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Diagnostic Prompt: To Kill A Mockingbird By Nathanael Lee

549 Words3 Pages

TKAM Diagnostic Prompt
Nathanael Koh

Appearance clouds our mind making us think in our opinions not the facts. These three sources will show how appearance divert our thinking and make us ignore reality.

Atticus said “This is a case of simple black and white” (Lee 271). It seems that in To Kill a Mockingbird the evidence doesn’t seem to be a big factor of this case, which is ironical to a sound court system that is based on evidence. Atticus quote was a hidden meaning tells the judge that the answer lies within picking a race, black or white. I think it is becoming a culture in Maycomb and in The Nation where mostly everyone thinks racist, not just the jury. Another way to think about it is that the jury are forced to do so because they didn’t want the same trouble as Atticus had when he try to help Tom. This is a snowball effect, if white side with white, the blacks have to side with blacks and there will be more racial tension until others have to choose a side and again it tells us that the case has nothing to do with the case it is a race case. …show more content…

The government will find a way to escape just like in To Kill a Mockingbird, the jury convicted an innocent man but in the end they escape the sin of killing Tom Robinson. This jury and the novel’s jury has the same way of thinking, they think that for black people they are guilty until proven innocence but shouldn’t it be the other way around. Their mindset rule out the chance of being innocence and think that appearance is greater than

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Which is exactly what the jury had not done, the case is evaluated based not on facts but on the sheer base of the colour of the skin on the victim and the defendant. Atticus has proven that Mayella tempted a man of colour for which Bob had severely punished Mayella. But in the Maycomb society, the words of a black or a man of colour are overruled by that of a white man. There is no universal moral that states for a human being to feel superior to another simply because the colour of the skin is pale white like that of a ghost; so for the Maycomb community to think that such decisions are ethical and morally correct is trash. It is not morally correct for these white men to sit in a jury and make decisions based on personal basis or resentment.

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The Similarities between The scottsboro case and To Kill a Mockingbird From books to real life cases, one can see the American system of injustice towards the blacks of America and its lopsided juries. A system of which if you’re born of the wrong skin, you are judged with no crime being committed. A country where when you have a dark complexion, you are guilty until proven innocent. In To Kill a Mockingbird and Scottsboro boys, we meet different figures who all in common, are prejudice, racist, and ignorant. Even so, we still meet people who stand for what is right, especially since the evidence points towards their innocence.

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To Kill a Mockingbird is famous for its controversy. In fact, it has been banned from being read at many schools for its use of racial, sexual, and political content, all of these aiding the book’s “big ideas”. To Kill a Mockingbird has many themes. For example, one is about racial injustice. You would think a jury would establish their final decision based upon the facts, but in this book, the jury had already made up its mind once it heard that the case was a white man versus a black man.

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The United States prides itself on the principle of equality. In the Declaration of Independence, the very basis of the nation, it states "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Despite this promise, Maycomb county lacks the humanity and fairness that America promises. Not only do the whites of the county show obvious contempt for the blacks, but they are willing to go as far as to murder one, Tom Robinson, in cold blood, depriving him of the basic right promised by our great country. Tom deserves the appeal due to the biased jury, the insubstantial physical evidence given by Mayella, Mr. Ewell, and Heck Tate, and the

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Atticus knows that he will most likely lose this case because the jury is made of white males and they have prejudices against black people. In Maycomb’s Universe of Obligation, the group of people the community respects and protects, no matter the personality blacks are always at the very bottom while whites are always above them. Atticus could of easily rejected the case but he still takes the case because he understands the unfair treatment that Tom Robinson faces. Atticus risks his reputation to help Tom Robinson. Before the case, Atticus receives death threats and the community calls him a n-lover.

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“‘I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system-that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality.’” (Lee 274). Atticus, Tom Robinson’s defendant in the case, says in his closing statement that “‘two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, has been flatly contradicted by the defendant’” (Lee 271). The final piece of evidence proving that the jury is guilty of jury misconduct is when Reverend Sykes says “I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man” (Lee 279).

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During the 1930s, racism was a hot topic, when black people were put on jury they were automatically be guilty and white people always have the upper hand. “Atticus had 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 241). This is a perfect example of good and

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This behaviour is deemed as natural, and few people question the roles put in place, this is truly terrifying so we are lead to wonder if what we accept as normal is perhaps corrupt instead. Race is the dominant cause of inequality in To Kill A Mockingbird, thus Maycomb’s views on race heavily influence every aspect of life. Although racial inequality is clearly illustrated in the in the injustice, prejudice, discrimination and antagonism surrounding the Tom Robinson trial, it is also shown more subtly throughout the novel. In Chapter 25 Atticus Finch is quoted disclosing that the corrupt justice system is a direct cause of a racist society. “In our courts, when it 's a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (Lee, 295).

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Through the trial procedure, the director tries to make us understand the difficulties of administering justice in a society as racially discriminated as the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the time. On a close examination of the trial sequence, it becomes clear that the prejudices in the minds of the jury members come in the way of administering justice. As the jury didn’t have a coloured man in its midst, such prejudices are quite understandable. Maybe that was the reason behind the jury’s unanimous decision to hold Tom Robinson guilty as

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