TKAM Chapter 21

        After Atticus's closing argument, Calpurnia walks in the courtroom and asks Judge Taylor if she can give a letter to Atticus. Judge Taylor lets Calpurnia give the letter to Atticus. The letter is from Aunt Alexandra and it says that the children are missing. Mr. Underwood tells Atticus and Calpurnia that the children are on the balcony. Atticus and Calpurnia go up on the balcony and talk to them. Atticus says they need to go home to eat supper and they can come back to hear the verdict. Jem is positive that the jury will acquit Tom quickly. They went home to eat supper and Aunt Alexandra nearly fainted when Calpurnia said where Scout, Jem, and Dill were and she didn't say a word during supper. Calpurnia said to them that they should be ashamed of themselves. When they got back to the courtroom, the jury have been discussing for thirty minutes. Everyone was still in their seats and nobody has moved. This means that the jury is looking through the evidence. A few hours went by and it was now eight. Scout took a nap and woke up at eleven. Jem had still focused on Tom being acquitted. Heck Tate came in the courtroom and said that the court will come in order. Scout saw that when all of the jurors came in, she saw that none of them looked at Tom. The foreman gave a piece of paper to Heck Tate and then Heck Tate gave the paper to Judge Taylor. Judge Taylor read that Tom was guilty. Jem's hands were white from gripping the rail and he jerked his shoulder back as if each guilty was a separate stab. The white people left when they heard the verdict, but the African Americans stayed. Atticus took his coat and went the unusual exit out of the courtroom. Every African American was standing up as Atticus was leaving the courtroom. Reverend Sykes told Scout to stand up because her father was passin. All the African Americans stood up when Atticus was leaving because that shows that they respect Atticus for what he did for protecting Tom, even though Tom was guilty.
            I feel like that the jury knew that Tom was innocent, but because of Maycomb's usual disease, they made Tom guilty. I thought that this was wrong what the jury did and they should make Tom innocent. This is a win for Atticus because it is a step in the right direction because the jury thought of making Tom guilty, but they didn't. Atticus could retry the case, but do to Maycomb's disease, they are going to make Tom guilty again. Tom is going to get killed for something that he didn't do and Maycomb's disease caused this. I thought that Tom was going to be innocent because it seemed like they were on Atticus's side and not Mr. Gilmer's side. The Ewells are going to get Tom killed, so they won't be embarrassed. They won't have to worry about getting embarrassed anymore because the jury decided to mak Tom guilty. I would have acted like Jem when I heard the verdict because I knew that they made the wrong choice making Tom guilty and he should be innocent. Would have you guys acted like Jem when you heard the verdict?