How Does Lee Use Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

What happens when the ‘fair’ justice system is controlled by unfair, racist people in the Deep South? Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird tells the story of Tom Robinson from the perspective of Scout Finch, the young daughter of Tom’s lawyer, Atticus Finch. The story is set in 1930s Alabama and is written as a flashback, where the events of the book are all specifically written to set up the final two chapters of the entire novel. Tom’s criminal trial, in which he, a black man, has been accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. The injustices of the trial, and the ensuing reaction from the town, shape both a commentary and a criticism of the racism that gripped the US in the mid-1900s, and even today, which enveloped all else when it came

Within this story, Lee uses symbolism many times to foreshadow upcoming events or deepen a character's development. Foreshadowing is where previous events hint at something coming later within a story, which is how the events in part one are able to set up the events in part two so beautifully. In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses natural symbols to foreshadow both underlying racism and the mudraking of racism that the trial invokes. She uses nut grass, white camellias, and ___ to foreshadow X.

Nut grass is mentioned when a friend of the Finches, Ms. Maudie, is gardening. Ms. Maudie is a supporter of Atticus both before and after the trial and is a friend of the children, imparting wisdom when they require guidance or information. Once, near the beginning of part one, Scout asks Ms. Maudie why she kills one certain type of weed, nut grass, when she holds value in every other kind of plant. Ms. Maudie responds that nut grass can ruin an entire yard if it is allowed to spread. “ “Pull it up, child, pull it

This nut grass represents racism and the way that it steadily spreads throughout the County once Atticus is appointed to Tom’s defense. The start of this spread is at Scout’s school when Cecil Jacobs teases Scout by yelling that her father defends black people. “Cecil Jacobs made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s daddy defended the n*****s.” (Lee, 85). Children are incredibly impressionable, and the fact that he is saying this as an insult shows that his parents have already been speaking negatively about Atticus, a sentiment that matches many other parents’ views of him as time goes on. The true show of the creepingly violent nature of this opinion is the switch between verbal insults to the mob that congregates outside of the jail where Tom is being held before trial, intent on hurting or killing Atticus to do the same to Tom. “...four dusty cars came un from the Meruduam highway, moving slowly in a line...“You know what we want,” another man said. “Get out of the door, Mr. Finch.”” (Lee, 171-172).