Chapter 26/27: What is ironic about the lesson Miss Gates is teaching the class?

Ms. Gate’s lesson to Scout’s class is blaringly ironic as, in her attempts to hail American democracy and differentiate it from the oppressive German dictatorship, she blindly reveals uncanny and revolting similarities between the two. Miss Gates says, “That is the difference between America and Germany. We are a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship… Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudice.”(p.329). In Maycomb county, black people are restricted and prejudiced just like Jews in Germany. Black people are denied constitutional rights and white people have more privileges. Scout repeats Atticus’ definition of democracy, stating that it is, “Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.” (p.328). Ms. Gates approves of this definition, and goes on to say that the racially unequal community they live in is part of a democracy.

Harper Lee uses this irony to emphasize the hypocrisy and more importantly the ignorance of people in Maycomb. Ms. Gates is clearly unaware of the undemocratic state of Maycomb. She is capable of understanding the immorality and injustice in the persecution of Jews in Germany, but does not detect the slightest flaw in Maycomb racial affairs. In Germany, the persecution of Jews was sudden, violent and foreign to the people of Maycomb. The actions taken were blatantly wrong. When people are suddenly denied rights and treated wrongly, the injustices are immediately spread through the media. Taking away rights in this abrupt manner is never palatable and the distant nature of these injustices only makes them easier to criticize in the U.S. When rights are suddenly given, the attitude can be similarly skeptical, particularly in those who are negatively affected. Many people whose slaves were freed felt that this skepticism and hurt economically as a result. Because of the continuation of these feelings, black people were never fully awarded their rights. This racial inequality gradually carried on through generations, and because of this long history, this way of life, it is difficult for some traditional Maycomb people to see the mistreatment of black people from an inside perspective.

Scout has proved to have a relatively undisturbed understanding of equality, how do you think she will react to the increasingly more apparent inequalities? At this point, how do you think she would interact with a black family?