Literature in Film #3: To Kill a Mockingbird

I think this was one of the most heartbreaking trials I've ever watched in a movie. From the start of when he went up before the jury I could tell that there wouldn't be a happy ending to it because of how regardless of how sincere and innocent he sounded and actually was, he didn't stand a chance. When Atticus went up to plead with the jury, I found something so beautifully sad about what he was saying.

Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal, a phrase that the government is fond of hurling at us. There is a tendency in this year of grace, 1935, for certain people to use that phrase out of context, to satisfy all conditions.

I've never read the book but I think, here, the author is trying to make note of the fact that our nation really isn't equal at all, that we have to state we are rather than just actually be. The context of this situation where it's a black man going against two white people in front of a jury filled with white discriminative people goes to prove this inequality because already, he is already hopeless before they can even hear his story but also doesn't stand a chance. 

I also thought that his kids being there to see the trial was very important, especially this one if any. It's nice to know that he's teaching them not to discriminate and this is the best way to explain why because it shows that it could mean life or death for somebody.