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Literary analysis
Racial disparity in the criminal justice
Racial disparity in the criminal justice
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary analysis
Racial disparity in the criminal justice
Racial disparity in the criminal justice
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
animals, or even humans, should not be killed for doing nothing. This also refers to Tom’s innocence. The second example of a mockingbird is Tom Robinson. He was killed after pleading guilty to alleged rape allegations. After his death, Mr. Underwood posted an editorial in the newspaper.
In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Justice was shown through some of the main characters in this book. Like a figure of a mockingbird Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Atticus all showed great justice throughout this book. Tom Robinson, has never harmed anyone and always helped with anything he could. Boo Radley, although never really seen by the community much, showed that he is really a nice man towards the end of the book. Atticus Finch also showed character by standing helping Tom even when most of the community was against him.
In TKAM justice is not applied equally, especially regarding white and non-white, and adult and child. With white and non-white one of the main reasons Tom Robinson goes to court for rape is because that he is a black man testifying against a white family. Even though the evidence obviously points to Mayella trying to kiss Tom Robinson, Robinson is still considered guilty because of his ethnicity. This is extremely unfair and biased because he is obviously innocent, and being persecuted for no reason other than the fact that the judge and people in the town are racist. With adult and child, Atticus tries to keep his children from the court.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys that prejudice divides communities and that persecution of innocent people is evil; furthermore; these two minor themes reinforce the major thematic idea that a simple assumption can divide people. When Tom Robinson is put on trial for supposedly raped Mayella Ewell, the racism in Maycomb surfaces and creates conflict. In the novel, a stranger says, “You know what we want,” ‘another man said.’ “Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch.”(172). Some drunken men want to harm Tom Robinson for the wrong that he did.
Gentlemen, in the 30 years that I have been practising law in Maycomb, I have never seen a case so complicated, and so simple at the same time. Complicated because of the circumstances; a white woman’s word versus a black man’s word. Simple because of the facts; clearly no one in this courtroom is guilty besides the defendant himself, Tom Robinson. There is undoubtedly more evidence confirming the fact that Tom Robinson is guilty rather than innocent.
How would you like it if you were innocent but found guilty because of your skin color? This may sound crazy but this was extremely common in the 1900s. Being a black male during this time period was one of the toughest things to do. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that addresses this situation in such a way you would think it really happened. Tom Robinson (a black male) was accused of raping Mayella Ewell (a white teenage girl).
Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, and Pulitzer Prize winner uses her book as a way to write about her own life growing up. Sometimes a sleepy town in Maycomb County has more to the story. Jem and Scout Finch learn this through Atticus’s acts of bravery and by losing their innocence through the Tom Robinson trial. Throughout the book Harper Lee uses many themes including courage, loss of innocence, and walking in someone else’s shoes.
When one grows up, it is inevitable they will lose their innocence. Seeing the world through rose colored glasses can only take one so far, and eventually they will have to open their eyes to real issues in their lives. While this happens at different ages for everyone, Atticus in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee believes that his kids should not be sheltered from the real world. As Scout and Jem, Atticus’ children, grow up, especially in a time where Maycomb is so segregated, Atticus teaches his kids real life lessons and to not become like the rest of their town; racist and judgemental. This comes with a cost, however, as the kids “grow up” at an expedited rate.
Underwood uses the analogy of Tom’s death to the slaughter of songbirds. When Mr. Underwood learned that Tom Robinson was shot seventeen times when trying to escape jail, he believed that it was a sin. After Tom’s death Mr. Underwood writes a passage in the paper about how he feels about it:“Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping. He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children”(323).
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells a poignant coming-of-age story about the loss of innocence in the character of Scout. Three significant events illustrate this fact. The first example portrayed in the novel occurred when Scout went to the jail to find out what Atticus was up to, only to find that a mob had arrived to lynch Tom Robinson. This event left Scout with the notion of a mob mentality. Another event was the turning point of the story, the trial of Tom Robinson; this defining moment taught Scout of prejudice and injustice.
Loss of Innocence Atticus had to educate his children about racism because of the trial he was working on for Tom Robinson, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing except sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). The novels To Kill a Mockingbird and All American Boys, as well as the movies Just Mercy and A Time to Kill all show the injustice that black people face in America. Each trial caused some or many of the people involved to lose a sense of innocence that they had.
Although all the evidence pointed to Tom Robinson being innocent and the only witnesses were from unreliable and changing sources he was still convicted. This is a depiction of the death of a Mockingbird, ultimately destroying innocence and purity that resided with Tom Robinson that died when he was shot as he tried to flee from his inescapable doom. Mr. Underwood, the publisher of Maycomb 's newspaper as well as a respected all of Atticus, sadly compares Tom 's death to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds...” (pg.244) stating another reference to the ever-present mockingbird
Have you ever wondered which event in your life made you see everything differently? Everybody faces various experiences with the realities of the world that eventually results in the loss of their innocence. The loss of innocence can be the outcome of an incident witnessed, a final conclusion about an issue, or an understanding of a situation. The loss of innocence is the same thing as maturity. Now, of course, you can’t go to sleep one night and wake up mature.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the term mockingbird symbolizes innocence in a person. In the novel it focuses on the fact that innocence, represented by the mockingbird, can be wrongfully harmed. There are two characters: Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley that are supposed to represent the mockingbird. In the novel, Tom Robinson is the best example of a mockingbird because he is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit. Also, he was judged unfairly based on the color of his skin in his trial.