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To kill a mockingbird literary analysis essay
Character analysis to kill a mockingbird
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Skylre Gillette
Mrs. Rodriguez
10 Grade advanced English Pd. 4
26 April 2017 Controversy, inspiration, hope, and inequality: these are some of the characteristics that the historical 1930’s Scottsboro boy’s case had which raised both national and international attention for the U.S. The Scottsboro Boys (Haywood Patterson, Clarence Norris, Andy Wright, Roy Wright, Ozzie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems and Eugene Williams) were nine black teenage boys that were accused of rape by two white women named Victoria Price and Ruby Bates (Linder). It all was started on March 24, 1931 on a freight train to Chattanooga Tennessee from Huntsville Alabama with the two white women, the nine black boys as well as seven other white boys. During this
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Such similarities are shown through the people involved and even those who are not involved (bystanders) as well as through similar ideologies and the accused themselves. In to Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro boy’s case, ideas about Mockingbirds and ideas about the Scottsboro boys resemble yet contradict each other. This results from the way white people feel about Mockingbirds in To Kill a Mockingbird is contradictory to how white people felt about blacks in both To Kill a Mockingbird and the Scottsboro boy’s case. For example, in To Kill a Mockingbird a character named Miss Maudie says, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy” (Lee, 90). This seems to be a rule throughout the book about Mockingbirds. Yet Tom ends up found guilty by the same people who defended Mockingbirds and called them …show more content…
One of the Scottsboro boys that can be seen as similar to Tom is Ozie Powell. This is because they were both shot. Though the difference is that Ozie survived the shot he took to the head (Linder). Tom did not “Tom’s dead” (Lee, 235). Another that can be seen as similar to Tom is Willie Roberson because they both were unable to use an arm. “His left arm hung dead” (Lee, 186). “He suffered from a case of venereal disease and had to walk with a cane” (Linder, “The Trials of “The Scottsboro
Before jumping into the comparisons, the story of the Scottsboro Trials is needed to know what is being compared.
Due to the heightened racial tension, the Scottsboro Boys and Tom Robinson barely escaped being lynched days before their respective trials. Almost immediately after the Scottsboro Boys were placed in jail, crowds followed in protest of the Scottsboro Boys. According to Christina Bergmark, “the National Guard had to be called in to prevent a lynching.” Likewise, Tom Robinson was almost lynched by a mob of angry white men. Fortunately the mob went home after Jean Louise Finch started asking one of the mob members, Mr. Cunningham, about his
While segregation of the races between Blacks and Whites, de facto race discrimination, had been widespread across the United States by the 1930s, nine African-American Scottsboro Boys whose names are Ozzie Powell, Eugene Williams, Charlie Weems, Willie Robeson, Olen Montgomery, Roy and Andy Wright, Clarence Norris and Heywood Paterson were accused of raping two young white women named Victoria Price and Ruby Bates in Alabama in 1931. Along with the dominant influences of the Scottsboro cases on American civil rights history, the landmark case has substantial impacts on the U.S. Constitution primarily in that U.S. Supreme Court ascertained a defendant’s right to effective counsel.
On March 25, 1931, Victoria Price, a known prostitute, and Ruby Bates accused nine Negroes of raping them on a train in Northern Alabama. The trial took place in Scottsboro, amid much anti-black sentiment. An all white jury sentenced eight of the nine to death, despite the fact that one was blind and one could...
On March 25, 1931 nine African American youths were falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned for the rape of two white girls. Over the next six consecutive years, trials were held to attempt to prove the innocence of these nine young men. The court battles ranged from the U.S Supreme court to the Scottsboro county court with almost every decision the same---guilty. Finally, with the proceedings draining Alabama financially and politically, four of the boys ...
To Kill Mockingbird and Remember the Titans' communities were extremely similar. Both Maycomb and Alexandria were prejudice towards blacks, had their African-American unified together, and also had a leader wanting to change the racial barrier between the two races. These traits help the community develop a sorry about how Atticus Finch and Coach Boone positively changed a prejudice community.
When Samuel Leibovitz was hired as the attorney for the nine convicted boys, news of the trial spread to the north. People saw this trial as a blatant disregard for equality. Incensed by this injustice, Americans banded together to protest the prosecutor of the case, or the state of Alabama. During the myriad of rallies, people were not as concerned about their race as they were about the Scottsboro Boys. Both whites and blacks marched together to support the cause. Soon, the phrase, “Blacks and whites unite and fight!” became widespread throughout the rallies. Americans were able to overcome the petty issue of race and focus instead on injustice, bringing them closer together. This shows that the Scottsboro trials were not just a watershed legal matter, but also a significant step towards better race relations in America. Events in which blacks and whites would march side by side, uncaring of their backgrounds, were rare in the United States. Such an occurrence only happened once before. This was in the time of the abolitionist movement, an effort to free slaves almost sixty years before the inception of the Scottsboro trials. Therefore, this prominent series of trials brought together Americans of all races, and thus, impacted the nation
To begin, parallel and conflicting characteristics can be realized by exploring the judges of the two cases. Judge Horton and Judge Taylor both presided over the cases. Judge Horton was the second of three judges in the Scottsboro cases, and Judge Taylor was the fictional judge in To Kill a Mockingbird. The two both exhibited undeniable sympathy to the defendants in the cases. Judge Horton sympathizes with the nine Scottsboro boys by declaring, “You are not trying whether or not the defendant is white or black … you are trying whether or not this defendant forcibly ravished a woman” (People and Events). It is obvious that Judge Horton was unprejudiced and believed the boys should be treated with equality. This attitude is akin to the one of Judge Taylor; Taylor assigned Atticus Finch, a notable lawyer, to the case of the fictional black character Tom Robinson. Maxwell Green, an inexperience rookie, should have been assigned the case; however due to Taylor’s empathy, Tom obtained a decent lawyer who would do h...
Parallels and bias were shown in both cases, every racist witness showed bias to the black men who were accused. The major characters that were involved with the trial were similar too. Both Atticus and Judge Horton fought for the equal treatment of blacks in the judicial system as the whites. The accusers of the black men were similar too; it seems like the book was made after the actual Scottsboro Case. The time that both of the trials took place in were exactly the same as well. Every single aspect of both of the trials is the same except for the outcomes. One outcome was that they men got away which was amazing because it was real life and the other was more realistic that the black man was killed and the racists had their justice served.
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (p.90) Miss. Maudie, one of the main protagonists in To Kill a Mockingbird, warns the young girl Scout that mockingbirds should not to be killed or hunted down because they represent those who are kind and innocent. So, on a broader spectrum, the term “to kill a mockingbird” symbolizes cruel and improper behavior towards people with good hearts and intentions. In the town of Maycomb, unethical behaviors, such as prejudice and gossip, are most commonly used against the “mockingbirds”. Three of those “mockingbirds” that are featured in this novel are Arthur “Boo” Radley, Tom Robinson, and Atticus Finch. Due to the depiction of the mockingbird symbol in the novel, the reader understands the consequences that immoral attitudes have towards those who are innocent and kindhearted.
Another fear the White Southerners had was the fear of black men exploiting white women. This fear led to many imprisonments and murders of falsely accused African American men. On March 25th, 1931, nine young African American boys were accused of raping two young white women on a train. These nine eventually became known as the Scottsboro Boys, named after the town where they were arrested. Although the boys had a lawyer fighting for them, the trial was over and the guilty verdict came automatically due to the Jim Crow mindsets of the citizens of Alabama.
Emmett Till made the ultimate sacrifice and has shown what could lie in the future if a change is not made (Latson). Rosa Parks’s resistance to the racial segregation of the buses has inspired action in the NAACP and has shown the potential of what they could accomplish if blacks continue to defy racism. The prejudice among the white jury members clouded their judgment in the Scottsboro Trials, leaving them unable to fairly deduce a reasonable punishment or verdict. These trials making national news has made African Americans eager to combat and uncover the malpractices in the court. Till’s, Parks’s, and the Scottsboro Boys’s sacrifices were not in vain. They exposed the circumstances that African Americans had to endure and rallied them to protest the inequalities between races. Their actions were the impetus of the Civil Rights
In this world, everyone has an equal right; however, many people are getting falsely accused of acts they did not commit even though they are innocent. Mockingbirds, one of the most innocent birds, sing their heart out for people to enjoy, however, they getting killed every day. In this novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many racial prejudices going on. Finches stand near the top of the social hierarchy, with Cunningham and Ewells underneath. Black community in Maycomb is even below the Ewells, even if they were a hard worker; they were not treated equally. The “mockingbirds” represents the idea of innocence, so killing a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Throughout the book, many characters are considered a mockingbird. Three examples are Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond. Those three characters are innocent; they are kind and were never harmful to others. However, they were destroyed through contact of evil. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the mockingbirds symbolizes the idea of innocence, and Tom, Boo, and Mr. Raymond are considered one of it.
The theme that is similar is, revenge. In A Time To Kill, Tonya Hailey, a 10-year-old African American girl is raped by two white racist rednecks. Her dad, Carl Lee Hailey soon seeks revenge on the two men, Pete and Billy Ray. Carl kills Pete and Billy Ray with a rifle as the two guys are headed to their courtroom for what they did to Tonya. In To Kill A Mockingbird Tom Robinson, an African American was charged for rape by two white women. Tom Robinson wanted to seek revenge, but not violent revenge. He wanted to get revenge in the courtroom, and to prove that not all African Americans are violent and
A Time to Kill and To Kill a Mockingbird both have a number of similarities to be compared and contrasted. Both stories can be compared in their themes about justice and racial prejudice. However, this is where the similarities end. The themes and ideas in both novels are vastly different in shape and scope. In A Time to Kill justice is the main theme and most of the ideas are focused on justice and the gray in between the lines of black and white set by the law, racial prejudice is also touched upon very frequently in the comparisons between Jake Brigance and Carl Lee Hailey and how he wouldn't even have had to face trial if he was a white man. In To Kill a Mockingbird justice is a theme which is not expanded upon or explained in nearly as much detail as it is in A Time to Kill. To Kill a Mockingbird also has a much larger variety in it's themes, ranging from the themes of justice to the exploration of a child's way of perceiving right and wrong as well as the idea of coming of age. These stories are honestly and objectively far more different than they are alike.