A Comparison Of To Kill A Mockingbird And Go Set A Watchman

Within society, morality is more socially acceptable compared to ideology. Shown in the books To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, ideology seems to be more cared about while morality is often displaced but later more so accepted. To Kill a Mockingbird, a book written by Harper Lee, the main character Scout, is a little girl growing up in the early 1900s who first-handedly witnessed the racism that took place during that time in Maycomb, Alabama. Her father, Atticus, is a lawyer defending Tom Robinson who was wrongfully convicted due to false accusations of raping Mayella Ewell, an uneducated 19 year old female who was raised in a very discriminative household. Due to Tom Robinson being black and the jury being unfair, he was wrongfully

Atticus, once against racism, was now on the council of Maycomb that advocated for it, showing how much things have changed in such a short amount of time. Two movies that took place in the 1900s that further elaborate on the unjust race cases in the South are A Time to Kill and Just Mercy. Both of these movies are set around the late 1900s, showing that discrimination still played a big part in everyday life. A Time to Kill is based on an African American man, Carl Lee, who was arrested for killing his daughter’s rapist, two white men. Since the dead men were white, the KKK became involved and went as far to torture a female, Ellen Roark, who helped the man’s lawyer, Brigance. Due to logic, actions and morality of the jury, Carl Lee was set free. Just Mercy also depicted an African American male, Walter McMillian, who was put in jail. In his case, he was sentenced to death row for false accusations of gruesomely killing a young female. While in jail, there were multiple other Black men who were also wrongfully convicted, one of them dying on death

This ideology is often based on the ideals and beliefs of the current time period. Shown in A Time To Kill, the KKK, a time when they were most active, believed that Carl Lee should remain in jail simply because of his skin color. The ideology was that black people are of lesser quality than white people and should always stay below them. Because of these beliefs, many can’t express how they feel morally. It’s not until someone speaks up, like Brigance, on what they would do in that situation and how they would feel emotionally. Since ideology majorly impacts others opinions, it’s easy to steer them into lies and misconceptions. In Just Mercy, the police had no solid evidence of who committed the murder, which left them to blame a random black male for committing the murder just because it seemed believable. In this case, the man was Walter. Many had believed that it was Walter who played into the whole ideology ordeal. Due to ideology being able to manipulate morality, it’s often taken advantage of. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father, quotes, “Jedge, I’ve asked this county for fifteen years to clean out that nest down yonder, they’re dangerous to live around ‘sides devalin’ my property-” (Lee 234), showing that he’s trying to emotionally sway the jury by bringing up how black people are “dangerous to live around.” This further pushes the idea that ideology is based on ideas