Mrs. Merriweather is a member of the missionary circle, as
are Aunt Alexandra and Miss Maudie. The meeting this month was at the Finch home, and
the topic of the meeting was the plight of the Mrunas--a rustic tribe which lived in
huts halfway around the world in Africa. The ladies, and Mrs. Merriweather, in
particular, seem to have a huge sense of compassion for these poor, un-gospeled people
whom they have never met.
Also at the meeting, though,
this gathering of women concerns itself with the gossip of the day--and of course that
means the fallout from the trial. Grace Merriweather, who is concerned for these
stangers in a strange land, is throughly disgusted at the reaction of the blacks in town
after Tom's guilty verdict in court. She says:
"...I tell you there's nothing more distracting
than a sulky darky. Their mouths go down to here. Just ruins your day to have one of
'em in the kitchen."
The
irony is that she is perfectly willing to show all manner of grace to a group of black
people in Africa whom she has never met and has no relationship with, yet she is
intolerant of the black community in her own town--and particularly her own
kitchen--with her cook who has every right to be distraught at the injustice which has
been done in Tom's case.
This double standard can be seen
when she said of hypocrisy:
"At least we don't have that sin on our shoulders
down here.... Down here we just say you live your way and we'll live
ours."
She apparently has no
idea how hypocritical and judgmental she is being--which is, after all, typical of that
particular vice.
To Kill a
Mockingbird is a story of many things, and hypocrisy is certainly one of
them--and it shows up pointedly in this scene.
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