Discuss the role of Justice In to kill a Mockingbird Justice and its relationship with prejudice is the central theme of the timeless 1960 novel, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Its focal point is the trial of Tom Robinson, an African-American erroneously charged with the rape of a white girl, Mayella Ewell. Racial prejudice is, of course, thoroughly explored in the novel. However, what originally transpires as discrimination develops into an inferno of injustice, particularly in the debasement and death of an innocent Samaritan, the impoverishment of his family and the humiliation of his race. The story is narrated by the protagonist, Scout, as an adult woman nostalgically recalling her early childhood over a two-year period.
Her father, Atticus, is a lawyer for Maycomb County, Alabama. He is appointed as the attorney for Tom Robinson, a colored man from their town. He is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. When people started to find out that Atticus was defending a Negro man, they started treating his family differently. Despite the cruel treatment from the people of Maycomb County, Atticus stood strong in his belief that every man is created equal, and therefore deserves a fair trial.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells the story of Tom Robinson. A black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, Mayela Ewell, through the eyes of Atticus’ daughter Scout. Atticus Finch chooses to take his case and defend him. Although the case was lost from the beginning, Atticus masterfully used logos, pathos and ethos in an attempt to win over the jury so they would declare him innocent. Atticus used logos to attempt at logically convincing this racist jury that there was no way Mr. Robinson could have committed the rape.
Similarly in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson is convicted and sentenced to death for the rape of a white woman without any substantial evidence. The only reason he is convicted is because he is a black man fighting against a white man in a court with a prejudiced jury. The theme of prejudice and discrimination is evident in both of these cases because the defendants were charged and convicted merely because they were deemed to be “different” by their close minded societies, questionable evidence from prejudiced sources was used during their trials and because the accusers knew that all those charged could easily be used as scapegoats. The defendants in both of the cases were chosen as suspects because they were deemed to be different by their close minded societies. In the case of the West Memphis Three, the prime suspect in the murder of the young boys, Damian Echols stated, “I wore black and was rumoured to worship Satan, and I was the perfect target when the police ran out of leads” (A Most Heinous Crime Fiona Steel.2003 <http://www.crimelibrary.com/notoriousmurders/famous/memphis/suspect_4.html>).
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird the rape trail of Tom Robinson vs Mayella Ewell, an African American man accused of raping a white teenage girl was held in a bias court room of Maycomb County. Tom Robinson was proven innocent but the end verdict did not match the proof, because no jury would chose to listen to a black man over a white girl due to the state of prejudice Maycomb was under. Racism this town got to the point where when Atticus Finch, a white lawyer chose to represent Tom in the case he was a disgrace and an outcast to the white community. Not only Atticus but his children all suffered from the judgement they were receiving from the whole community for Atticus representing an innocent man. Since children were exposed to this behavior the racism has been passed down to generation to generation.
In Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ the town of Maycomb has been shaken with scandal. Tom Robinson, a black man, has been trialed and wrongly found guilty of raping a white woman. The fact that Maycomb town jury had convicted Tom on such little evidence has left Jem dumbfounded and asking just one question; ‘how could they do it, how could they? The answer; because Tom Robinson is black, the jury had ‘done it before…and they’ll do it again’. Tom’s case was never going to be a hard one evidence wise, but Atticus sets out to prove something more to the town and Jem especially, that they are all equals, ‘in their courts all men are created equal’.
As our country has becomes more desegregated, we learn more and more about equality, no matter what your skin color. In the movie, To Kill Mockingbird, bigotry is a huge factor that affects many lives. While watching the movie, I began to wonder how the outcome of the story would have been different had one character’s skin color been white. The movie starts off with narrator talking about a knowledgeable story from when she was little. Her father Atticus, a lawyer, had a choice to defend a black man, Tom Robison, who was being accused of raping and beating up a young white women.
To kill a mockingbird: Who is the hero in,”To kill a mockingbird”? Discuss. The novel ‘To kill a mockingbird’ by Harper Lee is a text with some strong morals to the story. Set in the South of the US, Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930’s the text tells a story of a decent Negro man, Tom Robinson being wrongly accused of the rape of a red-necked white girl for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time and of a widowed hard working father named Atticus Finch who as a lawyer rises above the prejudice of local Maycomb society to defend this black man in court against a more or less racist town of people stuck with the idea that Negroes are simply inferior and a different breed of people to all white folk. A hero is usually the core character of a text; a hero is a character who throughout a novel constantly emphasises the text’s central themes or morals.
Despite Atticus’s powerful arguments for Tom’s innocence, the all-white jury convicts the black man. The verdict adversely affects the Finches, especially Jem. When Tom is killed trying to escape from prison, Jem’s struggle with injustice comes to its culmination. Humiliated by the trial, Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father, continually threatens Atticus,
He is almost completely shunned from the town because he is trying to help a black man accused of rape. Mayella had told Tom, “I said come here, nigger, and bust up this chiffarobe for me, I gotta nickel for you.” (p.241) She had tricked him to coming over to her. Then that’s about the time when she accuses him of rape. He had felt sorry for her, which is why he was falsely accused in the first place. Courthouse segregation was one of the biggest bits of racism I found in this book.