As she watched the trial, Scout had no doubt that Mr. Robinson was innocent and not just because Atticus was defending him. Scout had remained neutral in whether Mr. Robinson was guilty or not until her father showed exactly why he couldn't possibly have done it: Tom Robinson's left arm was crippled and the person who had hit Mayella was left-handed. But even though all of the evidence against Mr. Robinson was circumstantial, he was still found guilty.
Even after the trial was over, the case in some ways still confused Scout. Her teacher, Miss Gates, was telling her class about how Adolf Hitler was a bad man for persecuting Jews even though they "contribute to every society they live in". Miss Gates explains that prejudice is a bad thing and that "over here we don't believe in persecuting anybody" but she's being hypocritical. At the Robinson trial, Scout had overheard her telling Miss Crawford, "It's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us." Scout can't understand how Miss Gates can hate Hitler for being prejudiced and discriminatory yet act the same way when it comes to blacks.
While the Robinson trial changed many people, Scout was left mostly just feeling confused. Those events plus others made her decide "that people were just peculiar", an observation that is more perceptive than Scout might have thought.
At that point in the story it seems that Scout innocence is really beginning to conflict with all this random hate. This leads me to question why exactly does one hate a person for no reason. There was also another scene in which Jem asked the same question. After I read that it left me thinking for hours; why would one hate some one without knowing them? I figured since you were another person that brought this up i would ask you the question to see if you can figure out the answer cause i can't.
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