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Examples Of Suffering In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Martin Luther King once said, “Unearned suffering is redemptive.” This demonstrates the character quality known as “redemptive suffering”. Redemptive suffering is a belief that by suffering through a wrong, you will eventually receive redemption for that suffering. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many characters portray this trait. The Finch family, that is composed of Atticus, Jem, and Scout; suffers several times throughout the novel. The head of the family, Atticus, suffers redemptively when he chooses to help Tom Robinson, and also when he decides to not let Tom Robinson be lynched. Atticus is following what the poem Mother to Son suggests, because he is fighting for Tom Robinson even though the case will not benefit him …show more content…

He chose to defend Tom Robinson. Scout asked Atticus why he was defending Tom, because she heard that Atticus should not defend him.
“ ‘If you shouldn’t be defendin’ him, then why are you doin’ it?’ ‘For a num- ber of reasons,’ said Atticus. ‘The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this country in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again,’ ” (100).

Atticus suffers during the Tom Robinson case because he has to defend a black man, even though he knows he cannot win the trial. Atticus follows the church's teaching of redemptive suffering. The church teaches that you must do the right thing in the eyes of God, regardless of what society says. Atticus knows that even though he cannot win the case, he must defend Tom Robinson. Atticus also prevented the lynching of Tom Robinson. Atticus knew that there was going to be a mob that was going to try to lynch Tom at the jail. Knowing the intent of the mob, Atticus went the the jail and sat in front of the door. His intent was to not let anyone through those doors. “ ‘You know what we want,’ another man said. ‘Get aside from that door, Mr. Finch.’ ‘You can turn around and go home again, Walter,’ Atticus said pleasantly,” (202). Atticus went out of his way to prevent the lynching of Tom Robinson. After work he went to

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