How Does Carl Lee Use Racism In A Time To Kill
In A Time to Kill, by John Grisham, the location, demographics, and history of Clanton, Mississippi, greatly affect the protagonist, Jake Brigance. Jake is a lawyer who defends an African-American man, Carl Lee, after he kills the two white men who raped his daughter. The story takes place in a rural fictional town, Clanton, in Mississippi during the mid-1980s. To begin, Mississippi is located in the “Deep South” along with Georgia and Louisiana. These states are infamous for their racism, and this is greatly highlighted throughout the novel. All the characters know they are located in the “Deep South” and this greatly affects how Jake approaches his case. Jake consistently remembers “This ain’t New York or California… It [will] be much harder to win an acquittal” (Grisham 47). Aware that unlike more
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She asks the jurors to imagine that Carl Lee and his daughter are white while the rapists are black.This effective manipulation of racism sways all the jurors in Carl Lee’s favor which results in Jake winning the case. In both cases, the racism demonstrated is mainly due to the history of the region. Jake summaries the dark history of Mississippi saying, “This was Mississippi, where for years whites shot blacks for any reason or no reason and no one cared; where whites raped blacks and it was considered sport; where blacks were hanged for fighting back” (261). In essence, Jake explains that racism is in the culture of the South. Their inability to accept that African-Americans are just like them stems from their history. Though Jake is white, he is the victim of many attacks. These attacks show Jake that whites also suffer from racism along with African Americans. Additionally, the white majority in Clanton shuns Jake for defending Carl Lee. This “secondhand racism” that Jake endures is greatly amplified due to the area, denizens, and culture of Clanton and the novel as a
She asks the jurors to imagine that Carl Lee and his daughter are white while the rapists are black.This effective manipulation of racism sways all the jurors in Carl Lee’s favor which results in Jake winning the case. In both cases, the racism demonstrated is mainly due to the history of the region. Jake summaries the dark history of Mississippi saying, “This was Mississippi, where for years whites shot blacks for any reason or no reason and no one cared; where whites raped blacks and it was considered sport; where blacks were hanged for fighting back” (261). In essence, Jake explains that racism is in the culture of the South. Their inability to accept that African-Americans are just like them stems from their history. Though Jake is white, he is the victim of many attacks. These attacks show Jake that whites also suffer from racism along with African Americans. Additionally, the white majority in Clanton shuns Jake for defending Carl Lee. This “secondhand racism” that Jake endures is greatly amplified due to the area, denizens, and culture of Clanton and the novel as a