The idea of them being an unfit race who was in need of probation and instruction seemed to more closely relate to white Klansmen of the South. Their actions spoke louder than words and it seemed as though they were begging to be put in their place. African Americans were not to be punished, if anything it was the white men. They enslaved African Americans, beat, and battered them for years yet when they finally get their freedom it’s as though life will never continue to flourish. The South proved that they needed probation that was never forced upon them.
Criminological portrait of Bob Ewell In Harper Lee’s novel “To kill a Mockingbird” we could see the life in the small town with wide spectrum of characters of various social status, but almost the same prejudices. Most of the inhabitants belong to middle class: they are white people, who have some small business, and other part of the town, who, despite the abolishing of slavery, still face pressure. Bob Ewell and his family does not belong neither to any of these groups. He is one of the most controversial characters, who hates both “black” and “white” people. His hate spreads not only on dwellers of Maycomb, but also on members of his own family.
In the 1930’s, racism, classism, and prejudice became more evident in people’s everyday lives. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, she demonstrates this sore subject in a small town called Maycomb, Alabama. Lee presents Maycomb as a southern town, bursting with gossip and encompasses the traits of a one-sided community. Overall, Maycomb despises the African American race and refuses to treat them as equals because of their skin color. However, Lee created the main characters, Jem, Scout, and Atticus, to be different.
“Lemme tell you somethin’ now billy, you know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.” “Yeah but he aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it.” (Lee, 165) This quote is purely just ignorance and prejudice, this quote is a good example of how most of the town feels, they are mad at atticus not for taking the case, but for actually trying to give Tom a fair trial. People in this town in this time period were extremely racist and prejudice, and it’s very clearly shown in this quote, at first the man says, you know the court chose him to defend this negro; meaning they didn’t think it was bad to be appointed, the townspeople thought it was a terrible idea and decision for Atticus to actually give this his all, this also shows how the town has very little respect for Atticus, as soon as he took the case people started turning on him for simply defending an innocent
To commence, characters such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley were key elements in helping to exhibit the theme of the novel. The novel focuses around a rape trial, Tom Robinson being accused of raping a 19 year-old woman named Mayella Ewell. Tom being innocent isn’t even taken into consideration due to the fact that he’s a black man. Atticus Finch, a respected local lawyer takes on the case trying to make the jury look past the fact that Tom is black. To bespeak, Atticus states the following, directing it to the jury, “You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women- black or white.
(SS) King speaks of the attacks, “...unspeakable horrors of police brutality,” the black community encountered for having a different skin tone. (SS) Since the white community did not see the Blacks as equals, they did not think they were hurting a worthy human being. (com) King also addresses the “... negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one,” as something the whole black community had to face on a regular basis. (SS) The black community was forced to receive social restraints on their lives, causing severe inequality by taking away the free will to live anywhere they wanted. (SS) This image is a powerful, real life illustration of the extreme segregation of that time.
Nonetheless, both men may not be so different after all. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, moral empathy is not adequately represented towards other Maycomb County folks, especially towards the black community; people are just people and no one is naturally different from anyone else, excluding the fact that there are some people who take advantage of their power. Early in the novel, the author introduces the readers to a divided society in which both the young and old, are heavily inclined towards discrimination against “powerless” people, especially the black community that is settled in Maycomb. In pursuance of addressing this dilemma, Atticus says to his daughter Scout, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee p. 48) This quote is what essentially makes up the whole story. However, the jury in the trial does not seem to share this idea because they convicted Tom Robinson, a
Throughout the novel, Twain includes the word “ni***r.” This word choice shows how harsh the rest of humanity was towards African Americans. They said, “The ni***r run off… there’ a reward for him” which is showing how they all were very quick to assume Jim should be blamed for it. If a white man would have gone missing, nobody would have even thought about it, but since he’s black, they all assume the worst about him. These quotes show how Jim is Telling Huck about Miss Watson and how she feels about Jim being an African American slave. Jim says, "but she could git eight hund'd dollars for me, en it 'uz sich a big stack o' money she couldn' resis'" (Twain 54).
Concerning the second charge, Gilmore as a prosecutor is elected by the public, and following the prior analysis of Alabama in the 1930s, without being part of the racialist society there was no other way for him to be elected. For his defends he reflects “the bigotry and racism of his time and place” (Vestil 4) , therefore integrates himself into the racially segregates society. The last state representative in To Kill a Mockingbird is Sheriff Heck Tate, who should enforce the law including separate but equal. However, when Bob Ewell comes to him and reports that his daughter had been raped, Tate comes with him and immediately arrests Tom Robinson. When in the end of the book, Bob Ewell is dead, Sheriff Tate’s does not start an investigation, but says that Bob Ewell fell on a knife.
It is true, that Atticus has no chance to win because the case had been decided years before the actual case because of prejudice towards African Americans. Atticus though would never be able to even look at his children if he didn 't take the case because that is just the type of person he is. After Ewell 's Death, In a conversation with Sheriff Heck Tate, Atticus tells Heck why he thinks he should take Jem to court for, “killing” Mr.Ewell. Atticus tells him, “Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I 've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him…” This shows that Jem looks up to his father as a model, and does what he does. If he didn 't defend Tom, he would be teaching his son it 's ok to not stand up for what you believe in.