...While To Kill a Mockingbird is a story of Scout Finch’s childhood, Harper Lee draws the reader’s attention to the justice, morality, and ethics Scout witnesses along with her older brother Jem. Scout’s pure thoughts during calamity are evidence of her ethics. During Tom Robinson’s court trial, Jem’s morality shine’s on his tears as he tries to understand the shallowness of the townspeople of Maycomb. Justice, as well as injustice, is served time and time again in this novel. An example of both is shown as Scout pummels her cousin’s face when he disrespects her father, consequently, Scout receives punishment. This is a book rich with symbolism and moral testing. After Bob Ewell shatters Jem Finch’s arm, Arthur “Boo” Radley (the town’s recluse) saves the children by knifing Bob under the ribs, killing him. Jem is unconscious in bed while his father, Atticus, argues with Sheriff Tate over how to report the incident. Atticus is a lawyer, an advocate for truth, but Sheriff argues to protect Arthur from the spotlight by reporting that Bob fell on the kitchen knife. Scout, knowing Arthur is introverted, realizes the dilemma of bringing him to court. Then, Scout reveals...
Words: 633 - Pages: 3
...The Reality of Corrupted Justice In the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution, it states: “…We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice…” But some may question the legitimacy of this so-called “justice.” Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, addresses this topic of justice by showing the corruption of the United States’ court system. In the story, Lee uses the hypocrisy of humanity and characterization to establish that justice is only as corrupt as those who deal it. By creating characters who are hypocritical, Lee describes the injustice among the citizens of Maycomb and the U.S. court system. When the children in Scout’s class are discussing the persecution of Jews in Europe, Miss Gates explains, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody” (208). But in this...
Words: 770 - Pages: 4
...In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, justice is demonstrated throughout Atticus’ actions. His strive for equality can be represented by the scales of justice. Atticus believes that everyone should be treated fairly regardless of race, socio-economic or familial background. Having such an honorable and just character, propels Atticus to defend the wronged individual, Tom Robinson. Atticus believes that Tom Robinson is innocent of the crime accused against him and he believes Robinson should not receive the death penalty. Atticus knows Tom might lose this case due to the racial attitudes and prejudices prevalent in the community. When an African-American is accused of a crime, the person is undoubtedly presumed guilty. Atticus still persists in...
Words: 1570 - Pages: 7
...What is Social Justice? Social Justice is the equality of people whether their race or their religion. In To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee uses the character Atticus Finch to show ideas of social justice. Atticus finch shows characteristics of equality, courageousness, and determination to overcome the obstacle he has come across. Atticus says “ You never really understand a man from his point of view until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. Harper Lee uses Atticus’s character in many ways throughout the story. As soon as Atticus receives the case he knows he is beat. Scout asks Atticus if he will win the case and he says “ No, Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win”. Atticus is trying to explain to Scout that no matter what the circumstances are, whether the tables are turned your way or not, you need to the best in your ability to do whats right. He is doing the impossible because he has courage, he is doing whatever it takes to help Tom Robinson prove his innocence....
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
...Atticus Finch is one of the most steadfastly honest and moral characters in “To Kill a Mockingbird“ by Harper Lee and his character remains, for the most part, unchanged throughout “To Kill a Mockingbird”. As any character analysis of Atticus Finch should note in terms of the plot of “To Kill a Mockingbird” he begins as an upstanding citizen who is respected and admired by his peers and even though he loses some ground during the trial, by the end of To Kill a Mockingbird he is still looked up to, both by his children and the community as whole—with all class levels included. As a lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch represents everything that someone working in the justice system should. He is fair, does not hold grudges, and looks at every situation from a multitude of angles. As Miss Maude quite correctly puts it in one of the important quotes from “To Kill a Mockingbird”by Harper Lee, “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets” (87) and this could also be said of how he behaves in the courtroom. He is a skilled lawyer and without making outright accusations in a harsh tone he effectively points out that Bob Ewell is lying. Even more importantly, the subject of this character analysis, Atticus Finch, is able to gracefully point out to the jury that there although there probably are a few black men who are capable of crimes, “this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men” (208). His understanding of...
Words: 823 - Pages: 4
...This essay is going to be about how Atticus is a hero. Atticus is a very nice guy. He help Scout read, and and he help defend Tom Robinson. Everyone in Maycomb Alabama didn’t want him to defend Tom Robinson. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the character of Atticus Finch represents Lee’s idea of social justice by demonstrating heroism, righteous. and compassion. In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee present heroism, by teaching others to read even though the teacher condone it. For example the Novel says “Atticus has to been teaching Scout to read since she was little” (Lee, 25). Atticus still teaches Scout to read even though the teacher condone it. Lee show that Atticus does care about what the teacher says and does the...
Words: 356 - Pages: 2
...THE GLENCOE LITERATURE LIBRARY Study Guide for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee i Meet Harper Lee at the same university. In 1949, however, she withdrew and moved to New York City with the goal of becoming a writer. While working at other jobs, Lee submitted stories and essays to publishers. All were rejected. An agent, however, took an interest in one of her short stories and suggested she expand it into a novel. By 1957 she had finished a draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. A publisher to whom she sent the novel saw its potential but thought it needed reworking. With her editor, Lee spent two and a half more years revising the manuscript. By 1960 the novel was published. In a 1961 interview with Newsweek magazine, Lee commented: Writing is the hardest thing in the world, . . . but writing is the only thing that has made me completely happy. To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate and widespread success. Within a year, the novel sold half a million copies and received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Within two years, it was turned into a highly acclaimed film. Readers admire the novel’s sensitive and probing treatment of race relations. But, equally, they enjoy its vivid account of childhood in a small rural town. Summing up the novel’s enduring impact in a 1974 review, R. A. Dave called To Kill a Mockingbird . . . a movingly human drama of the jostling worlds—of children and adults, of innocence and experience, of kindness and cruelty, of love and hatred, of humor...
Words: 4484 - Pages: 18
...In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee she used real life events for inspiration to create her book. Such as The Great Depression, which was a long and severe time in history with death and havoc (Mccabe page #). Many people went through so much havoc losing their jobs or not being able to go to school (McCabe 14). There are three influences in To Kill a Mockingbird the Jim Crow laws, Mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow Laws were an outrageous and wrong gesture (Pilgrim). *must site Pilgrim every time when facts are said about the laws (Pilgrim)* The laws were… The White’s thought they needed the laws because… The Jim Crow Laws can be seen...
Words: 540 - Pages: 3
...“ To kill a mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “Antigone” by Sophocles are both dramas having to do with justice, the main characters in both dramas are struggling to bring justice to a society or situation that was lacking. In Sophocles’ drama, Antigone was trying to bring justice by burying her brother Polyneices against the kings, Creon’s, orders. While in “To kill a mocking bird” Atticus is an attorney in a case where race is a major issue and he is trying to save Tom Robinson from being convicted of a crime where there’s overwhelming evidence of his innocence. Both “Antigone” and “To kill a mockingbird’s” themes seem to revolve around justice which is proven when Antigone buries her brother and Atticus agrees to take on Tom Robinsons case. Another large theme in both dramas is the idea that women are somehow ‘lesser’ because of their femininity, a cause of this might be because of the era that the dramas are set in. Throughout “To kill a mockingbird” Scout does her best to avoid ‘girly’ things so that she can keep playing with her brother Jem, its only later in the novel that Scout begins to realize that being a girl is more about having positive traits than lacking them. This theme continues in “Antigone”, most pointedly when Ismene states “Bethink thee, sister, we are left alone; Shall we not perish wretchedness of all, If in defiance of the law we cross A monarch's will?--weak women, think of that, Not framed by nature to contend with men. Remember this too that the stronger...
Words: 2326 - Pages: 10
...Through their actions, Boo Radley, Atticus Finch, and Tom Robinson epitomize one of the three themes-justice, morality, and ethics- Harper Lee addresses in To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson displays in the book the actions he took to become ethical. Boo Radley shows us how he insures justice to the Finch children and Tom Robinson’s family. Atticus Finch’s morals are what holds the town intact. Each of these characters conveys his/her own theme. First, Boo Radley has been treated with such injustice from both the community and the Finch children that he separates himself from the real world. Despite all the trials they made Boo suffer through, irony occurs when Boo Radley is the one who establishes justice in the end. When Boo kills Bob Ewell, he not only saves the lives of the Finch children but also delivers justice to Tom...
Words: 521 - Pages: 3
...Throughout Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, family is used to set extreme examples of how families react during times of incredible hardship. In doing this, Harper Lee solidifies the important role that family has to play in the story of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird.’ By making each family represent a quality, whether it be positive or negative, Harper Lee creates a world with feels real to the reader, and hammers home all the points that she is trying to make. Specifically, Lee uses the Finch family, the Ewelle Family, and the Black Community, to emphasize the importance of family within the novel. In ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ the Finch family is used as a pillar for how to be an exemplary American in the town of Maycomb. The Finch family represents...
Words: 550 - Pages: 3
...Ethical Influence Paper September 18th, 2015 Brandon McConnell To Kill A Mockingbird If you were to ask me about a book or a hero that was an ethical influence on me, I would tell you that both come from the same book/movie. It would be Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird, it is a classic example of heroism and doing the right thing and there is many readers who would agree with that statement. I read this book at the young age of 14 in middle school when I was still developing my feel for the ethics of right and wrong so it made a lasting impact on me growing up and developing as a person. Summarize the book or hero’s life in a few paragraphs; Everyone should know the story of To Kill A Mockingbird but if you don’t, let me share it with you. It happens in a little town of Maycomb, Alabama in the heat of all the racism in the South. In this little town everyone knows each other and everyone knows what happens. The main characters are the Finch family with Atticus, Scout, and Jem in their small house in the middle of Maycomb. Scout is a young girl who grew up with a lot of boys and acts that way in the way she deals with conflict. Jem is the older brother who isn’t really isn’t in the picture a lot but is in a crucial incident of the story with Scout. Atticus is a very well known coveted lawyer; everyone in town knows him and looks up to him as a person and a professional. That was short lived when Atticus did something he knew was right but society...
Words: 1361 - Pages: 6
...Dorothy Day admits, "The legal battle against segregation is won, but the community battle goes on." This quote relates to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee because the idea of segregation is portrayed throughout this book by showing the inequality between races of people. Atticus Finch is the father of Scout and Jem, he is also the lawyer who fights for Tom Robinson’s freedom. Tom Robinson is said to be guilty for raping Mayella Ewell who is considered “white trash” in Maycomb county. Mayella is a young girl who reports the case because she knows her skin color will keep her from being proven guilty by the jury. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, justice is depicted through Atticus' opinions, the ruling of Tom Robinson's trial, and Bob Ewell's death....
Words: 1116 - Pages: 5
...Independent Study Project Othello, the Invisible Wound, To Kill a Mockingbird July 30th 2014 By Eileen Harford Everyone has had a time in their life when they have misjudged a situation. Whether it was assuming someone took your pencil when it is actually in behind you ear, or assuming which character is the killer in our favorite movie, we all have misjudgements all the time in our lives. When was the last time you have mistaken a situation? The theme of false judgement demonstrated in the play “Othello” by Shakespeare, the short story “The Invisible Wound” by Karoly Kisfaludi, and the film “To Kill a Mockingbird”. In these three storylines, the author exhibits the theme of false judgment through a character of innocence that is poorly misjudged and ends tragically for them. Othello accuses his wife, Desdemona of adultery, while the unnamed protagonist in “The Invisible Wound” also inaccurately assumes his wife is cheating. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the jury accuses Tom Robinson of a crime that he did not commit all because of the colour of his skin. Given the above, it is clear that these three story lines hold the same theme of an error in judgement occurring. Throughout the play, “Othello” by William Shakespeare, a few of the characters are condemned on untruthful information. Desdemona and Cassio are victims of poor judgement. Accusations towards Desdemona seem to be the most prominent to any reader – which all begin when Othello falls to Iago’s manipulation that...
Words: 1945 - Pages: 8
...Harper Lee used many historical events to influence her book To Kill a Mockingbird. The Great Depression took place throughout the whole book(McCabe 12). The two words that came to play in The Great Depression were bread lines and debt(McCabe 12). Many people had to start getting free meals(McCabe 13). Many students could not even go to college(McCabe 14). In addition to the Great depression more influences were the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws was a racial caste system(Pilgrim). These laws were only used for the colored people between 1877 and 1960’s. One law was that a black man was not allowed to offer...
Words: 706 - Pages: 3
