The Start of the Trial: Reflection

To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee during the Great Depression era in the 1930s. The story resembles that of a real case, in which a group of black men were falsely accused of raping two white girls, and were sentenced to death in this novel, Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. During the trial scene of Tom Robinsons case, Lee uses various techniques, such as imagery, metaphors, irony, and false hope, to create mood and importantly, tension.
Before the trial, the mood is already one of danger, threat, and tension. The mood is created during the scene in which the mob approaches Atticus is the holding cell, inside which is Tom Robinson. As the mob approaches, the line, Shadows became substance as light revealed solid shapes moving towards the jail door. Harper Lee shows how the men appear from the darkness, with an eerie and intimidating presence and the way they are described as moving towards, creates a sense of approaching danger, and a mood of uncertainty and tension. As the mob proceeds to carry out their aim, the mood of tension is further enforced, in the line.