How does Lee make the trial so significant and memorable?
During the trial, we see many examples of the views of white people towards black people changing. Link Deas, is one of the main examples of this, as he is the man who said to Atticus when he had agreed to defend Tom Robinson, ‘You’ve got everything to lose from this, Atticus.’ This is because he knows that the people of Maycomb will not agree with Atticus defending a black person and will judge him because of it. However, during the trial, Deas makes a scene of himself by standing up in the audience and saying, “I just want the whole lot of you to know one thing right now. That boy's worked for me eight years an' I ain't had a speck o'trouble outa him. Not a speck." He does this in front of the entire population of Maycomb, knowing full well that he will be judged the same way that Atticus was for standing up for a black man. This shows how his view on race has changed throughout the novel, and he is an example of one of the people Lee wants the reader to feel they should be like. As well as this, the views of white people in general have begun to change, because the all-white jury that was used in Tom Robinson’s trial takes much longer than usual to agree on a verdict. Miss Maudie later says of this, ‘I waited and waited to see you all come down the sidewalk, and as I waited I thought, Atticus Finch won't win, he can't win, but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that. And i thought to myself, well, we're making a step-it's just a baby-step, but it's a step." She has explained how Atticus made the jury consider Tom’s case, rather than just finding him guilty within five minutes. Time was taken to think about the fate of a black man, and that proves that bit by bit, Maycomb is changing its views of race for the better
Lee makes it very hard for the reader to sympathise with Mayella Ewell during the trial by emphasising how similar she is to her father. Mayella is prepared to lie about her alleged rape and condemn an innocent man, with a wife and children, to death, because she is ashamed that she has feelings for a black man. However, Atticus implies and almost outright says that he believes it was in fact Bob Ewell who abused his own daughter, showing us that it may be due to fear of her father that she agrees to lie about that happened, because he does not want his family to be associated with black people, who we know he dislikes intensely. This means that it’s possible that Mayella could have grown up to be a nice young lady, had it not been for her father’s influence over her. She shows this side of her once during the novel when the Ewell residence is being described. "Against the fence, in a line, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding brilliant red