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To Kill A Mockingbird Themes

1129 Words5 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird is a very complex book with multiple different themes presented within it. These themes are shown through the characters in the story and how they react to the situations they were thrown in to. The largest role in the book is actually played by the setting of the story due to it being set in southern Alabama in the 1930s. This makes more troubles and confusion for the characters because of the racist lifestyle most people in this time period lived by. Harper Lee created characters to be blinded by ignorance and show hatred for people proven innocent of misdeed. Through analyzing the characters Arthur Radley, the Ewells, and Tom Robinson showed the theme “The evil in the world isn’t always what society believes it is so …show more content…

The people of Maycomb have no sympathy for Mayella or what is happening in her broken down home until they realize a colored man is involved. Tom Robinson is innocent of this crime but citizens of Alabama would never want to admit two white people are lying and a colored man is telling the truth. “Yes, suh. I felt sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ‘em--” (Lee 264). Tom Robinson only wanted to help Mayella with her chores out of pure kindness when Mayella kissed him. Her father saw this and shouted profanities and threats at Mayella from the window, then Mayella so happens to have bruises on her body when Tom runs away. Tom Robinson was believed to be guilty by the court despite being proven innocent with secure evidence. “Throughout the episode, Tom never discloses any darker motive, any bitterness or wrath or lust. He is generous, obedient, responsible, and honest. A broken young woman and her dangerous father threaten his life, but he has no harsh words for them,” (Iannone 243-278). Tom Robinson was never the evil that society thought he was and has to pay the greatest price for racism, his own life. His image was twisted by society because of his appearance, which causes the real evil in this situation to be the family who accused him and the citizens who sealed his

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“You did the crime, now you do the time,” this age old adage is currently being used to describe Tom Robinson and the case against him; however, Tom will no longer serve time, considering that police officers murdered him when he attempted to flee from prison. A legion of people believes that Tom Robinson’s actions ultimately led to his demise, and that he is just another worthless human. In actuality, the father of the accuser, Bob Ewell, was the cause of Tom’s death. Maycomb’s most reclusive citizen saw an opportunity to capitalize on the town’s racist nature, and gain a few seconds in the limelight. Furthermore, this newly found fame would provide a stark difference from his everyday life of being the town’s most hated resident, and hopefully

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In a society like Maycomb’s, rude and distrustful white people, like Bob Ewell, could easily have an advantage over African Americans simply because of the way the social pyramid is laid out. On page 101, Atticus and Scout discussed the future of the case, “‘Atticus, are we going to win it?’ ‘No, honey.’” The fact that Atticus was actually positive that he would not win the case, shows that the society truly believed that Tom Robinson actually raped Mayella Ewell, even without any information or evidence.

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His physical disadvantage made his slaughter even more unjust. During the trial, his testimony made it clear that he was always kind to Mayella. So not only was he innocent, he was a kind-hearted man killed only because of the color of his skin. To conclude, Tom Robinson was a good man who didn’t have the means to protect

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Just Mercy And To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis

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Tom was accused of raping a white woman who was Mayella Ewell, Mayella said he raped her while he was helping her with chores. She later on tells the readers that it was false allegations. The reason why she didn 't tell the truth at her first trial was because, Mayella was afraid of being embarrassed because she kissed a black male. She rather have an innocent man get charged with a crime than that. “However, Robinson was transferred from the state prison to Maycomb 's county jail on Saturday, two days before he stood trial on Monday, and Atticus had to defend him against a lynch mob”.

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944 Words | 4 Pages

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To Kill A Mockingbird Prejudice

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Tom Robinson is discriminated against just because of the color of his skin. In the book, he is accused of raping Mayella Ewell by Bob Ewell. In court, Bob Ewell says “‘...Mayella was raisin’ this holy racket so I dropped m’load and run as fast as I could but I run into

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Theme Of Perception In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Perceptions are often incorrect when one is unwilling to believe or does not have all of the facts. These inaccurate perceptions can lead to false accusations, which in turn can cause an immense amount of suffering. In the case of Tom Robinson, other’s perception of him and people of his race led to a false accusation against him. More specifically, the people of the Southern town of Maycomb perceived African Americans to be uneducated and untrustworthy, thereby declaring the Negroes as inferior to themselves. When Tom Robinson ran from the Ewell home upon the arrival of Bob Ewell, the unkempt and unreliable father of the alleged rape victim, it was assumed that Robinson had done something of suspicion.

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To Kill A Mockingbird Argumentative Essay Argument

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To Kill A Mockingbird Theme Essay

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To Kill a Mockingbird is a book mainly about the coexistence of good and evil. The book stresses and emphasizes on the exploration of moral nature in humans. There are many themes in this novel including courage, innocence, racism, femininity, etc. However the most prevalent theme in the book is innocence. Not just innocence in itself but the danger and harm evil poses to the innocent.

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“In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins.” In the historical fiction, To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee writes about a small town known as Maycomb, Alabama in the late 1930’s. The novel revolves upon the case of Mayella and Tom and the effects of racial discriminations during the trial. In the story, Mayella, a nineteen year old, constantly undergoes abuse from her drunken father, Mr. Bob Ewell.

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The relevancy of the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” has not changed a lot from the time it was first published to today. This book was published in a time period where racism was a large issue. In “To kill a Mockingbird” we follow three young children, Scout, Jem and Dill through their rude awakening to the real racist word in Maycomb. With the children seeing how wrong the treatment of African Americans was it became very obvious to them how the mistreatment impacted the African American community. While on the other hand the people with racist beliefs have never known anything different, African Americans were subhuman to them.

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