Definition of Maycomb’s Usual Disease
Atticus is concerned about the trial and hopes he can get Jem and
Scout through the “hot summer” and the trial “without any bitterness.”
He anticipates that the children will see the townspeople catch
“Maycomb’s usual disease (prejudice) …when anything involving a
Negro comes up.” He even describes them as “reasonable people”
who go “stark raving mad.” There are several ways to interpret the
word mad. Some are:
Anger brought on by loss of temper
Insanity caused by psychological disorders, which may be only
temporary
A form of blindness caused by prejudice
A fear created out of emotionally upsetting situations.
These definitions can be applied to the characters in this novel as
they exhibit one or more of these forms of “madness” sometime
during the story.
Directions: For your assigned characters, describe something that
happened which shows the character displaying one of the forms of
“madness” defined above. Please say which definition of blindness
best fits the incident and explain why you chose this definition.
Bob Ewell
The jury
Mayella
Tom’s prison guards
Mr. Cunningham
Mrs. Dubose
Miss Gates
Hitler
Women at the Missionary Society meeting
Jem
Tom Robinson
Scout