Examples Of Justice In To Kill A Mockingbird

The meaning of justice is the quality of being just, impartial, or fair. The meaning of fair is free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, justice and fairness are synonyms. Contrary to the dictionary, in today's day in age you can see the acts of being just and being fair aren’t always the same thing. You might see these two actions conflicting in your everyday life, when one kid gets longer on a test then another because of a disability they may have. You can also see this confliction in the book,To Kill A Mockingbird. The author Harper Lee shows us just how conflicting justice and fairness can really be. Tom Robinson is put on a trial that he has no chance of winning because of people's bias and

Tom Robinson is accused by Bob Ewell and Mayella for raping and harassing Mayella. Atticus ends up defending Tom in the trial. Atticus knows that Tom is innocent, but it is going to be a tough trial because the word of a black man can not be trusted. Although it may not be true that Tom harassed Mayella, it is still just that they put him on trial to give everyone an equal chance at defending his or her side of the story. However, the trial becomes unfair when the cards are stacked against him. There ends up being an all white jury, and because Mayella is white and he is black, the jury already favors her. During the trial there was not much evidence stating that Tom was guilty. In fact all the evidence was suggesting that Mayella was lying. Still, the all white jury is prejudice and bias towards Mayella. The trail was becoming so bias that even Mr. Link Deas had to stand up and defend Tom, “I just want the whole lot of you to know one thing right now. That boy’s worked for me eight years an‘ I ain’t had a speck o’trouble outa him. Not a speck." This shows that Tom has never done anything to hurt anyone, he is kind, nice man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong colored skin. Even when one of their own white men defends Tom’s innocence it is not enough to find a black man innocent. In truth, even though it might be just to put Tom on the trial so that everyone has a

Heck Tate and Atticus actually helped Boo Radley cover up the murder he did commit. When Jem and Scout are walking home from the pageant, Bob Ewell tries to attack and kill the kids. Boo Radley sees through his window and rushes to save the children. In result of fighting off Bob Ewell, Boo does in fact killed Bob. Atticus didn’t see anything but believes that Jem killed Bob. Mr. Heck Tate saw the whole thing and although he knew that Boo killed Bob, he tries to convince Atticus that Bob fell and killed himself. Atticus later put two and two together and realized that Boo in fact killed Bob. In the book Mr. Heck Tate says to Atticus, “To my way of thinkin', Mr. Finch, taking the one man who's done you and this town a great service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight- to me, that's a sin”. Heck Tate is saying that to expose Boo to the one thing he doesn’t what, attention, would be a sin. So furthermore, fairness is administered when Mr. Heck Tate and Atticus decides not to reveal the truth that Boo Radley killed Bob Ewell because Boo did save Jem and Scouts life. They also know that Boo will be celebrated by everyone in town, something that Boo Radley just truly does not what to go through. However, their decision does bypass the law, which means it would have been right or just to put Boo on trial. They know that he will be acquitted and his act