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Literary analysis to kill a mockingbird
Literary analysis to kill a mockingbird essay
To kill a mockingbird analysis
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Justice is a Privilege, Not a Right The American legal system was put into place by the Judiciary Act of 1789. This act was established with the intent of creating structure and jurisdiction within the local and federal court systems (Bagwell). However, some of the lower courts were found to be vulnerable to prejudice. Such forms of prejudice were evident in Tom Robinson’s court case from To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson’s case exemplified injustice within the lower court, where an all-white jury decided the verdict. If there was an all-black jury present, there might have been a different verdict, but whites would still have established their own form of vigilante justice. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson was substantially pre-convicted for a crime he did not commit. He was accused by Mayella Ewell of raping her. Even Scout, the protagonist of To Kill a …show more content…
Mockingbird knew that Mayella Ewell’s accusation was devastating for Tom Robinson, stating that “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (Lee, 323) Atticus Finch, the lawyer defending Tom Robinson unmistakably had all of the evidence that proved his innocence: during Atticus’s cross examination of Mayella he proved that it was highly unlikely that Tom would have been able to hit Mayella on the right side of her face, because Tom’s arm had been injured by a cotton gin as a kid. The cross examination suggested that Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell was the one responsible for hitting Mayella, as he was left handed. Also, Atticus argued that the real confrontation was that Mayella was lusting for Tom, and when her father witnessed this happening, he beat her and she accused Tom of raping her out of shame. Even though Atticus proved Tom Robinson’s innocence, everyone in the courtroom knew that Atticus would not win the case, even Atticus knew this stating that “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” (Lee, 101). Prior to the court case when Tom was being held at the Maycomb County Jail, a mob rallied at the jail intending to lynch and kill Tom Robinson. There is no doubt that the men in the mob knew that Tom Robinson was innocent, it was the idea that justice is a privilege, not a right. In Maycomb County, like the majority of the South before the Civil Rights Movement, Whites were the only ones able to get this privilege. Emmett Till’s murder also exemplified prejudice in the lower court system.
He was a 14 year old Black boy from Chicago. Being so young, the concept of “right” and “wrong” was still being ingrained into his mind by his mother. For the summer, Emmett Till travelled to Money, Mississippi in order to visit some relatives. While in Mississippi, him and a few of his relatives went to the local store, owned by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. While in the store, Emmett whistled at the white cashier, Roy Bryant’s wife. A few days later, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam kidnapped Emmett till from his home where he was later beaten and shot. After they killed him, they attached a 75 pound cotton gin fan to Till’s neck and he was thrown into the Tallahatchie River. The court case was looked over by an all-white jury, which acquitted Milam and Bryant even though evidence was provided that the body was Till’s and that Milam and Bryant were the ones who committed the murder (Routt). Like Tom Robinson’s case, it was proven that Milam and Bryant committed the crime, but Emmett Till was Black, so he did not deserve
justice. The Scottsboro Boys were a group of nine Black teenagers hoboing on a train looking for work just like a lot of people during the Great Depression. When the train came to a stop, the nine teenagers were arrested because some of the white people hoboing on the train accused them of fighting with them. However, as there were being arrested, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates accused the nine Black teenagers of raping them. Like Tom Robinson, the moment Victoria Price and Ruby Bates opened their mouths, it was all over. The court case, was once again observed by an all-white jury. Even though there was evidence proving that Victoria Price and Ruby Bates had previously had sexual encounters with men right before the trial, it was later determined that the women had sex with their boyfriends the night before. The verdict resulted in eight of the nine boys were to be sentenced to prison and even to death for a few of the boys (Bagwell). Again, the idea that in the South, justice is a privilege, not a right is shown in this court case. The unreliable witness and the cross examinations proved the innocence of the Scottsboro Boys, but the legal system did not grant them the privilege of justice. When the American legal system was established, it was meant to provide equal protection to American citizens. As seen in Tom Robinson’s case, Emmett Till’s murder, and the Scottsboro Boys’ trial, equal protection was not given. This was mainly because of the prejudice that was evident in a majority of the lower courts in the South. These cases also showed that no matter how much evidence is obtained, justice is not a right, it’s a privilege that only Whites are allowed to have. If justice was somehow given to a Black person, Whites would have taken it upon themselves to establish their own form of vigilante justice.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, a conflict that connects to the theme innocence should be protected is the death of Tom Robinson. Once found guilty, Tom Robinson was placed in prison. Because of his race, Robinson knew he would be sentenced the death penalty. Soon after being convicted, Robinson tried to escape. He knew that he didn’t deserve to be punished. While trying to escape, he was shot 17 times by p...
Therefore the colour of Tom Robinson’s skin was the defining factor in the jury’s decision. Since the jury declared Tom Robinson guilty, that reveals his fate of going to jail and eventually being killed which is obviously an injustice based on the discrimination against him.
Emmett Till had been visiting family in the late summer of 1955. He hadn't known the rules in Southern United States. That was his first mistake. Emmett Till, an innocent 14 year old colored boy, found at the bottom of the Tallahatchie River in 1955. 2 white men had been accused of the murder. His mother, Mamie Till, was not about to let someone get away with the murder of her 14 year old son. She wanted the people to see what had been done and Mamie Till wanted justice to be served. Mamie Till was fed up with the inequality and wanted to change it. She had her eyes on the prize.
Emmett Till was a young boy who lived in Chicago and was not used to all the racial issues in the South because he did not have to face them until he went to a small town in Mississippi to visit his uncle. He soon realized just how different the South really was. Emmett and a few friends went to a white-owned store, and on the way out he was dared by his friends to whistle at the white lady running the store. Later that day, Sunday, August 28, 1955, he was taken from his uncle's home by the lady's husband and was shot, beaten, and with a 270 pound weight tied to his neck, thrown in the Tallahatchie River. A few days later Till was found in the river by a boy fishing from the shore. The woman's husband J.W. Bryant and his brother-in-law Roy Milam were charged with kidnapping and murder. The trial was held in a segregated court house on September 23, 1955. The all-white jury found Bryant and Milam not guilty. Emmett Till lost his life for something that he did not think was wrong; he was a good ...
Many events occurred in the Scottsboro trials that also happened in To Kill a Mockingbird during Tom Robinson’s case. One night a group of black men and white women were riding a train and were arrested for vagrancy. Once speaking to the police, the women accused all of the black men of gang raping them, and, naturally, their word was taken over the accused black men, despite the women’s history of prostitution. Many witnesses supported the black men; one associate of the accusers refused to support the lies of the white women; one physician said that two of the men were badly crippled, and thus incapable of committing the crime. This was very similar to Tom Robinson’s trial. Tom also had a crippled arm and appeared to be physically unable to rape and beat the white woman who accused him of doing such. There was also very little eviden...
On March 25 1931 a group of nine boys were charged with raping two girls aboard a train traveling from Paint Rock Alabama across the state’s border. The trial of these boys had become collectively known as the Scottsboro case. Several years later Harper Lee wrote her famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In this story a young male Tom Robinson is charged with raping a white female. It is by understanding the parallel between Tom Robinson’s case in To Kill a Mockingbird and the Scottsboro case that can be understood that a fair trial was unlikely and that because of Tom Robinson’s race he was presumed guilty before his trial.
When Scout complains about her teacher, Atticus tells her that “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 33). In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch teaches his daughter moral values as he prepares to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been charged with raping a white woman. Harper Lee was influenced by court cases that were based on the racial prejudice of blacks. One of those cases was the Scottsboro Trial of 1931, in which nine African American males were falsely accused of raping two white women while on a train to Memphis. The trial began on April 6, 1931, and lasted just three days. Eight of the nine boys were found guilty and sentenced to death. Because the Scottsboro Boys’ first trial was appealed, it was sent to the Alabama Supreme Court, and then sent to the United States Supreme Court. The Court ordered new trials because the Scottsboro defendants had not had adequate legal representation. (Gerdes 250). The case against one of the boys, Haywood Patterson, began in Decatur, Alabama, on March 27 with Judge James Horton presiding. During this trial one of the white girls, Ruby Bates, said they were not raped while two physicians concluded that the girls were not raped either. On April 9, 1933, the first defendant, Haywood Patterson, was sentenced to execution, but Judge Horton ordered a new trial because the evidence did not warrant conviction. Even though the novel is fictional and the court case is real, the trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Scottsboro Boys trial were similar be...
Tom Robinson, the defendant, was accused of raping and beating a local, white girl. Although Atticus is quite positive his client didn 't commit the disturbing crime, Tom 's race and history are not in his favor. Nevertheless, Atticus proceeds with the trial and skillfully uses persuasive techniques, such as diction, imagery, and tone, and rhetorical appeals to fight for what he presumes is morally right.
Tom Robinson, the African American, was a man of innocence who was accused of rape, a crime that he did not commit. If the jury had realized that they were treating Tom unequally and unfairly the verdict and outcome of the trial would be utterly different. In the trials of Tom Robinson and OJ Simpson, the amendment of the bill of rights seemed to be only considered for OJ. These two trials demonstrate how race, social status, and money have an effect on the current law system of the United
People in the town of Maycomb despised Tom Robinson. Tom’s trial was very unfair and unjust. Almost every white person in Maycomb did not believe Tom Robinson when he gave his testimony in court. People on the jury are supposed to consider both sides of the argument, and then make the decision with the most evidence. But the people in the jury of Tom Robinson’s case made their decision based off of the peer pressure of nearly
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.
To Kill a Mockingbird: Race Relations Racism is a problem that has been around for multiple centuries. In To Kill a Mockingbird, it demonstrates how racism can affect one person even in the court of law. In this story, the case of Tom Robinson is told. It is obvious that Robinson is a victim of racist people that see him guilty only because of his race, African American. From the beginning, it seems obvious that Robinson does not have a chance of winning his case, whether he is guilty or not.
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.
In To Kill A Mockingbird Lee tells the story of a Mr. Tom Robinson who is an African American who is being charged with rape against a white women. Atticus is the lawyer who must defend Robinson in court. In the Scottsboro case a central figure was a heroic judge who overturned a guilty verdict against the young men. The judge went against the public in trying to protect the rights of the African American men. In reading the novel you learn that Atticus arouses anger in the small community when he tries to defend Robinson.
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest” Ellie Wiesel. Readers may find the amount of injustice in Harper lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird a little shocking. This could be why it’s such a popular book. People like the suspense of knowing someone’s right, but still being found guilty for something they did not do. There are many times throughout the book when people are powerless to prevent injustice but they still protest it. This shows that even when people unjustly punish there should always be someone to protest it. The theme of injustice is a common one in harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, whether it be through racism, misinformation, or Arrogance.