To Kill A Mockingbird Injustice

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Civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once declared “ the ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” Unfortunately for most people, power has a profound impact on people from all walks of life. It has made monsters of doctors and murderers of family men. This relates to the novel because Tom Robinson, an innocent negro, was wrongfully turned into a rapist. Although, some may believe the only motif used in To Kill a Mockingbird is injustice, Harper Lee illustrates through vivid dialog that the main motifs of the novel are social inequality, character perspective, and prejudice. First and foremost Tom Robinson was treated unjustly as a cause of the white community …show more content…
A superior example of this is in chapter three when the text stated "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 30) Atticus’s advice is trying to show a person can not truly understand another until put into the other person's shoes. Their experiences will make one understand why they behave the way they do. Another superb example of the motif, characters perspective, would be when Tom Robinson exclaimed “Mr. Finch, if you was a nigger like me, you'd be scared, too." (Chapter 19). This indicates, because of his race, he knew he was going to be found guilty under any circumstance. The final citation in chapter thirtyone “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really knew a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.” Scout now knows what Atticus meant and has a better understanding of what Boo Radley saw when he gazed from his porch. She was able to put herself in his shoes and to see events from his perspective. The author was trying to indicate how each character should look at the situations from another person's …show more content…
An idea of this would be when Aunt Alexandra tells Scout that she cannot attend church with Calpurnia anymore. She also tries to convince Atticus to get rid of her. (Chapter 14) This is racism because Calpurnia was black and never did anything wrong. She is a valuable part of the family that Scout and Jem love and are blind to the color of Capurnia’s skin. In the same light, a group of white men came to lynch Tom Robinson which would not have occurred with a trial against a white man. (Chapter 15). One can see there is racism involved because of the attempted murder of Tom Robinson over a rumor Bob and Mayella Ewell made, is insane. The Ewell family were considered human trash, but because of their race their word was considered the truth. The evidence is clear and Atticus proved that Tom Robinson could not have been Mayella’s attacher but the jury still found him guilty of a crime that he did not commit. (Chapter 18). Even though he was innocent the color of his skin and the lies from a white person wade heavier on the jury's decision to convict him of rape. Prejudice is way of life for the majority in Maycomb county; they do not treat blacks and whites as equal. No one can argue the motifs, Harper Lee illustrates, are social inequality, character perspective, and prejudice. Social inequality was presented when a man's word is worth less because of his race. Also, character perspective can not truly be understood until one puts themselves
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