Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

The scales of justice may be blind, however, is it also blind to the inequality present within it? An individual who thought of this query was Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States who served from 1901-1909. Roosevelt was a part of the Progressive movement which addressed economic inequality and political corruption, as well as promoted social justice and political reform. Roosevelt famously stated, “No man is above the law, and no man is below it.” To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee published in 1960, set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. The novel is told from the perspective of Scout as she grows up in Maycomb with the influences of her father, Atticus Finch and her brother

As a result, the outcome of the trial may not be fair and biased towards the jury’s own interests. Atticus’s previous statements regarding inequalities within the law and pleading the jury to not have a “secret court in their hearts'' contradicts his judgment of Boo Radley.Tim Dare speaks on this in his literary criticism of To Kill a Mockingbird, “Lawyers, Ethics, and To Kill a Mockingbird”: “But this seems to be exactly what Atticus countenances in the final episode. Atticus and the Sheriff have decided that Boo should be spared a trial. They have tried him in the secret courts of their hearts and declared him innocent” (Dare 99). The law is made up in Atticus’s heart going against his previous pleas to the jury exposing the man-made construction of law within Atticus and the bias that he has for Boo Radley due to his past kinship and shy nature. Boo Radley is above the law due to Atticus’ judgment disproving Roosevelt's statement. As seen from Atticus’ statements and actions, bias exists within the courtroom, no matter the circumstances which cause some to be above or below the

An example of this injustice would be the “code” of the time period that To Kill a Mockingbird is written in. Mayella Ewell breaks this “code” according to Atticus “She has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with” (Lee 231). Atticus talks about a “code” that must be time-honored and respected which forbids the love between a white and a Black. This “code” is the representation of the prejudice and inequality of the contextual time period, as it is the code of society at the time. This inequality in the time period bleeds into the law because the law holds the societal context of the time inside of it. Atticus understands that there is prejudice and inequality within their own time period which is why he wants his children to not be affected by it: “And I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand” (Lee 100). Tom Robinson, the Black man Atticus defends in the case, must face more scrutiny and attention than any normal convicted person of interest further proving the systematic discrimination faced by Black people. Atticus’s efforts