¶ … Kill a Mockingbird
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by author Harper Lee tells the story of a southern American family living in a rural community during the Great Depression. Atticus Finch is the single, widowed father of Jeremy, nicknamed Jem, and Jean Louise, nicknamed Scout. Many people of the town of Maycomb, Alabama dislike the Finches because Atticus is educated, because of the way that Atticus is raising his children and also for his attitudes towards segregation and racial equality. Mr. Finch tries very hard to teach his children right from wrong, to let them live and make some of their own mistakes, and to raise them as intelligent human beings who judge men by the quality of the character, not the color of their skin. Although Atticus Finch is not a perfect man, he is ultimately a good father and a very good man.
Most of the plot of the novel deals with Atticus's defense of an African-American man named Tom Robinson who is accused of the rape and brutal assault on a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Racism is rampant in Maycomb and almost all the adults have prejudicial views. Racism is called "Maycomb's usual disease" (Lee 98). In the south, Harper Lee makes it clear that there is no place for justice for a black man. "Atticus has used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret court of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed" (Lee 270). Although Tom is obviously innocent, he is convicted and ultimately dies. Atticus is very concerned with the case and with the larger issue of racial injustice which nearly leads to the death of his two children.
The most important lesson in the novel is that people should be judged by their character and not by their race. Atticus tries to instill in his children the idea that there are good people in the world and that there are also bad people. This is true of people no matter what their skin color happens to be. "As you grow older you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it --…
During this time all the defendants remain in prison. Finally, on April 1, 1935, the United States Supreme Court overturns the convictions of Patterson and Norris on the grounds that qualified African-Americans had been excluded from all juries in Alabama, including on this trial. (Johnson, 20) the trials are reflected in the fictional trial of Tom Robinson, which parallels the tensions and prejudices existent between the black and white communities.
Robinson being black and the alleged victim of the rape being a white woman. Finch then states that "I have nothing but pity... For the chief witness whose evidence has been called into serious question... The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is" (Lee, 1988, 231). What Finch is attempting to say is that the true guilt lies on the white woman who has accused Mr.
kill a Mocking Bird's Aticus Finch Defined as one of the best novel of the 20th Century, and selling more than "30 million copies around the world" having it's translation in more than 40 languages (Flood), the book "To Kill a Mocking Bird" has been considered as a true reflction of the American society in 1936. The story revolves around the story of the racial differences that exist in the
By allowing his children to address him by hist first name, Atticus is dismantling one of the many traditions that serve to reinforce and perpetuate traditions that ultimately only serve to delegitimize the experience and perspective of certain people. This forces the viewer to take Scout's recollections and narration more seriously, because although they are the memories of a relatively young child, the viewer cannot help but treat them
Kill a Mockingbird Introduction to the novel. Some writers explain that To Kill a Mockingbird is about growing up in the South during the Jim Crow days. Others explain that the story is about racial injustice in the South. Actually, To Kill a Mockingbird is both a story about growing up in the South and about racial bigotry in Alabama in the 1930s, and it goes deeply into the issue
Kill a Mockingbird is one of the classical American novels that described the lynching of a black man accused of rape in Alabama during the 1930s. In this story, Tom Robinson is completely innocent, having been accused falsely by a white woman named Mayella Ewell. In reality, she was attracted to Tom and attempted to seduce him, but when her father found out he forced her to accuse him
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