Have you ever witnessed a case of racial and social inequality? In a perfect world, there would be true racial, social equality, where everyone would be respected as a person, no matter their gender, race, or social class. However, this perfect world does not exist. America, or any other country in this world, will never truly achieve racial and social equality. There is too much hate and too vast of a difference, for people to accept each other. There is a cultural difference that can spark conflict, and be offensive for different people. Many judgements take place on what people have heard about, on the radio. Even today, all the terrorist attacks that sliver of people blinded by prejudice for so long, it is normal for thinking for them.
Scout is only a six year old child who hasn’t yet experienced evil in the world and she soon discovers what evil is all about. In chapter 9, her father defends Tom Robinson, an African American man, and she gets to experience evil firsthand. Cecil Jacobs insults Scout’s father, “Cecil Jacobs made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers.” (Lee pg. 99) Scout sees evil and prejudice. People don’t like Tom because of the color of his skin. Classmates and others were not happy and teasing her because her father defends an African American person. (Lee, 110) Tom is convicted of raping Mayella, Bob Ewell’s daughter. After all the evidence presented, it was clear Tom was being
In the novel, To Kill a MockingBird, Harper Lee illustrates the harsh treatment receive from the townspeople’s when he is order to defend Tom Robinson. When talking to his brother, Jack, Atticus explains that he hopes that his children will not catch Maycomb’s usual disease of racism and prejudice, he hopes his children will come to him. “I just hope that Jem and Scout come to me for their answers, instead of listening to the town.” When Scout asked Atticus if he was really a n***** lover, Atticus responded “I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody...
23, P.295) In this quote, Atticus saying that there's just something about race that makes white people crazy. He also acknowledges, in case it wasn't already clear, that law is not pure realm free of the racial prejudices that plague everyday in life, it's subject to the same problems as society at large. Usually Atticus is a voice of hope for change the idea of racism, but here he flatly says that racism is a "fact of life," suggesting that losing Tom's case severely reduced his hopefulness concerning human nature, or else that, having sat through the
Since the very beginning of America, racism has always been an issue that cannot be solved. Slavery was the start of it and even after it ended, society had still managed to find ways to be oppressive. The Jim Crow laws were created for states in the south, in which it strongly enforced segregation from the late 1890’s until the 1960’s. People of color were not allowed to share the same bathrooms as whites, use the same water fountain, or eat in the same restaurant. The Jim Crow laws especially gave a huge advantage to people that are white in the courtroom. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee believes that white privilege can overrule any evidence in the courtroom.
Imagine living during a time where you would be discriminated against and divided just because the color of your skin. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a black man named Tom Robinson was falsely accused of having raped a white woman and was not given a fair trial. The towns hatred towards black people have caused a prejudice to occur against him. The jury was made up of only white males who are biased against black people due to this prejudice. Tom has good morals, is noble, and a good-hearted human being.
A court is only as a sound as it jury, and a jury is only as a sound as the men who make it up….” (Lee 274). This quote explains a reason, Atticus did help a black man in front of many. If he did not want things to be equal, then why he would help him in the first place. Another example Atticus said, “A nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don 't mean anything—like
Atticus explains this to Scout after she asks if he is a n***** lover. This quote is an example of how Atticus is amorous toward Tom Robinson even
Towards the middle of the book, Atticus, as he is a lawyer, decides to defend an innocent black man, Tom Robinson in court. During Atticus’s speech to the jury, he says “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. But this is a truth that applies to the human and to no particular race of men” (Lee 273). Atticus argues that it would be unfair and unjust to convict a man just because he is black. Everyone is born equal; your skin colour does not define the way you act and behave.
Atticus being a white men also showed courage by going against the Maycomb people and willingly defended Tom Robinson, a black men. Due to that he was often called N-lover by other white people. Despite of those criticisms given by many of the town’s people, he did his best to defend Tom. He said, "If I didn't I couldn't hold my head up in town, I couldn't represent this country in legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something".(page 75). On page 149, Atticus says : “Son, I told you that if you hadn't lost your head I'd have made you go read to her.
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
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”(144). By telling Scout what he believes it teaches her what equality is which is a valuable lesson to learn. In the whole novel Atticus is shown preaching about equality, especially in the case against Tom Robinson. Atticus knew that the only reason people were going against Tom was that he was black, and Atticus made his opinion heard in the trial, “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.
Equally important, he never frowned upon them, or disgraced their ways. While speaking to his children, Atticus conveys this, “Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man” (Lee 139). As a result, he displays to his children that he is not a coward and will not back away from a challenge, even if it means his reputation may taper as the trial advances. Correspondingly, the African American populous makes known that they are appreciative of Atticus’s intentions to free Tom of his accusation. During the trial, the members of the African American public watched Atticus vividly defend their friend as if color was no
“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). These are the words of Atticus Finch, the wisest character in the famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. He is a fictional man that embodies human traits that all people should strive to emulate. In the novel; narrated by Atticus’ daughter Jean Louise Finch, more often referred to as Scout; Atticus defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white female, Mayella Ewell. The main message of the text is the prominence of racial injustice, specifically in the 1930’s, the era the novel takes place in.
Atticus Finch was a lawyer that had to be exploitive if he wanted to win cases. When he gave a closing argument for the case of Tom Robinson, he had to find a way to persuade his audience. Instead of making his speech specifically about Tom Robinson, Atticus stated that some people of a race may lie, but that is true for all humans, no matter what the color of their skin is. Atticus said that, “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). He believed that you shouldn’t judge someone’s actions until