What Are The Similarities Between Dear Martin And To Kill A Mockingbird

Racism has infiltrated American society and affected the lives of thousands of African Americans over the decades. The classic American literature, To Kill a Mockingbird, is about the main character, Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout. The story explains Scout’s coming-of-age story which really plays a major role in learning about the town's racism and prejudice. However, even though Scout is the main character, Tom Robinson, who is an African American man is one of the story's true mockingbirds. In addition, the book Dear Martin is a similar coming-of-age story where the main character is an African American man named Justyce McAllister. Justyce explores the issues of race and racism in his hometown, Atlanta, Georgia, in the year 2012.

In the book Dear Martin Justyce was accused of having a gun in Manny’s range rover and that's why Garrett Tison shot them. However, Justyce and Manny did not have a gun in the range rover and were accused of a crime that they didn’t commit. “Are you aware that my client witnessed the shooting death of his partner by a young man physically similar to yourself” (Stone 192)? This woman who was the attorney of Garrett Tison, in brief, suggested that the reason Garett Tison shot Manny and Justyce was that his partner died of a similar-looking man as the two of them. This is a crime accusation and the only excuse for Tison's violence is that the two boys had the same skin tone as the man who shot his partner. Even though it's clear that Justyce and Manny were on the receiving side of the violence with having no evidence of a gun in the back of their car they still had to face the repercussions nonetheless. In To Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson was accused of raping Mayella Ewell a poor white girl who has a father named Bob Ewell, that is an alcoholic. One day, Mayella asked Tom to help her fix a broken hinge on a door. When Tom got inside Mayella tried to kiss him. Bob Ewell saw this and reported Tom to the police. While this was occurring Tom ran out of the house because he was confused. The Ewells came up with a story stating that Tom raped Mayella and they went to court for it. Eventually, it was found out that Mayella lied to hide the embarrassment of trying to kiss an African American man along with trying to make herself feel better. Bob Ewell wanted to accuse Tom to cover his own tracks in abusing his daughter. Yet, with all this information and evidence Tom’s verdict was guilty. “I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury: Guilty…guilty…guilty…guilty…” (Lee 240). Later, after the trial