JAN 2023
Atticus Thesis Essay (To Kill a Mockingbird)
What would you do, if something you felt was wrong was being done with such regularity, that it was accepted as a fact of life? What would you do, if people were filled with such hate against others, that many innocent lives had been taken every day? Would you lie around and wait for something to be done? Or, would you take a stand and fight for what you believe in? This very scenario is an important element in Harper Lee’s realistic fiction novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, we see the trials and tribulations for the 1930s Alabama town of Maycomb, as Atticus Finch, a respected lawyer, defends the innocent African American, Tom Robinson. This is not an easy task, as he
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What would usually take minutes to decide, took hours, showing how much Atticus made the Judges think about their current understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Atticus makes it clear that this small detail is important during a conversation with Jem. “That was the one thing that made me think, well, this may be the shadow of a beginning. That jury took a few hours. An inevitable verdict, maybe, but usually it takes ‘em just a few minutes…..”(Lee 297) This detail shows that something out-of-the-ordinary has taken place, and that the trial must have really made the jury stop and think about its next course of action. This is important because usually, the racial bias of the Jury makes this kind of case easy to decide, but this occasion was not as easily decided as it might have been. Atticus making the Jury think wasn’t even the first good thing to come out of his defense of Tom. that would happen the night before the trial, when Atticus stopped a mob from ending Tom’s life before the trial. “‘He in there, Mr. Finch?’ a man said. ‘He is,’ we heard Atticus answer, ‘and he’s asleep. Don’t wake him up.’ In obedience to my father, there followed what I later realized was a sickeningly comic aspect of an unfunny situation: the men talked in near-whispers. ‘You know what we want,’ another man said. ‘Get aside from the door, Mr. …show more content…
The actions of Atticus Finch helped turn the tides on racial equality in Maycomb. Even though it was small, it was a good start. It saved the life of a man about to be killed prematurely, as well as made a jury stop and question their own morality. But these weren’t the only good things to come of Atticus’s defense: He exposed someone who could only do more harm than