Human Nature

This is a post for home learning.

I've chosen to write two tasks - linguistic and intrapersonal, considering how they both scored high in my personality test.

For the linguistic aspect I've chosen to write a speech. This speech is delivered by Atticus, and I've chosen to hand-write it - apologies but my typing is simply way too slow and erroneous - and I've uploaded it to the IVLE workbin.

For the intrapersonal aspect, here is my work:

a) Who would you like to be friends with in the novel? Explain.

I would like to be friends with Atticus. His charisma as well as how well he carries himself despite disapproval of his defence of a black man earns my respect. There are quite a few questions I would like to ask him, such as: What keeps you going despite the strong criticism from others in society? what future do you see for Maycomb? Looking at how wise he is, it is definitely good to get a couple of his insights.

b) I would, too, like to act as Atticus in a play. Personally, I'm not a very conforming person, challenging certain "ideals" whenever possible; this is somewhat similar to Atticus' attitude - he defies societal ideals of discrimination against blacks and continues his defence of Tom Robinson in the face of condemnation from others. Furthermore, he also does not bow down easily to Alexandra's wishes for Scout to become a true lady. I shall be frank; there is also this certain positive attitude that people will look at you with when you play this respectable character who dared defy convention.

c) I'm going to write a diary entry for Jem.

Dear diary,

I feel betrayed by justice. that's all I can say.

today I've been so profoundly affected by the outcome of the trial that O can barely think or eat or sleep - hence the late hour now and I'm still writing in you. it was a case of the clearly innocent being convicted and the blatantly lying prosecutor getting away with it. i know its the racial prejudice that is prevalent in this place - but i simply cannot accept this. this is allowing pressure from our prejudice to change the outcome of a fair judgment - at the risk of an innocent human being executed!

i may seem to be exaggerating thing, but i simply cannot take this.

law is supposed to uphold justice, but today it has done the exact opposite.

perhaps this is why boo radley went into seclusion - the world is simply too evil.

_____________________________________

Having done this assignment, I think it is imperative that I come to a conclusion.

we may all feel outraged at how white americans may have a prejudice towards blacks, but we have to consider it on the other side - why is there prejudice? what is the rationale?

we must understand that it is inherently human nature - animal nature, in fact that we feel a certain sense of "difference" from another race - not that we are different from them, but rather they are different from us. racism is not just observed humans, but rather in all animals; birds chasing birds of another species away from their "territory"; dogs "ganging" up to face off against another species of dogs, and so on. all these happen because our instinct tells us to protect us from anything foreign - even though that foreign entity does not pose any form of danger at all! this is exactly the case in humans. hence racial prejudice occurs.

when we look closer at more technical aspects, it seems that societal pressure does also play a part in determining racial prejudice. when the majority of the society we are in have prejudice, we are inevitably pressured to do so. this is why we make out atticus to be the great person that he is - had there been no difference in the stances towards blacks, he would simply been fulfilling his job as a lawyer, nothing great about that.

on the whole we see that racial prejudice arises from human nature and societal pressure, but that does not justify prejudice at all. only after certain people gained "enlightment", they managed to persuade others to drop their prejudice.