Injustice is not an unfortunate byproduct of a flawed system, but rather a deliberate choice made by those in power to maintain their privilege. In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the town of Maycomb is a microcosm of a society where injustice is rampant and systemic. Through the eyes of a girl named Scout, she composes the sad sight of injustice being brought upon many characters, voyaging them through a dangerous and lonely journey. Lee carefully engages the reader through a rollercoaster of emotions from character development to the display of injustice across many scenes. She highlights the metaphor of killing a peaceful and serene mockingbird to symbolize how injustice is brought upon the innocent in the world. It is done so by relating it to some of the characters to …show more content…
Although, the courage of a few individuals helps soften the impact of this cruelty.
The mockingbird serves as a powerful symbol in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, representing innocence and highlighting the cruelty of injustice with the development of Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. In the novel, Lee writes “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” The novel portrays the metaphor through Tom Robinson's character, who, despite doing nothing but helping Mayella Ewell with her chores, is wrongfully accused and punished for a crime he did not commit - rape. He is brought into trial against the Ewells and even though he has enough evidence to prove him innocent, the is labeled guilty. His lawyer, Atticus, does everything in his power to save him from his death sentence, but "In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins." This is