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Scottsboro Boys Trial

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Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird transports readers to Maycomb, a small town in Alabama during the great depression. Lee drew the inspiration for this story from the Scottsboro Boys Trial. The trial consisted of a group of black boys being sentenced to death on the accusation of rape by a white women, however all the boys were innocent. Moved by the injustice of the trail, Lee centered To Kill a Mockingbird around the theme of killing innocence. Throughout the book Lee repeatedly conveys innocence through a Mockingbird. A character in the novel even states that it is a sin to kill a Mockingbird because they bring no harm, only music. Lee goes beyond the Mockingbird itself and also uses characters from the story to convey innocence. …show more content…

To begin, Lee uses Tom Robinson to embody the innocence of a mockingbird. Tom Robinson is a black man who lives in Maycomb. Unfortunately, because of his skin tone he is seen as less of a man than the white residents of Maycomb. Parallel to the Scottsboro boys Tom is accused of raping a white woman, named Mayella Ewell. During Tom's trial, Tom's lawyer Atticus tells Mayella to point to the man who raped her. Harper Lee describes, “His left arm was a full twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at his side. It ended in a small shriveled hand… it was no use to him.”(Lee 248). This quote shows Tom is a cripple, thus he was physically incapable of taking advantage of Mayella. Therefore, Tom is innocent of the crime …show more content…

Boo Radley is Scout's neighbor, Scout, Jem, and Dill continually mess with Boo throughout the novel. When Boo was younger generation was arrested for disorderly conduct and disrupting the town. As punishment Boo’s very religious dad locked him in the house for the next 15 years. Rumors began to circulate because Boo was never seen. Jem describes, “he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained… what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped” (Lee 16). This quote creates a picture of a mean terrible monster named Boo Radley, from a child who doesn't know him. None of the town knew Boo Radley, yet they continued to create stories revolving around how terrible he is. One town's woman even claimed he peeks in her windows at night. Even though Boo was constantly being manipulated into a monster, he ultimately proved himself to the Finch family. The night Scout was attacked the sheriff and Atticus work together to piece together the events of that night. They concluded that Boo Radley was the one who rushed in and saved the Finch children. When scout is recounting the events of the last few years of your life she notes, “Boo was car neighbor. He gave us soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of goodluck pennies and our lives.” (Lee 373). This quote shows that Boo is a hero that saved the Finch children, and not the terrible human everyone made

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Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.” Scout relives through what Boo Radley must have seen: Jem, Dill, and Scout playing games in their yard, Jem and Scout standing outside while Miss Maudie’s house burnt down, Jem and Scout being attacked. This helps her really understand the man whom she only saw once: Boo

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There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten, his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” Little do they know that Boo Radley will play a huge part in their survival at the end of the book when the crazy Bob Ewell Attacks them and Boo Radley protected them, something that Jem and scout would’ve never imagined, But something that the reader could foreshadow. Due to Boo’s acts of kindness like when he returned Jem’s pants sowed after he got them caught on the barb wire fence while he was snooping and around and also the gifts he left in the knot of the tree that helped him build a deeper sentimental relationship with Jem and Scout even if the kids did not know it. Boo had built such a relationship with them that he had done something extremely courageous and protects Jem and scout from Bob

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Boo Radley’s events throughout the book show that he is a man of peace and care. His appearances in the book is very little, although his act of caring for the kids show that he is a major character in this book. In the end of the book, Scout says,”Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of goodluck pennies,

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568 Words | 3 Pages

Moreover Scout expresses that “Boo was our neighbor… But neighbors give in return….We had given him nothing, and it made me sad” (Lee 278). Scouts feelings changed about Boo, she felt that he was a friend. She was unhappy that she didn’t return to her neighbor, but pleased to see the side of Boo that was never shown to her. Boo Radley is characterized as a

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586 Words | 3 Pages

Rumors swept through the town, ruining a man’s reputation and giving him no reason to step outside of his own home. In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Arthur “Boo” Radley is the most complex of Maycomb’s residents. Many say Boo is a killer that should not be trusted near children. However, Scout thinks otherwise as she tries to understand Boo herself. She learns more than she figured, as Boo teaches her numerous lessons without even meeting her.

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827 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has been an exceptional book that really holds it’s place in true American literature. A book about a simple town called Maycomb, and it’s racial struggles, narrated through the eyes of one young Scout. As tensions in the town arise when a black man is innocently accused for reap in Maycomb, Scout has a hard time understanding why racism is such a dominant mentality towards others inferior to whites. Along with the notorious Boo Radley and his mystery as to why he never comes out of his house and stays inside.

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767 Words | 4 Pages

His character in the book represented one of the mockingbirds in the story, a good person injured by the evil of mankind. Boo was one of the characters that the reader would not expect to save Scout and Jem due to the analysis of his character, throughout the whole book. The children always engaged in ways too see Radley and they were a little obsessed with the idea of getting to see him.

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887 Words | 4 Pages

The children where on a hunt to find Boo, Boo was constantly on their minds, they thought a lot about him. The first time Boo is mentioned in the novel, is when Dill came over for the summer, the three kids only had a certain area in which they could play unsupervised, three to the left of the finches, were the Radleys, where their unsupervised play was aloud till. The children had heard all sorts of stories about the Radley family and knew they had a not so sane son. The children found this mysterious case fascinating. Near to the end of the novel Scout has an encounter with her project and could not be happier, scout found out that Boo was, a nice man and just did not want to have connection with the outside world.

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430 Words | 2 Pages

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley is seen as this monster of the neighborhood, He never comes outside, and he always stays hidden. However, his story starts to shift when Scout and Jem are in trouble with Bob Ewell. When Bob Ewell attacks the kids, Boo steps out and defends them with a kitchen knife, He kills Bob and lends a hand by carrying Jem home. When they arrive at their house, He sets Jem down and is escorted home by Scout. Scout stands on the porch and sees the world as Boo must have seen it, “Boo was our neighbor”.

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1135 Words | 5 Pages

The first person that Harper Lee uses to symbolize the Mockingbird is Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is a black man who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell a white woman. At Tom Robinson’s trial Atticus his lawyer had Mr.Tate testify. Mr.Tate said “‘She had a black eye comin.’ ‘Which eye?’...

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770 Words | 4 Pages

Boo Radley saves Jem and Scout by stabbing Mr. Ewell with a knife. Atticus didn’t want to put Boo in the spotlight because he was such a private person. Scout ends up helping Boo back to his house, but makes it look like Boo was helping

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1047 Words | 5 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird, is set in 1930s America in a town called Maycomb where this popular novel surrounds the character “Scout” a nine-year-old girl, who is based on the Author, Harper Lee’s experiences as a child. The novel tells a story of a black man named Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. At the time, 1930s Southern America was the segregation era when racism was a common phenomenon. People of colour were highly discriminated and not accepted during this time in history. Harper Lee represents the normalisation of racism during 1930s America in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ through the manipulation of stylistic devices and aesthetic features through the mad dog, the trial, Dolphus Raymond.

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980 Words | 4 Pages

In the story Boo Radley plays the role of Scout and Jem’s guardian angel. He watches over them and helps them when they get into trouble. In the first chapters, the kids make fun of Boo, they taunt him. All they know about him is what they have heard, that he is a crazy man. Throughout the story though, Boo proves them wrong.

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462 Words | 2 Pages

Troubled times bring troubling lessons, and that was proved time and time again for Scout and Jem Finch. In the first third of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem try to investigate the notorious Arthur “Boo” Radley. Boo Radley was supposedly a middle aged man that had fooled around with the Cunninghams as a child; almost getting sent to a “state industiral school” by the judge. His imprisonment in his own home began after Mr. Radley promised that Boo would never do anything like it again.

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820 Words | 4 Pages

Tom Robinson is an innocent black male blamed for raping the daughter of Mr. Ewell. Atticus proves that Tom is innocent but, the jury rejects his claim because of his skin color.

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