Examples Of Forgiveness In To Kill A Mockingbird

“Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.” In Criss Jami’s quote, he explains that people who hold grudges, believe that what happened is unfair versus people who move on do deserve forgiveness. A similar theme is implied in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is set in the imaginary county of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The main protagonist in this novel is a young girl, by the name of Jean Louise Finch, better known as Scout Finch. Scout has to learn to accept the fact that a man named Bob Ewell desires revenge on Atticus because Atticus supposedly ruins Bob Ewell’s credibility at a trial where a black man, Tom Robinson,

is accused of raping his daughter, Mayella Ewell. Throughout the novel after the trial, Bob Ewell looks for opportunities for revenge, and when he finally does get one, it backfires. Furthermore, Harper Lee describes that the people who seek revenge are the people for whom things don’t work out for, and for those who learn to move on are those who can truly ask for forgiveness and get it.
Lee uses external conflict to show that people who try to get revenge for their grudges aren’t successful and that they usually do backfire.

For example, after Mr. Link Deas gives Tom’s widowed wife, Helen, a job, Mr. Ewell tries to get revenge on Tom Robinson’s wife for what Tom supposedly did, by making it hard for Helen to get to work safely. One day, after Helen comes to work, Mr. Link Deas gets it out of Helen about why she comes from the wrong direction to work, and she reluctantly reveals that Mr. Ewell is making it hard for her to get to work everyday: “Calpurnia said it was hard for Helen, because she had to walk a mile out of her way to avoid the Ewells, who, according to Helen, ‘chunked at her’ the first time she tried to use the public road. Mr. Link Deas eventually received the impression that Helen was coming to work each day from the wrong direction, and dragged the reason out of her. ‘Just let it be, Mr. Link, please suh,’ Helen begged. ‘The hell I will,’ said Mr. Link. . . . . . ‘Ewell?’ he called. ‘I say Ewell!’ . . . . . Now hear me, Bob Ewell: if I hear one more peep outa my girl Helen about not bein’ able to walk this road I’ll have you in jail before sundown!’” (Lee 248-249). In this instance, Bob Ewell wants revenge for his credibility being ruined at Tom’s trial, so he decides to take it out on Helen by making her afraid to use the shorter route to get to work. Since Mr. Ewell intimidates Helen in retaliation for Tom’s supposed assault against

Mayella, this conflict can be classified as man vs. man, since Mr. Link Deas defends Helen in this scenario. This scenario shows an attempt at getting revenge backfiring because Mr. Ewell tries to make Helen afraid, and he does succeed at that, but Mr. Deas gets back at Mr. Ewell and threatens to get him behind bars if he even frightens Helen once more. Thus, this instance supports the main thesis since Mr. Ewell seeked revenge, and the situation didn’t work out in his favor. Similarly, another instance in which an attempt to get revenge backfires is toward the end of the novel when Jem is unconscious. Atticus calls Sheriff Heck Tate to report the crime. Mr. Heck Tate explains what he knows based on evidence and what happened to Bob Ewell after Jem went lost conscious; “Mr. Tate ran his hands down his thighs. He rubbed his left arm and investigated Jem’s mantelpiece, then he seemed to be interested in the fireplace. His fingers sought his long nose. ‘What is it, Heck?’ said Atticus. Mr. Tate found his neck and rubbed it. ‘Bob Ewell’s lyin’ yonder with a kitchen knife stuck up his ribs. He’s dead, Mr. Finch’” (Lee 266). Previously in the novel, Mr. Ewell told Atticus after the trial that he would get back at him, even if it took his life. Now we can see that Mr. Ewell wasn’t kidding. He tried to kill Jem and Scout. Mr. Ewell just wants the revenge because he seems to believe that Tom’s death wasn’t enough so-called “justice” for him, which is also why he harasses Helen as well for no reason at all. He doesn’t really need to try and kill Jem and Scout or harass Helen Robinson, which made his attempts at revenge backfire. The bottom line is that he didn’t try apologize for lying in court and he didn’t try to work things out with Atticus, and instead decides to get revenge on Atticus in a much worse way. He deserves it. Thus, the external conflict of man vs. man and the conflict of revenge supports the main thesis saying that when a person is out for revenge, and tries to do it while harming someone who doesn’t deserve it, it backfires.
Lee uses external conflict to show that even if a person is trying to defend someone from negative and hurtful comments against a person that they care about, this kind of revenge can also backfire, leading to some sort of horrible, and yet inevitable punishment.

In the novel, there is a quote about when Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s camellias when Mrs. Dubose called Atticus Finch a n*****-lover. Jem was furious and thus destroyed her flowers, leading inevitably to his actions backfiring against him. In this quote, it shows Atticus returning home with the camellia buds clenched in his hand asking Jem why he pulled out her flowers, and Jem also has to go apologize and tell Atticus what punishment Mrs. Dubose gave him: “Atticus switched on the ceiling light in the living room and found us there, frozen still. He carried my baton in one hand; it's filthy yellow tassel trailed on the rug. He held out his other hand; it contained fat camellia buds. ‘Jem,’ he said, ‘are you responsible for this?’ ‘Yes sir.’ ‘Why’d you do it?’ Jem said softly, ‘She said you lawed for n****** and trash.’ ‘You did all this because she said that?’ Jem’s lips moved, but his, ‘Yes sir,’ was inaudible. . . . . . ‘I strongly advise you to have a talk with Mrs. Dubose,’ said Atticus, ‘Come straight home afterward’ . . . . . . When Jem returned, he found me still in Atticus’s lap. ‘Well, son?’ said Atticus. . . . . ‘I cleaned it up for her and said I was sorry, but I ain’t, and that I’d work on ‘em every

Saturday and try to make ‘em grow back out’ . . . . . ‘She wants me to come every afternoon after school and Saturday and read to her out loud for two hours’” (Lee 103-105). These parts of a excerpt of this novel show that Jem destroys her camellias because she said that Atticus lawed for n****** and that Jem was infuriated that she said that and decided to tear out her camellias. What Jem did was wrong, and even if he may have had the best intentions of defending his father, he also wanted revenge on Mrs. Dubose, and Jem was caught; and that attempt at getting revenge backfired on Jem. He now has to read to Mrs. Dubose every day after school and on Saturdays. It backfired because Jem wanted nothing to do with Mrs. Dubose after tearing out the camellias and he got this as a punishment. This can be classified as man vs. woman, because the conflict is clearly with Jem Finch against Mrs. Dubose. Thus, this quote supports the main thesis because even if one seeks revenge for a good reason, it can backfire and the consequences could be tougher. Similarly, something very close in context happens with Scout when her family visits her Aunt Alexandra at Finch’s Landing for Christmas and Scout gets into brawl with her relative, Francis. Scout is explaining the situation to Uncle Jack, because Scout claims that everyone asks for Francis’s side of the story, but nobody will ask for hers: “ ‘What was your side of it, Scout?’ ‘Francis called Atticus somethin’, an’ I wasn’t about to take it off him.’ ‘What did Francis call him?’ ‘A n*****-lover. I ain’t sure what it means , but the way Francis said it––tell you one thing right now, Uncle Jack, I’ll be––I swear before God if I’ll sit here and let him say somethin’ about Atticus.’ ‘He called Atticus that?’ ‘Yes sir, an’ he did a lot more. Said Atticus’d be the ruination of the family an’ he let Jem an me run wild’” (Lee 86). In this quote, Lee demonstrates a theme very similar and it’s just like when Mrs. Dubose said Atticus lawed for n******. Scout tries to get revenge and beat Francis up for saying such things about Atticus. Eventually, nobody really believes Scout until she tells Uncle Jack about what really happened, but at the time, Scout does get punished for what she did, and it’s not until a lot later that Atticus finds out why. At the time, Scout does get punished and that’s her way of getting revenge backfiring. This issue is boy vs. girl, which is basically man vs. man, just with Francis and Scout replacing them. Thus, even though Scout believes that she is doing it so that Francis won’t call Atticus derogatory names, she still gets blamed and penalized for it.
In conclusion, as long as people try to get revenge for any reason, all for the wrong reasons, the attempts at revenge will backfire, sometimes leading to death. Using external conflict, Lee indicates that people like Bob Ewell, will never be able to succeed when getting revenge because fate has different plans, making those plans backfire. It’s important to understand never to make decisions that could backfire badly, because the consequences are horrible. Otherwise, people will continue to make ludicrous decisions that have something involving revenge, making all those decisions backfire, and they will continue to act in ways that don’t make sense, having crazy ideas, and making senseless decisions.