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The Courts Are Great Levelers In To Kill A Mockingbird

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During the time and throughout modern history courts were used for justice against mostly criminals or solving problems so everything would be fair and justified. However, In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus uses a statement “The courts are great levelers”. During this time Atticus was defending Tom Robinson from a rape crime that we were allegedly considered guilty. But due to his race, he was considered guilty Atticus wanted to give him a chance and claimed that courts are made, to treat everyone equal and Tom Robinson should be treated fairly. However, courts are not great levelers due to the fact that Tom Robinson was only found guilty due to his race, The first early law code the Hammurabi code was biased against the lower class and favored the higher class, and finally U.s court systems are corrupted because you are the only person to know if you are guilty and not guilty and false accusation can cause to false imprisonment. …show more content…

During 1960 when this book was written racism was still a thing if you were black you would be discriminated. Tom Robinson was accused of raping and beating a white women Mayella Ewell. He is put on trial and Atticus has taken action and defend him, but he knew that Tom Robinson would have a slim chance of winning because of the jury. The Jury had racial views against Tom Robinson. “The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s against the Ewells”(Chapter 9). Mayella Ewell claimed that Tom Robinson attacked her and allegedly raped her and the Jury would obviously believe misses mayella because she is white and she has an advantage over Tom Robinson. But the jury is blind that a man with a left arm beats Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson left arm is crippled which concludes that he is not the victim but still have the sense of accusing him of it because she did not get what she

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The Unbalanced Law Being a black man in trouble with the law during the era of To Kill a Mockingbird is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. During the 1930’s when the book took place racism was the cultural normality. The definition of racism is to believe one race is superior to another's often resulting in discrimination. In the book we see racism displayed in a court case that’s basis is a white mans word verses a black mans word. Throughout the trail in To Kill a Mockingbird the main characters each have a strong but different way in response the the racism displayed in the trail and in their daily lives.

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At the court, Atticus ask questions many times to Mayella Ewell what was really happened but Atticus didn’t believe what she says. More than that, Atticus ask question to Tom Robinson, and Atticus believe what he said. This makes Bob Ewell really angry and he said “nigger lover”. That's why in the movie, there was a scene where Bob Ewell comes up to Atticus, and ask him why he believes what Tom Robinson said, but not what Mayella said. Atticus replies, “I will do the best I could to defend Tom Robinson” and that’s why people who believed white is better started to get pissed

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The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells.” (p.88) Since Atticus knew he couldn’t win why did he take the case? Maybe deep down, he believed that racism was just wrong. The fact that a black man’s word was never taken over a white man’s may have encouraged him. “ I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man,” Reverend Sykes said.

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In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set in the 1900’s, Maycomb, Alabama. During this time there was racism in the south and segregation which separated the whites and blacks from everything. There was also the Great Depression, the whole country was poor and people living in the country had to trade and do other jobs for people to either pay them off or to buy something from them. The trial in this book is about Mayella and Bob Ewell, two white people, claiming and arguing that Tom Robinson, a black person, raped Mayella Ewell. This trial is really important because at that time in the south, white people took advantage of black people and their kindness and thought they would take that or shut up just because they were black.

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Though people are fond of Atticus himself, his decision to aim for Tom Robinson’s justice causes discomfort, “ ‘Lemme tell you somethin’ now, Billy’ a third said, ‘you know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.’ ‘Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it” (186). The quote exposes that everyone understand the fact that he is assigned to the case but do not understand as to why he is so intent on proving a black man’s innocence. Since Atticus exceedingly expresses his thought on Tim’s innocence and involves so much of himself in the case with a black person, he obtains negative feedback and gets called a nigger-lover.

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To Kill a Mockingbird shows that while justice will always exist, it often isn’t distributed fairly. Harper Lee shows this in the book through Mr. Ewell and Mayella’s reason to accuse Tom Robinson, Atticus’s closing argument about how

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In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley are two characters who represent the mockingbird. In the midst of finding who Boo truly is, Atticus Finch explains to his children, Jem and Scout, that it is a sin to kill the bird because they don’t do anything but make music. As the story progresses, and the two “mockingbirds” are being accused and attacked both verbally and physically, the identity of the mockingbirds surfaces. Tom Robinson was a crippled African American man whose left arm was a foot shorter than his right, where it was caught in a cotton gin.

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Furthermore he defends a black man in court. At the time (and maybe still even now) Maycomb, Alabama, is from our perspective a really racist county, and in this culture it takes a lot of courage to go against the tide and not to judge a black man merely of his skin colour or origin, but instead to put his worries before ones own. Most people in Maycomb, who believe black Tom Robinson is innocent, also believe that there is no chance of winning the case and they lack the courage to risk getting a bad reputation with nothing to gain from it. Atticus is probably the only one whose moral views forbid him to look

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Tom Robinson is a young African-American who's been accused of raping and abusing Mayella Ewell, a young and closeted white woman. Racial discrimination is hinted throughout Tom’s trial as Atticus Finch explains to Jem that a white man’s word will always win over that of a black man’s - "... In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life" (220). Atticus explains to Jem that in the courts of Maycomb, a black man’s state of innocence or guilt is truly determined by a white man’s testimony.

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In our society, innocent people, known as mockingbirds, experience prejudice in their lives. A/T: In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Background: Tom Robinson is a black person who’s was accused of raping a white girl named Mayella Ewell which he has never done. For this reason, Atticus Finch was appointed to be his lawyer. As a result, Atticus takes a stand for him by approving his case and standing up for him, but Tom was still found guilty.

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One of the main themes of the novel is Racism. During the time of depression, racism and poverty were a common issue. People with a dark skin tone, i.e the African- Americans were seen as derogatory and treated like dirt. Harper Lee depicts it in a very realistic way.

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