Fair Quotes In To Kill A Mockingbird

925 Words4 Pages

Birds singing the lovely tune of a mockingbird will wake in the morn as children play. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird plays out events in a small county residing in Alabama called Maycomb. It is described as a “Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.” (Lee, 6). This story goes along with the curious opinions of a small girl named Jean Louise Finch. However, the true “mockingbird” in this story is her father, a lawyer by the name of Atticus. He is a humble man who will rise to defend the innocent and speak only the truth, all the while singing the tune of parenthood. This will be focused …show more content…

Within the novel, Atticus is defending a black man by the name of Tom Robinson who was accused of raping a young woman. How Atticus handled this trial is widely considered to be fair. He asked just and equal questions to all the witnesses along with Tom and Mayella, the girl who cried rape. Why does Atticus do this instead of just giving up on Tom? It is simply explained with “if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.” (Lee,100). He wants to hold his head high instead of enduring a nagging conscious from doing something unjust for another hard working man. “I’m simply defending a Negro- his name’s Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump. He’s a member of Calpurnia’s church, and Cal knows his family well. She says they’re clean-living folks.” (Lee, 100). Even though Atticus knows he will most likely lose from a white man’s word against a black’s, he still gives this case his undivided attention. Atticus defended Tom to the last moment when he is eventually taken away to prison. He heard both sides of the story equally just as he has with his own children’s problems, and put reason to hericies. Even so, not every battle can be won within