Arthur Radley Innocence

David Casciano

ENG2D1-02

Mrs. Kenny

Thursday November 20, 2014

Throughout the novel the symbol of the mockingbird has been shown. In the town of Maycomb it is hard to find innocence but in the novel there are three main characters who where depicted as a mockingbird; Arthur “boo” Radley, Tom Robinson, and Jem. As the novel progressed, the characters became more diverse and this has made it clear that these characters are innocent from the beginning.

Arthur Radley was originally rumored to be a man who was very violent and was locked in his house. "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth

This was shown in the case of Tom Robinson, who was a poor and defenseless man. In this case he was originally depicted as a man who had raped a young woman and ran away in guilt. As the Ewells presented their case and said their side of the story they had made an innocent man seem violent and mischievous. He develops into a mockingbird in a short amount of time when he proves his innocence and says why he runs away. When Mr. Gilmer cross-examined Tom one would find that he would of be a victim of prejudice either way. Tom was defenseless because Scout mentions that a lying white mans word would be taken over a truthful black mans therefore he was defenseless. “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her? (Lee 198), this was said by Mr. Gilmer and it shows that even if Tom decides to defend himself he would be looked at as guilty. Therefore, because of all the prejudice and racism that occurs in this time period he is defenseless and as the trial progresses we find that Tom is