Support for Black people in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in Alabama through the 1930's . Harper Lee explores the life of two young children , and the flaws of society they must overcome . Throughout this time period black citizens are mistreated by a majority of white citizens . In To Kill a Mockingbird , Harper Lee creates a supportive and positive portrayal of black citizens .
One way which Harper Lee creates a supportive and positive portrayal is through showing the injustice that the black citizens go through . After a long wait by Jem and Scout the jury has finally reached a verdict , The slip of paper is handed to Judge Taylor who then polls the jury , " Guilty . . . guilty . . . guilty . . . guilty . . . " (p . 211) . This shows injustice by having Tom Robinson tried guilty when he was obviously innocent and there was proof of his innocence , but that didn't seem to matter . When Jem and Scout are talking to Atticus Jem states he doesn't think rape should be a capital offense , Scout narrating says for Atticus " He didn't have any quarrel with the rape statute . . . But he had a deep misgiving when the state asked for and the jury gave a death penalty on purely circumstantial evidence . "
(p . 219) . This shows injustice because Tom was tried guilty with no witnesses , there should be at least one or two eye-witnesses that can say , yes , I was there and I saw him do it . When Atticus arrives home he summons Calpurnia , Aunt Alexandra , Miss . Maudie , and Scout to the kitchen announcing that tom Robinson is dead he explains his death bysaying , " Tom's dead . . . It was during exercise period . They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over . . . They fired a few shots in the air , then to kill . . . Seventeen bullet holes in him . " (p.235) . This shows injustice because there was no need to shoot him he could have been easily apprehended , and if it was totally necessary to shoot him seventeen times is outrageous .
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, is a novel which explores the theme of challenging racial prejudice. Within this novel, Lee has portrayed unintentional racial prejudice through the characters Atticus Finch, Link Deas and Scout Finch. With these characters, and their roles in exploring the theme of racial prejudice, Harper Lee has set unintentional boundaries for readers, as result, racial prejudicial thinking from contemporary perspective, in comparison to historical views, is challenged to a small extent.
Most people will agree that Lee’s book is much more complex than book critics may have suggested. The first question that I asked was, does Tom Robinson receive a fair trial and would having an all-black jury have resulted in a different verdict? In my opinion, I believe Tom Robinson received an unfair trial. I do believe that Tom Robinson’s skin color was the determining factor of whether or not Mr. Robinson was guilty or innocent. What had occurred was a group of white men that were on jury duty had decided Mr. Robinson’s case before they had even entered the courtroom. In To Kill a Mockingbird, justice is a privilege, not a right. If you wanted a fair trial during the To Kill a Mockingbird era then you better make sure you are white. So what if the jury was an all-black jury? I think the verdict and outcome of Tom Robinson would be drastically different. I think that Mayella and Bob Ewell would have been convicted and in jail rather than Mr. Robinson. This then brings up a question of how many false convictions were made just like this incident and how many African Americans received an unfair trial just like poor Mr. Robinson. (Notes)
To Kill a Mockingbird tells of a little girl’s love for her family and life living in a racist community filled with judgmental people (Shackelford). This was the time were black people were treated unfairly in courts especially in Alabama (Johnson). Alabama was the most racist part of the south everything was separated and blacks were treated like dirt that the whites walked on. In the book blacks did not have many rights and had to be servants and workers for the whites.
The story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in 1932 in the middle of the Great Depression in a deep southern town called Maycomb, Alabama. In this time African Americans were segregated and looked down upon in America and especially in southern states like Alabama. In FDR’s 1932 inaugural address he stated that “We have nothing to fear but ourselves”. He said this because in a time of economical depression there was no hope. With no hope in a society things can start to fall apart and people go crazy. Harper Lee cleverly illustrates this.
Tom was very confused when he was accused of this incident because he had never been anything more to Mayella Ewell than an acquaintance. “The older you grow the more of it you’ll see. The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box”(Lee 220). This is how Atticus described the trial to his son Jem because he could not comprehend how unjust the trial was unfolding on a daily basis. The proceedings were not equitable towards Tom Robinson because everyone should have realized at the trial that he had not done anything wrong. In the end, Atticus lost the trial. Not because the jury and judge thought Tom Robinson had committed the crime, but simply because he was black and they were racist. Tom was sent to jail for doing absolutely nothing wrong, except being black. He never had the luxury to grow into old age, as his life was taken from him when he was shot seventeen times during his attempt to escape from jail. Tom Robinson’s life would have been completely different if he had not been black. The discrimination would not have occurred and the accusations would not have been leveled or
The 60s. They seem so long ago. The Vietnam War, the first GPS satellite, a time of 8-tracks and cassette tapes, they seem like so long ago. The 60s is also when To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was first published, a majorly successful book written about a majorly controversial topic. Lee sets out to tackle the topic by telling a story through the perspective of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, a nine year old girl. The story focuses on the events of the Finches, the Ewells, a trial of a black man, and Boo Radley, all in the town of Maycomb. Using these characters, Harper Lee shows how racism is something that is learned through society, and can be avoided.
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only novel, is a fictional story of racial oppression, set in Maycomb, A.L. in 1925 to 1935, loosely based on the events of the Scottsboro trials. Unlike the story however, the racial discrimination and oppression in the novel very accurately portrays what it was like in the 1920's and 1930's in the south. Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a poor low class white girl of 19, never stood a chance of getting a fair trial. This can be supported by giving examples of racially discriminatory and oppressive events that actually took place in the south during the time period in which the novel is based. In addition to actual historical events, events and examples from the book that clearly illustrate the overpoweringly high levels of prejudice that were intertwined in the everyday thinking of the majority of the characters in the book supports the fact that Tom Robinson never stood a chance of getting a fair trial.
According to Shackleford, “The novel portrays a young girl's love for her father and brother and the experience of childhood during the Great Depression in a racist, segregated society, which uses superficial and materialistic values to judge outsiders, including the powerful character Boo Radley” (Shackelford). The main character relates closely with her father because he is the superior role model in her life. Having her mother die when she was very young caused her Dad to become a single parent, which caused him to hire help to assist him with the children. (Shackleford). For example, Atticus hired Calpurnia, the black housekeeper as a surrogate mother for the children (Lee 3). Lee describes racism in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. According to Felty, “Lee poses a limitation on her social critique in the novel, however, by directing it almost completely through the Finch family rather than through Tom Robinson and his family. This focus makes sense given the point of view of the novel, but it still keeps the Robinson family at a distance from the reader” (Felty). Lee bases how the reader views racism through the eyes of Scout and Atticus, the white characters, instead of Tom Robinson and the black characters. In the South, segregation was mutually distasteful because even in the justice system racism was still evident. According to Johnson, “Atticus' heroism is a quality that Maycomb's black population fully recognizes.
“‘Old Mr. Bob Ewell accused him of rapin’ his girl an’ had him arrested an’ put in jail---’” (Lee 164). To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, takes place in a settled town called Maycomb in Alabama. It is based during the early 1930’s when the Great Depression hit. Poverty reaches everyone from families like the Finches to the “white trash” Ewells. Soon the settled town Maycomb gets into conflict characterized by poverty, racism, and domestic violence.
The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, takes place during a racially intense time in history. Harper Lee’s novel was intended to bring a harsh sense of reality to the real world, and demonstrate how it really was during this time in history. This novel is set in Maycomb, Alabama, somewhere during the time period of 1925-1935. Times were hard for the citizens of Maycomb during this period, because of the depression. There are many fictional events in this novel related to non-fictional racial events in history.
In a desperate attempt to save his client, Tom Robinson, from death, Atticus Finch boldly declares, “To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (Lee 271). The gross amounts of lurid racial inequality in the early 20th century South is unfathomable to the everyday modern person. African-Americans received absolutely no equality anywhere, especially not in American court rooms. After reading accounts of the trials of nine young men accused of raping two white women, novelist Harper Lee took up her pen and wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, a blistering exposition of tragic inequalities suffered by African Americans told from the point of view of a young girl. Though there are a few trivial differences between the events of the Scottsboro trials and the trial of Tom Robinson portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird, such as the accusers’ attitudes towards attention, the two cases share a superabundance of similarities. Among these are the preservation of idealist views regarding southern womanhood and excessive brutality utilized by police.
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is based during the era of racism and prejudice. This era is commonly referred to as The Great Depression and is during the mid-late 30’s. The novel is set in a small town and county called Maycomb, Alabama. The novel follows the story of the Finch’s and their struggle before, during, and after a rape trial that is set against an African American by a white woman and her father. To Kill A Mockingbird has many symbols that have a thematic significance. Flowers and “Mockingbird” type characters are the main types of symbols.
Tom Robinson’s trial, and in fact his entire life, was badly affected by racism. It is truly a testament to the corruption of society when a person who has earned a bad reputation is held in higher esteem than a person who was born with it, as is the case with Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson. Even though Tom was obviously honest in his testament, the jury sided with Bob Ewell because he was white. They made this decision despite the fact that the Ewell family was widely known to be a worthless part of society. Jem, not being racially prejudiced, could not understand this mentality. As Atticus pointed out, “If you (Jem) had been on the jury, son, and eleven other boys like you, Tom would be a free man.”
The novel To Kill A Mockingbird, written by renowned author Harper Lee, was published on July 11, 1960. Her novel received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize and has become a modern-day American classic novel. The book’s setting is in Alabama and occurs when widespread racism and discrimination are high in the South. The name of the book arises from the common belief and saying that, ’It is a sin to kill a mockingbird’. To Kill A Mockingbird is narrated by Scout Finch, about her father, Atticus Finch, a well-known lawyer who fights to prove the innocence of a black man (Tom Robinson), who is unjustly accused of rape, and about Boo Radley, her mysterious neighbor who saves both her and her brother Jem from being killed.
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. It is set in the 1930s, a time when racism was very prominent. Harper Lee emphasizes the themes of prejudice and tolerance in her novel through the use of her characters and their interactions within the Maycomb community. The narrator of the story, Scout, comes across many people and situations with prejudice and tolerance, as her father defends a black man.