How Does Lee Show Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, depicted the harsh reality and injustice of the government system during the 1960’s. The author, Harper Lee, conveyed a story of a southern lawyer who defends an innocent colored man, named Tom Robinson, whom was found guilty because of the pigment of his skin, even though there was crucial evidence that proved his innocence. Harper Lee’s literary phenomenon, To Kill a Mockingbird, was influenced and based on actual events during her childhood. In the novel, the author provides symbols, gothic motifs, and distinct characters to display her ideas of innocence, justice, and fairness during this time.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, the author illustrates characters and events that notably resemble

the people and occasions from her individual childhood experiences. Scout Finch is the main character within the novel. Like Scout Finch, Harper Lee lived in the Deep South, had an older brother, and was the child of a lawyer, Atticus Finch, who defended innocent black men. Scout Finch emerged as a representation of a youthful version of Harper Lee. Both characters resembled a tomboyish figure that was loud and boisterous through the ages of six to nine during The Great Depression. Others surrounding Harper Lee’s life played characters in the novel such as her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, represented as Scouts father; her friend who lived with his aunts and uncles next door, represented as Scout’s friend Dill; and her older brother, as Jem.
Harper Lee’s generation as children contained the predisposition and exploitation of African Americans. In both her novel and reality, she excerpts the harsh realism of justice and fairness throughout America’s society during the 1960’s within her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
“Scout,” said Atticus, “nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything –- like snot- nose. It’s hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody.”
“You aren’t really a nigger-lover, then, are you?”
“I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody… I’m hard put, sometimes—baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. it just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.” (11.124)
Because Scout’s father, Atticus, was defending a colored man in a court trial, Scout was profusely criticized and reprimanded while attending school and throughout the town. The quote above depicts Scout’s reaction and Atticus’s response towards the hostile arrogance of southerners during this time. The act of white superiority towards African Americans foretells the notions of justice and fairness illustrated within the novel.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch was faced with a trial in which his client, Tom Robinson, was accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella.

Bob Ewell, a constant racial prejudice drunkard man, falsely alleged Tom Robinson, an innocent man, who was thoughtful and considerate to others, of raping his daughter in spite of his distaste for blacks. It was clearly shown that Mayella was not the victim of Tom Robinson’s but rather the victim of her own father during the trial. Atticus shows the jury and everyone else in the courthouse that Tom Robinson could not have harmed Mayella in the manner he was accused. Mayella had a black leav on the right side of her face, meaning the person who hit her would have to be left-handed. However, Tom Robinson could not have done this because of an injury incurred as a child. Tom injured his left arm when it was caught in cotton gin making his left arm twelve inches shorter and incapable of fully functioning. Atticus proved Mayella’s father was left-handed and exposed him as being

abusive.
Although it seemed all evidence points towards Tom Robinson’s innocence, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. While in jail, Tom Robinson attempted to climb over the gates of the prison and died as multiple shots punctured his body. It was made certain that Tom’s trial was unjust and not fair. However, justice was later found when Boo Radley, Scout’s and Jem’s recluse neighbor who never left his house, killed Bob Ewell while in the process of saving Scout and Jem.
Boo Radley was a strange young man whom many of the children in the neighborhood thought of dangerous and were fiercely afraid of him. What they did not know was, that behind the curtains of the outlawed house, he was home imprisoned and abused by his own father.
“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. “Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (10)
Boo Radley and Tom Robinson were both treated unjustly and symbolized mockingbirds within To Kill a Mockingbird.

The idea of killing a mockingbird as a sin represents the moral and innocent people (both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson) who are consumed and destroyed by evil. This equates to the dissension of southern society from the higher ground of social equality and fair justice. Boo Radley shows only pure kindness to Scout and Jem throughout the novel. Boo leaves them gifts in the hole of a tree, wraps Scout in a blanket during the fire, and most importantly, save their lives from the drunk Bob Ewell. Although showing nothing but kindness, Boo is battered from the abuse of his father and becomes the shadow in the dark. Like Boo Radley, Tom Robinson showed only kindheartedness to Mayella, which in the end cost him his life. Both caring and innocent characters were devastated by a disposition of

evil.
Finally, this novel could be considered a gothic novel with Harper Lee’s usage of motifs and gothic details. In literature, it is said, “the term Gothic refers to a style of fiction first popularized in eighteenth-century England, featuring supernatural occurrences, gloomy and haunted settings, full moons, and so on.”( ) Some scenes within To Kill a Mockingbird that contain gothic features are the fire that destroys Miss Maudie’s house, the rabid dog during the summer, the unnatural snowstorm and Scout’s and Jem’s superstitions about Boo Radley. These gothic features in the quiet town of Maycomb foreshadowed the complications of the trial and its outcome.