The
roly-poly symbolizes innocence. In the beginning of chapter twenty-five, Scout
finds a “roly-poly” bug in her room. Scout plays with the insect; making it
curl into a ball several times by poking it with a stick to scare it. After a
few minutes playing this game, Scout says, “Feeling sleepy, I decided to end
things” (Lee 319). Right before Scout was going to squash the bug, Jem stopped
her by saying, “They don’t bother you” (Lee 320).
To Jem, the
insect was like Tom Robinson. Tom was a normal African American man, who was
unfairly charged of a crime he did not commit. By smashing the bug, Tom
Robinson would be dead also. His innocence and freedom would be taken away from
him. This is what happened when Tom was shot trying to escape. Jem was trying
to keep Tom alive by stopping Scout. Jem
understands now that every person has a fighting chance, and should not
immediately be thought of as evil and wrong.
Why would Scout immediately want to kill the roly-poly bug? (Does
it represent more than boredom?) How does this event show Jem growing up?
Scout wanted to kill the roly-poly because she was annoyed by it and bored. When she asks Jem why he wouldn't let her smash it, he says "Because they don't bother you." (Lee 320) The roly-poly is like a mockingbird, because "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for [people] to enjoy." (Lee 119) just like the roly-poly who isn't harming anyone in any way. Tom Robinson is also like the roly-poly because people want to kill him without any good reason. Scout didn't see any harm in killing the roly-poly because it was just a bug, and she, like most other kids, was prejudiced against bugs. She thought that bugs were just little annoying and useless things, and that it wouldn't matter if it was killed. This scene is a metaphor for the Tom Robinson case, where Scout would be Maycomb, and the roly-poly would be Tom. Just like Scout, Maycomb didn't take any time to think about killing Tom, and just said that since they always treat African-Americans unfairly, why think, instead of just killing him automatically? Maycomb sees no harm in killing tom anyway because he is "just" an African-American. Maycomb needs to learn that every one and everything has an equal right to live, and that no living things are more important than others. Killing anyone or anything is a big deal. I think that Atticus helped Maycomb start realizing this with what he said as Tom's lawyer, even though he did not win the case.
ReplyDeleteTom being shot was just like a roly-poly being squashed in the minds of the people of Maycomb. He was black, so he wasn't important. To Maycomb, he was just a nuisance that didn't harm anyone, but there was no reason to keep him alive or value his life. "What was one Negro, more or less, among two hundred of 'em? He wasn't Tom to them, he was an escaping prisoner," (Lee 315) Atticus says to Aunt Alexandra. Tom didn't seem to be human to the guards who shot him or to Maycomb... he was just another crazy black person trying to escape from prison. Jem realizes this and understands that if one living thing is equal, then the another living thing is to. He wanted to preserve the innocence of the roly-poly that had done nothing wrong except being in the wrong place at the wrong time because that's exactly what Tom was guilty of. Jem felt that it would be wrong to let Scout toy with the roly-poly and then kill it when she was bored with it because then that would be like killing Tom all over again.
ReplyDeleteEven bigger picture than what Maycomb thinks of Tom Robinson, this is symbolic of how blacks were treated during segregation. In this scenario, the white community of the south is represented by Scout. The black community is represented by the roly-poly. While Scout uses the roly-poly for amusement, the white community uses the black community to cook them food, farm their fields, and clean their houses. Once Scout gets bored with the roly-poly, she decides to kill it. The roly-poly never gave her anything but amusement, so why would Scout kill it? The black people that help the whites never do anything but do the whites dirty work, so why would the whites convict an innocent black man of rape? As Mrs. Merriweather says, "if my Sophy'd kept it up another day, I would've let her go..., (Lee 312). Mrs. Merriweather only reason to let her black servant go is that she has been in a bad mood. Mrs. Merriweather does not care about the years of faithful service Sophy has given her, all Mrs. Merriweather knows it that Sophy is replaceable. Whites viewed blacks as if they are all the same, not individuals. "What was one Negroe, more or less, among two hundred of 'em?" (Lee 315), is probably what the prison guards thought when they shot Tom Robinson 17 times. The guards didn't take into account that Tom has a wife and kids, that he had a life. This scenario helps show the point that in the times of segregation, blacks were viewed as almost nothing more than white peoples play toys.
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