Sycamore Row

In this section, Grisham’s setting contributes to several thematic ideas with the introduction of Burley, the formerly segregated Black elementary and middle school. Grisham uses the scene in which Portia and Jake visit the building—now used for county storage—to illuminate and denounce the historical injustice of segregated schools. Looking at the former school, Jake explains why separate was not equal, painting a clear picture of Inequality and Entrenched Racism in the American South: “Nothing was new, it was all discarded from the white schools in Ford County. The white teachers earned less than those in any other state, and the [B]lack teachers earned only a fraction of that. […] Separate but equal was a cruel farce” (306). By highlighting the resource disparity along racial lines that continues to exist in Ford County, Grisham continues to raise the tension around the outcome of Lettie’s trial.

Grisham’s use of the word “reclaimed” attributes symbolic meaning to the county’s decision to put the old school building “to good use as a facility for storage and maintenance” (306). The word “reclaim” is often connected with ideas of rectifying past injustices. Its use here symbolizes instead a choice to store such things away, out of sight, rather than confronting them, pointing to the need for Rectifying Historic Injustice and Healing Generational Trauma. Rather than the Black community reclaiming what was taken from them—in this case, equitable educational resources—the county reclaimed a reminder of its injustice and swept it under the rug, allowing de facto segregation to persist.

For Portia, learning the truth of her family’s past means coming face to face with an icon of segregation and confronting the historical injustices her ancestors experienced—injustices concretely represented by the Burley building. As the novel explores the idea of rectifying injustice, the symbolism of this scene illuminates the novel’s perspective that it can’t be done without confronting the past.

These chapters contain noteworthy examples of Grisham’s use of style and language to add authenticity and establish tone. He uses legal vernacular sparingly, but enough to convey a sense of authority and immersion in the world of the legal profession. Terms such as “fish files”—cases which every lawyer has, hates, and swears to never take again, and which “[grow] fouler the longer they [sit] in the corner, untouched” (277)—contribute to Grisham’s world-building and shape the procedural elements of the novel.

The use of deep third-person point of view allows Grisham to highlight different perspectives in his story by imbuing the narrator’s voice with the language and attitudes of the characters’ observing the action at a given time. For example, Grisham includes racial slurs and expresses attitudes not in keeping with the personal morality he establishes for his protagonist—and thus, the narrative as a whole—as indicators of various characters’ lens on the action of the plot:

In the main conference room over at the Sullivan firm, the mood was heavier because the [B]lacks were sandbagging. Of the eleven remaining, not one admitted to knowing Lettie Lang. Impossible in such a small county! There was obviously a conspiracy of some nature at work. Their expert consultant, Myron Pankey, had watched several of them closely during the questioning and had no doubt that they were trying their best to get on the jury (348).

In the above passage, the narrator is not expressing the views of a unique entity, but rather the thoughts and feelings of the Sullivan firm lawyers observing the prospective Black jury members. The narration reflects their racial prejudice rather than an objective reality. Having established a world in which the white citizens of Clanton often keep their racial prejudice hidden, only expressing it to others they know feel the same, Grisham’s technique allows him to expose these biases via a fly-on-the-wall perspective. This unveiling of implicit racism contributes to the novel’s tone of frustration toward obdurate racist attitudes prevalent in the American South.

The scene in which Mr. Roston visits Jake’s office develops an idea important to the story’s resolution and the novel’s thematic interest in Rectifying Historical Injustice and Healing Generational Trauma. While not overtly raised earlier in the text, the concept of forgiveness runs under many of the novel’s scenes and plot points—most notably the Rostons’ decision to forgive Simeon and Lettie’s decision to forgive Ancil. Mr. Roston says, “we’re human and our natural tendency is to seek revenge, to strike back, to condemn those who hurt us” (278). Though he’s referring to the death of his sons, his words also apply to larger conflicts in the novel—even those that have lasted hundreds of years—like racial inequality. The hug Mr. Roston gives Portia to demonstrate his forgiveness is echoed in the story’s resolution when Lettie hugs Ancil, showing she forgives him and is ready to leave the past behind.