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Race In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, themes of race are present. Through the use of symbolism, Harper Lee expresses the role race plays in the South during the early 20th century. For instance, in the novel,when there was not enough snow in Maycomb to build a snowman Jem Finch improvised and made a snowman with a foundation of dirt and covered the dirt with snow. This symbolizes the prevailing of white colored people over Blacks during this time period (Smykowski). Race issues also affect the lives of the white characters in the novel. For example, Mayella Ewell helps convict an innocent black man to save her reputation because in the society she lives in, kissing a black man is “unspeakable” (Zaldman; Lee 272). In addition, Scout and Jem also …show more content…

“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”(Lee 119).

In Harper Lee’s symbolic category of a “mockingbird”, the themes of innocence and wrongful prosecution are evident (Chura). Lee is saying that killing a mockingbird is the equivalent to destroying innocence. This category can represent Tom Robinson, who is an upstanding citizen that helps out Mayella Ewell in exchange for nothing, yet he is accused and prosecuted for a crime he didn’t commit (Chura; Smykowski). Another theme present in To Kill a Mockingbird is justice (Johnson). In the novel, Mayella Ewell lied and accused Tom Robinson of raping and beating her which resulted in the conviction of Tom Robinson, However,in actuality, Mayella Ewell was trying to seduce Tom Robinson and was beat up by her father, Bob Ewell, when he caught them together. The fact that the Ewells had no tangible evidence to support their claims except for their testimonies and that Tom Robinson was physically unable to have committed the crime due to his handicap is overlooked by a jury that consists of white men.While

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