill you the night before?” (298). Atticus saw the change in Walter when he called the men off that night, so Atticus felt confident that he would be alright, and he was; he was the only uncertain member of the jury.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that both Aunt Alexandra's and Atticus' definitions of trash had to do with being racist. When Aunt Alexandra said, "The thing is, you can scrub Walter Cunningham till he shines, you can put him in shoes and a new suit, but he'll never be like Jem." (Lee 300), she means that, even though the Cunninghams are dirty and poor people, that is not the reason that they are so different from the Finches. They are different because they are racist, much unlike the Finches. Though Aunt Alexandra's definition of trash was based off of opinion and Atticus' was based off of facts, they are, as Stephen said, basically the same. It was one of the first points in the book where Atticus and Aunt Alexandra actually agreed.
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