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To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

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“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get” (Forrest Gump). Harper Lee portrays Gump’s motto in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, displaying Jem and Scout’s early childhood. In the To Kill a Mockingbird passage in which Tom Robinson is on trial for the accusation of rape, author Harper Lee uses plot, events, and conflict to help develop the theme that Jem is coming to realize that racism is a huge presence in his society’s justice system. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the main part of the entire novel, the trial, happens. Tom Robinson is on trial with Atticus as his defense attorney. Jem and Scout are on the balcony watching their father defend this man. Atticus is in desperate need of information so that he can sway …show more content…

Ewell signed his name, Atticus realized he was left-handed. At this moment, he got evidence that Mr. Ewell could have possibly committed these crimes to his own daughter, Mayella Ewell. Robinson has an injury to his left arm, which does not allow him to have strength there. The injuries Mayella Ewell suffered from were on her right side, which means someone’s left hand most likely was used. Lee is trying to show that Robinson cannot even write his name on his left, let alone beat a girl. Lee said, “The circuit solicitor and another man, Atticus and Tom Robinson, sat at tables with their backs to us. There was a brown book and some yellow tablets on the solicitors table; Atticus’s was bare” (187). In this, she describes what Jem and Scout see on the balcony, which proves that a trial is about to occur. Towards the end of the trial, Jem tells Reverend Sykes, “‘He’s not supposed to lean, Reverend, but don’t fret, we’ve won it’” (238). As you can see, Jem is so quick to think Atticus won the trial because he does not yet realize the amount of impact racism actually has on his own society. Lee portrays him as an average kid who has not yet matured enough to see that. Jem heard Atticus’s argument and was sure nothing could prevent them from losing this

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