The courtroom air is thick with the "Static of 1935," but Atticus’s voice provides a Certainty that cuts through the heat. He isn't selling an ideal; he is auditing a Structural Necessity. For a man like Tom Robinson, the jury box is the only place where the "Social Squeeze" of race is supposed to vanish.
Atticus pivots from "Legal Protocol" to Moral Sovereignty. He challenges the jury to stop being "Maycomb Citizens" and start being "Great Levelers." By identifying the court as the one institution where a pauper is equal to a Rockefeller, he places the Responsibility Squeeze directly onto the hearts of twelve men.
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