Examples Of Social Justice In To Kill A Mockingbird

So·cial jus·tice, noun, 1. justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. 2."individuality gives way to the struggle for social justice.” (Google Search). Social Justice is a term used to justify the equality in the world; equality of race, equality of gender, equality of religion, of age, of background; equality of all people not dependent on any outside factor, but of the people themselves. One of the most recognizable forms of social justice is the character of Atticus Finch in the 1930’s setting of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In To KIll a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee’s ideas on social justice are revealed through detailed representations of wisdom, loyalty, and selflessness

"It's when you know you're licked before you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”(Lee 149). Atticus has no chance of winning the Tom Robinson case, because of society's views on African Americans, but he tries the case anyways because he knows it’s the right thing to do. While some may say that Atticus is unloyal to his portrayed character due to his drastic role change in Go Set A Watchman, many critics say that even though To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman have the same characters, the two books were never meant to be perceived as a set, due to the fact that almost everything in Go Set A Watchman contradicts Lee’s original views on Social Justice in To Kill a Mockingbird. “Allegedly, it's a recently discovered first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, but I'm suspicious: It reads much more like a failed sequel.”(Corrigan 1). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee chooses to present the idea of what should happen, a feeling of hopefulness, whereas in Go Set A Watchman the plot is presented as what is happening, not what should be happening, and has little to no relation to the Atticus found in To Kill a