Monday 5 October 2015

Rationale + Corrected Task.

Rationale:


My written task aimed for an audience that was interested in Atticus’ emotions throughout the first part, since he’s never shown displaying anything but subtle emotions (such as, empathy, love for his kids, anger, etc.). It’s purpose was to show Atticus as an average man, whom feels a wide variety of emotions, but instead of displaying them, he chooses to keep them hidden from his surroundings so that none of the people he cares about have one more worry just because of him. I felt that the best way to display all of the above was with a diary entry, since it manages to give an insight on his emotions and personality, while still keeping up with the book’s progress through the storyline, thus, we can see him reacting towards events or occurrences that come to be as the story goes on. As a finishing detail, I decided that the main character (Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout) would be finding this diary and reacting to Atticus’ reactions, this would allow me not only to deepen Atticus’ character, but also show the love that Scout has for his father, and how she feels bad over not noticing the burden he’s been carrying over the past year.


Atticus’ Diary

As Scout entered Atticus’ office, she immediately felt drawn to a certain bookcase, more specifically, a book that simply stood out from the rest. This book was odd, it’s outer cover was seemingly worn, but the pages within were pristine in comparison to the other books racked up along with it. Scout’s curiousness got the best of her and was driven to sneak her way up to the bookcase and take out the book she had singled out beforehand, she flipped it open without wasting any time and started reading:

Day 1

It’s the beginning of the year and work’s already coming in steadily, if this keeps up, then this might be our year

As Jean Louise read that, she knew this was Atticus’ diary, but it was apparently only work related, and knowing Atticus she could tell that he wouldn’t write anything in here in relation to his personal life, but she kept on going on the mere idea that she’d be able to read up on the “Tom Robinson” case and manage to get to know it on a certain level of depth. Since she knew that this hadn’t appeared until further into the year, she skipped a few pages, but was stopped by a sudden increase in writing, she continued reading:

Day 75

Today started out like any typical day, I eat breakfast while reading the newspaper, say goodbye to the kids, clean up a bit then leave for work. The change in this came into play once I’d been a couple hours in my office. Someone knocked on my door, and thinking it might be a client I dropped what I was working on and rushed to the door, It turned out to be a middle-aged woman with ashen hair, she was carrying a rather large amount of files under her arm. She identified herself as a state worker, currently working for Maycomb’s courthouse, and that her motive for dropping by was to present me with some cases of people who had refused a lawyer but never contacted one either. I knew where she was going with this, she wanted me to do the work of a District Attorney, hoping for me to have the kindness in my heart to agree. But she knew I always defend te people who’re too weak to do so for themselves. I took the job on only one condition, that I’d be free to work on my personal cases for the length of the cases. She clearly didn’t mind this and we had a deal. But before she left my office, she said: “Before I forget about this, I should tell you to be careful, there’s a negro on the list.” I thanked her worry and she hastily left.

Day 76

I’ve read the files that the state worker dropped off and the file concerning Tom Robinson definitely worries, if not sickens me. He’s currently held for suspicion of rape over that Ewell young woman, but nothing indicates that this man is guilty, nor that he is at fault at all. But what sickens me the most is that, this is probably just because it’s the word of a black man against a white woman’s. I know that this is hopeless, but even if I can help in the slightest, then my choice’s made.

A few entries we’re missing, probably eaten by some kind of insect, so she flipped over the pages and continued.

Day 126

Today’s the first hearing of the case of rape involving Tom Robinson, but I doubt you could call that a hearing if the courthouse doesn’t allocate enough time to get both the prosecutor’s and defendant’s point through, as far as I can guess, is that we’ll have short appointments, distanced by quite a bit of time. This infuriates me to my very core, since not only they’re toying with his race, but with his future. Back to topic, the prosecutor’s point was vague, with his only apparent pretext is Mr. Ewell’s testimony, this is pure idiocy from part of the courthouse, we all know that a case like this involving 2 whites would be dismissed at the spot.

As Scout read on, she realized that the “normal cases” she’d been skipping we’re becoming slimmer and more distanced from each other, she could notice that, this specific case was taking a toll on Atticus that none of us would be able to imagine, and the weigh on his shoulders was enlarging itself as the days went on. Scout had no choice other than keep reading.

Day 159

Ms. Maudie’s house burnt down, people’s lives we’re endangered, including my children’s. Yet all I can think of is this head cracking case. The sleepless nights have become more regular and my obliviousness towards my environment is slowly growing. If I don’t move forward with this case, I might lose myself along with the case.

Some pages fell to the ground when Scout flipped them over, but she was too concentrated on the entries that she didn’t even flinch over the occurrence, instead, she just kept on reading where her eyes laid sight.

Day 171

A mad dog was sighted nearby, as soon as we got the news, me and the sheriff went to look for it. For some weird reason, he thought that I should shoot it. I did, and I felt no remorse nor inner conflict, this is getting out of hand. I MUST do something regarding this de-personalization or everyone around me will suffer an avoidable pain.

Scout could not feel worse, her stomach is upside down, tears dripping down her face and a runny nose. She had never thought how much this case could be getting into Atticus, nor how hard it had hit him, never thought about that part of the story, she couldn’t take it anymore, so she jumped into a fast conclusion and flipped the book towards the last entry written on it.

Day 203

Things have happened while the actual me was away, but my head’s clear now, I’ve come to the conclusion I had once I took this case, that no matter what I did, I WILL help this man.

Scout left the book and ran out of the room, as she had just realized, that Atticus’ last hearing was about to begin…

-END-

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