Justice And Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, many things are repeated and emphasized. Harper Lee does this for a reason, she wants her reader to centralize their thoughts on certain themes. After reading and analyzing this novel, we discovered that the theme of “justice and injustice” was the most relevant theme. Many scenarios in this book, such as: death, the court system, racism, and the Finch children depicted this. Harper Lee uses this plot so her readers understand the difference between justice and injustice, and its consequences. The biggest form of justice and injustice in the book was found within the presence of racism. Today, we view any form of racism as unjust. However, most people living in the time of the book saw it as the exact opposite.
Scout and Jem did things that were just but something happened to them was a form of injustice. The first thing involved Mrs. Dubose. The quote earlier saying that Atticus was no better than who he worked for (African Americans), was actually said by her, she was the old lady. Jem got very angry about what she said and he trashed her yard. The form of justice here was that even though he didn’t want to, Jem had to go read to her everyday and Scout tagged along. After Mrs. Dubose died, we found out that she was addicted to morphine and had fits which is why they had to leave at a certain time, in a way the reading made her death easier. Atticus told Jem, “There was no point in saying you were sorry if you aren’t, Jem, she’s old and ill. You can’t hold her responsible for what she says and does. Of course, I’d rather she’d have said it to me than to either of you, but we can’t always have our ‘druthers” (105) to show that she is old and he has to be in her shoes to really understand. Within the subject of kids, there is actually a bit of discrimination to women, as well as children. When the Finch kids and Dill, their friend, are in the courtroom during Tom’s trial we find this when it says, “Reverend Sykes leaned across Dill and me, pulling at Jem’s elbow, ‘Mr. Jem,’ he said, ‘you better take Miss Jean Louise home. Mr. Jem, you hear
The first incident of death occurs unfortunately with Tom. When he was convicted guilty and moved to a prison. When he was trying to escape, he was shot 17 times and was killed. Aunt Alexandra was very upset and told Atticus it is the last straw but he explains this injustice in the easiest way, “Depends how you look at it,” he said. “What was one negro, more or less, among two hundred of ‘em? He wasn’t Tom to them, he was an escaping prisoner” (Lee 253). The man who made his daughter accuse Tom, was found dead under a tree after he attacked the Finch children. Atticus thinks of what to do, but Mr. Tate tries to ease his mind by saying that Jem did not stay Bob Ewell. He said that he fell on a knife because he didn’t want it to get out but Atticus disagreed because he didn’t want people thinking he used his career to get Jem out of trouble. Mr. Tate shut him up by saying, “God Damn it, I’m not thinking of Jem!” (Lee, 274) Because Boo was the one that actually stabbed Bob, which you have to infer, Mr. Tate basically says that Bob got what he deserved and that it was a form of justice. He said, “There’s a black boy dead for no reason, and the man responsible for it’s dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Finch. Let the dead bury the dead” (Lee 276). Both Atticus and Tate had to try and explain it to Scout in the best way they could, she understood