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.
Cousin Francis yelled, “He`s nothing` but a nigger-lover!” (Lee pg83). Just because Atticus was doing the right and noble thing, Cousin Francis thought that he loved black people but he did not know Tom. Although, Jem stated that, “Atticus says cheatin` a coloured man is ten times worse than cheatin` a white man.” (Lee pg201) It is worse because it is like killing a mockingbird, which is a sin, coloured men do not really bother anybody. And then Atticus explained that, “...You’ll see white men cheat black men everyday of your life, ...whenever a white man does that to a black man, ... that white man is trash.” (Lee pg220). He explained that white men always win and cheat, so the white men are the victors but the white man is always a bad man.
Nick Salamone June 9th, 2009 Theme Analysis To Kill A Mockingbird is set in Alabama before civil rights cases were properly exposed of justices and cases against African-Americans were considered open. You find out that society can hurt innocent individuals who have littler power because of who they are. Through this novel, you put on the shoes of a small girl, Scout, and walks through a town where they learn of social inequality, coexistence of good and evil, and racism by seeing it through her father and life experiences. Race is a central issue in this time period. People aren't willing to accept change and theirs not much you can do in the 1930's to change that because it was "sociality acceptable" not to.
In the beginning she's just this innocent kid, but by the end she sees the town in another light. A clearly innocent man is convicted because of his race. This causes her to go from seeing her town as this nice, lovely place where bad things don't happen, to this place where racism exists and people are killed because of it. It's a dark time in the book and during that time people are shown for who they really are. The "dark" causes Scout to "see" the way things truly are.
Bob, a very ignorant, poor man, feels like he must get some sort of revenge on Atticus for going against him in court, so he spits in Atticus’s face. Atticus simply tells his children “if spitting in my face and threatening me save Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’d gladly take” (Lee 292). Atticus allows himself to be put in danger by letting Bob take his anger out on him rather than him going home and abusing his daughter, Mayella Ewell even more. In the novel, Walter Cunningham, a poor white man, who lives in Maycomb and serves on the jury, believes Tom is innocent, but he does not have the integrity to act upon his beliefs. Atticus’s self-reliant characteristics make him stand firm in his beliefs and follow what his conscience tells him.
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.
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
But that's what folks call me (Singer)." Gimpel is actually a saint whose actions convey his innocence. When Gimpel references his interactions with his classmates, he states, "I was no weakling. If I slapped someone he'd see all the way to Cracow. But I'm really not a slugger by nature.
From her story to the scar nothing matches up to what she is saying, but because he had an all white jury, they found him guilty. “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day, but let me tell you something and don’t forget it-whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich of a family he comes from, or how fine of a family he comes from, that white man is trash.”(Lee 223) “Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand.”(Lee 100) In current events, Schools are tarnished by 5,000 racist incidents. “Experts say racism in schools reflects what children are hearing in their homes and communities.”(Pg. 1 Paragraph 3) These
The children soon become obsessed with their mysterious, reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley. While they unsuccessfully try to get Boo out of his house, Boo has a series of anonymous encounters with Jem and Scout. Meanwhile, Atticus, a distinguished lawyer, agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. This decision turns his children into targets of abuse from their friends and relatives. Despite Atticus’s powerful arguments for Tom’s innocence, the all-white jury convicts the black man.