The modern day novel and movie The Help shows many similarities that were portrayed in the classical novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Both The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird go into depth about the struggle humanity has been threw over the years. Although they both contain the same themes the way the authors create the situations and display the harsh reality of society’s make these two stories very different. During the depression prejudice was at its peak, with the Jim Crow laws and no rights for blacks it made it near impossible for the African American community to live a normal life. 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.
Racism is used when Mayella, a character in this story, accuses Tom Robinson, a local black man, of rape. Also, the Lynch Mob was an example of racism because they had gone to the jail where they were holding Tom to kill him. Courthouse segregation was another example. The blacks could only sit on the balcony during court hearings. When Tom was accused of rape, this was the most racist point in the book to me.
In the book Monster written by Walter Dean Myers, it focuses on the important issues of basic stereotypes pertaining to young black males. Steve’s battle to prove his innocence within the novel is the statement being addressed against the prejudice justice system. The statement being addressed is the fact that a teen is being accused of murder while trying to clear his name in both the legal and social setting in life. Steve is a 16 year old male who claims to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and in fact is a victim to an inaccurate eyewitness account. He has to deal with the most frightening nature of the justice system facing the death penalty.
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’.
However, the central issue the town is grappling with at the time of Scout’s youth is the rape of a young white woman by a black man. This southern town is stereotypically racist. Atticus, however, is defending this black man. The inhabitants of Maycomb believe the same thing their white
Shortly after grieving for the loss of his daughter’s innocence, Carl Lee seeks counsel with the lawyer Jake Brigance. They discuss a similar case where four white men raped a black girl and were set free. Knowing that that these two men could more than likely walk free, Carl Lee takes justice into his own hands and shoots both men down including his childhood friend deputy Dwayne Looney. Carl Lee is immediately arrested and put on trial for the murder of the two white men. As the story continues, Carl Lee hires on Jake Brigance who valiantly accepts the case knowing the dangers and challenges involved in obtaining it.
This movie reveals a sign of regress of our society because, most lynching incidents in America which occurred in public spaces and were usually the result of rape allegations involving black male supposedly assailants and white women who were purportedly their victims has not been seeing as a pure act of cruelty and hated from white supremacist calling for “justice”. A proof of this is that today, the noose appears in secluded areas such as school grounds and workplaces (Hyde Turner tragedy at work Conrald, Texas) as a result of racial tension in the U.S. Years after the Civil Right Movement, the battle for respect among all people regardless of the color of their skins and the end of racist organization or movement is far from over. A change has been operated but it is not enough to prevent such actions in the first democratic country of the world. In my opinion, the fact CNN host Kyra Phillips emphasize the importance that “youth people understand the horrors of the noose.” shows that American youth today are more sensitive about racial violence than previous generations of Americans. The essential reasons is because these major racial acts of violence occurred in the past so we should now be able to look at it from a clear, reasonably coherent and tolerant point of view in order to make these events stop.
In A Time to Kill, though, the issue of race is not near as subtle and is instead at the core of the whole story. This film tells the story of a black man that commits the revengeful murders of two white boys for the rape and beating of his young daughter. The very essence of the movie depicts the
As the reader begins to see the unfairness of the actions against black people, mostly because of Atticus’ speech, the theme of discrimination is developed through the motive of ‘walking around in their shoes.’ The title, To Kill A Mockingbird is very symbolic and meaningful. The quote which corresponds with the title is also said by Atticus and is, ‘Shoot all the blue jays you want if you can’t hit ‘em, but it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ There are two characters in the text which are metaphorical to the mockingbird. One is the obvious one, Tom Robinson, a black man accused of the rape of a white girl, whom Atticus defends, and the other is Boo Radley. Just like a mockingbird, Tom Robinson only did good and in the end was accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He helped Mayella Ewell every time she asked, for free, and for it he was accused of raping her.
Mayella Ewell, a white girl, often asked him to help her with her chores and he of course did. One time when he was helping her she kissed him but when her father saw she was embarressed and said he raped her and beat her up. The thing was she had bruises on the left side of her face but Tom was paralyzed in the left arm after he got stuck in a cotton making machine, so he could not have done it. Still the jury convicted him guilty of all charges. Its very likely that he was only found guilty because he was black.