Juror's Journal
TRANSCRIPT OF JUROR #9's JOURNAL
That blasted trial finished today. Three hours sitting there talking it over amongst ourselves and now it's finally over, thank God. Well, I suppose it's not over for that boy yet. That's a pity, a real pity. Not over for Atticus Finch either, I suppose. Folks round here aren't likely to forget this. It's bound to stick with Maycomb for a while yet-- til everyone sitting in that courtroom goes on to meet their maker, like that boy's about to. Tough spot for Atticus to be in. But he stood tall enough doing it. Hadn't any choice but to defend that boy, and nobody'd've done it better anyhow. That was his job and he did it like it had to be done. But, of course, the same goes for us.
Couldn't've done it no different. Couldn't've looked Mayella Ewell in the face and said her word was dirt to us. They're Ewells, of course, but still. 'Cause, clearly, something happened to that girl. Heck Tate said it himself. We're all in agreement on that, with the bruises and all. Something happened to her. And she's saying one thing and this boy's saying another. And, at some point, who's saying what and not what's being said is what's gotta count with us. I mean, 'cause, what if it was my daughter and Bob Ewell was sitting on that jury in my place? We can't just go around saying that Mayella Ewell's word don't carry no weight with us, 'cause then where does the "us" start and the "them" begin? It's gotta be all or nothin' and it's better for everybody if it's all. 'Sides, what kind of men are we if we let a thing like that happen to a woman and then don't even have the decency to believe her? Something happened and nothing that we said would take that back. We were never going to make it better for her, never could've. But we didn't make it no worse for her either, and that was the thing in question when we got down to it. It wasn't, maybe, fair on that boy, but it was the only decent thing we had it in our power to do.
That blasted trial finished today. Three hours sitting there talking it over amongst ourselves and now it's finally over, thank God. Well, I suppose it's not over for that boy yet. That's a pity, a real pity. Not over for Atticus Finch either, I suppose. Folks round here aren't likely to forget this. It's bound to stick with Maycomb for a while yet-- til everyone sitting in that courtroom goes on to meet their maker, like that boy's about to. Tough spot for Atticus to be in. But he stood tall enough doing it. Hadn't any choice but to defend that boy, and nobody'd've done it better anyhow. That was his job and he did it like it had to be done. But, of course, the same goes for us.
Couldn't've done it no different. Couldn't've looked Mayella Ewell in the face and said her word was dirt to us. They're Ewells, of course, but still. 'Cause, clearly, something happened to that girl. Heck Tate said it himself. We're all in agreement on that, with the bruises and all. Something happened to her. And she's saying one thing and this boy's saying another. And, at some point, who's saying what and not what's being said is what's gotta count with us. I mean, 'cause, what if it was my daughter and Bob Ewell was sitting on that jury in my place? We can't just go around saying that Mayella Ewell's word don't carry no weight with us, 'cause then where does the "us" start and the "them" begin? It's gotta be all or nothin' and it's better for everybody if it's all. 'Sides, what kind of men are we if we let a thing like that happen to a woman and then don't even have the decency to believe her? Something happened and nothing that we said would take that back. We were never going to make it better for her, never could've. But we didn't make it no worse for her either, and that was the thing in question when we got down to it. It wasn't, maybe, fair on that boy, but it was the only decent thing we had it in our power to do.
Discussion of Juror's Journal
In this genre, I sought to understand how someone could justify convicting a clearly innocent man to themselves. It is written from a bigoted perspective which is not my own. The purpose of the exercise was to imagine how anyone could fail to have empathy for Tom Robinson; the result was a piece in which the speaker imagined that his capacity for empathy was limited and already pledged elsewhere. I found it really interesting and helpful to challenge myself to imagine the internal forces that might have lead someone to believe they were making the right decision by convicting Tom. It would have been much easier, I think, to simply write off the juror as someone I could never understand. However, in reality-- as well as in the text-- everyone believes they are the hero of their own story. Looking for humanity in others is, I would argue, the heart of Harper Lee's message. I would highly recommend assigning this genre to students reading To Kill a Mockingbird.