Portrayal Of The Black Community In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee’s portrayal of the black community in the novel

After reading the novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee a question of the portrayal of the black community stayed in my mind. After many thoughts and researches through the novel, I came to the opinion that that the community is represented unrealistically. To support my statement I will state three main points, which are the description of the ‘’Negro cabins’’, the connection to religion and the trial of Tom Robinson. The first most important and significant passage that supports my point, that the portrayal of the black community is unrealistic, is the description of the ‘’Negro cabins’’ as it is exaggerated and only one-sided. Since thy are placed very close to the

Tom Robinson’s name is discussed long time before he actually comes up in the novel, and that is when he is accused by Robert Ewell or raping his daughter Mayella. This creates the effect and image of him not having the chance or even the rights to defend himself and show everyone who he honestly is. Because in the novel Tom appears in person for the first time at the trial, everyone including the reader creates their vision and opinions of what could and could not happened. At the trial we can see two different attitudes and visions in the relation to Mayella. The first one is from the point of Robert Ewell, a white man judging and accusing a black man. The second one is Tom Robinson’s, telling the whole story the way he sees it. But still there is no sure evidence that he is innocent. As Harper Lee uses specific stylistic and language devices through different characters at the trial, such as ‘’you’re a mighty good fellow, it seems-did all this for one penny?’’- Mr.Gilmer, the reader slowly starts to sympathize with Tom Robinson and sees the trial from the same point of view as the narrator (Scout Finch) In a way the author manipulates the reader with mainly the language and innocence image of Tom. When Tom comments during a conversation with Mr.Gilmer that he ‘’felt sorry for her (Mayella) ‘’ Lee then widens the vision of Tom as an innocent man with ‘‘the witness realized his mistake and shifted uncomfortably in the chair.’’ In this part Tom Robinsons admits his sorrow for a white woman, which was in that time a theme unspeakable of. Here the purpose of the author was to show Tom as just a human being feeling for another one while being harshly treated for his honesty and goodness. Through the rest of the trial he does his best, however the chance he will be found innocent is so small only because of his skin-color as he