ipl-logo

How Does Tom Robinson Create Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

477 Words2 Pages

In the 1900's, racism was a big issue all over the world. As a result alot of people were treated poorly and it created injustice. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many characters such as Tom Robinson, Scout and Jem and Dolphus Raymond are highly exposed to the racism in their town. This decreases the quality of life for them.

Tom Robinson is an innocent black man, however, due to the racial tension in Maycomb, he is found guilty for a crime he has not committed. In Maycomb, the Ewells are a family that everyone looks down on they never clean themselves they are uneducated and they live beside the town's garbage collection. They are considered trash by everybody in Maycomb. Needless to say, when Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, the town's people believed the Ewells. In addition, during the trial, it is clear that Mayella's proofs are weak. However the jury convicts Tom, the suspect with solid proof, guilty just because he is black. If Tom had been white, he would …show more content…

In a county like Maycomb, it is frowned upon to talk to another black man about things other than business so when Dolphus gets married to a black woman the town is outraged. They question his sanity and bother him frequently about his life decisions. As a result, Dolphus pretends to be drunk so people will have an illusive reason about his life. Due to the racial tension in Maycomb, Dolphus Raymond has to act A certain way for his life choices to be considered normal because normally drunk people make stupid decisions.

Given these points, racism has a negative effect on many characters in the story To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Characters like Tom Robinson, Scout and Jem, and Dolphus Raymond are at a disadvantage due to the towns racial tension. Maycomb would be a different place if racism was nonexistent. Towns people would have a better quality of

Show More
Related

  • Calpurnia Racism Quotes

    495 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the time period of the book, racism was very popular, and especially within the town of Maycomb in the book. But racism was on both sides of the

    Read More

  • Examples Of Bias In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1129 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the town of Maycomb many families and people have a bias towards them. This is portrayed when Scout explains that the Cunninghams are poor and never take what they can’t pay back to their new teacher. Another is when Scout finds out about the Ewells that there kids come the first day of school but then never come back so they have a bias against them that they are all dirty, poor, and uneducated bums. This affects the characters because the families are downgraded because of what they are and people see them that way instead of who the are. It affects the plot because it adds a foreshadowing aspect on the Ewells and what they are.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Scottsboro Boys And To Kill A Mockingbird

    793 Words  | 4 Pages

    Leading up to the Civil Rights Movement, the black community was in a constant battle against law enforcement treating them unfair compared to the white community. The Scottsboro Boys and Emmett Till’s cases were one of the many times that the legal system showed to be unfair to blacks. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, the law enforcement and community were very racist against blacks and believed all blacks were criminals. In the story, Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer gets put into a very difficult situation and decides to defend a black man, who went by the name of Tom Robinson.

    Read More

  • How Does Dolphus Raymond Use Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1107 Words  | 5 Pages

    An overwhelming topic in the novel is the brutality that individuals cause upon others by the prejudice, or 'the simple hell people give other people', as Dolphus Raymond puts it. It is not only the matter of the profound racial bias which is available in Maycomb yet the prejudiced, slender, inflexible codes of conduct that most townspeople wish to force on others. This bias is made all the all the more threatening by being delineated as "expected" conduct by numerous characters in the book. Against the foundation of this residential area such individuals as Boo Radley, Dolphus Raymond, many of the African Americans segregated from the whites, and, to some degree, Maudie Atkinson, are abused on the grounds that they don't acclimate. Tom Robinson is discovered blameworthy, despite

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Argumentative Essay Argument

    450 Words  | 2 Pages

    That’s one part I didn’t like about the book. The stereotypes of the black families of Maycomb. As soon as Bob Ewell turned Tom Robinson in for “raping” his daughter the whole white community believed it because he was black. He was a kind, loving father and husband. But no one bothered to get to know the real him or see past the color of his skin to really know that.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Blindness In To Kill A Mockingbird

    683 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social class and sexism take a major part in the lives of the people of Maycomb and affect the way they treat each other. Tom Robinson, a young man accused of a crime because of his race, is a main example of the blindness to prejudice in this novel. Throughout the novel the author discusses the issue of racism and its effects on people. When Atticus Finch took on defending Tom in court, people told him that he would lose the case because of Tom's race. Atticus was upset over the fact that the courts were biased, no matter how much evidence shows that they were innocent.

    Read More

  • How Is Raymond Presented In To Kill A Mockingbird

    697 Words  | 3 Pages

    Raymond then met his wife, who is black. Ever since he got married to a black woman, the town of Maycomb had looked down on him just as they do on the rest of the black folks. Even though Dolphus Raymond came from a good, white family just like anyone else from Maycomb, he is hated just the same as the black folks but still does not wish to start controversy. Dolphus Raymond represents

    Read More

  • Theme Of Racial Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

    754 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tom Robinson is a black man who is wrongfully convicted of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. This novel goes through Scout's life from when she was 6, till she is 9. She lives in the town of Maycomb Alabama, and lives an innocent life until about halfway through the story, where she begins to ask questions. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout shows the readers that racial inequality creates an unjust society through the African American community, through the people surrounding colored folks, and through Tom Robinson’s Case. The first example of the consequences of racial inequality is the African American community in Maycomb.

    Read More

  • Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird And The Butler

    1048 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the entire town of Maycomb accepts and contributes to maintaining the racial status quo. The narrator, Scout, tries to make it seem as though Maycomb, Alabama is a better place than other southern states in the United States. Although, they tolerate racism just as much as any other southern state. Some characters are aware of this, like Atticus Finch and Dolphus Raymond and others are not. Dolphus Raymond even states “Things haven’t caught up to that one’s instinct yet.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Isolation In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1244 Words  | 5 Pages

    In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Bully In To Kill A Mockingbird

    830 Words  | 4 Pages

    Blue Jays and Mockingbirds Who are the blue jays and mockingbirds of To Kill A Mockingbird? Set in the early 1930’s of America, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is a coming-of-age book that tells the story of an innocent, naive child becoming an adult through the experience and intake of racism, discrimination, and social injustice throughout the book. Harper Lee’s development, usage and characterization of her characters throughout To Kill A Mockingbird help establish two of her most important themes of the book, which are the presence of social injustice and the coexistence of good and evil. Social injustice is consistently seen throughout To Kill A Mockingbird.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racial Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    857 Words  | 4 Pages

    Essay In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, there are many important messages shown throughout the book. However the primary focus was set on racial prejudice that existed in the 1930s-1940’s in the fictional town of Maycomb County. The racism in the novel was very much a reality in 1930s-1940s America. A very good example of the racial prejudice that existed was in the courtroom during Tom Robinson’s trial, an innocent Negro man held against his will for a crime he did not commit.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Testimonies Analysis

    358 Words  | 2 Pages

    The testimonies reveal how deep-rooted the racism within Maycomb runs, as it is present even in court rulings and how casually present it is. The court is taking place, and the order of prosecutor’s witnesses who are: Mr. Heck Tate, the sheriff; Mr. Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father; and Mayella Ewell, the one who is accusing Tom Robinson of raping her. When it’s Mr. Ewell’s turn to speak, he does so with many racial slurs and slang embedded in his accusations. When relaying what he saw to the jury, he points at Tom and yells “―I seen that black n*gger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!” Mr. Ewell, who, although, has never been a part of a court case or viewed one, doesn’t truly care, or notice, that so far into the formal case, not one person has used racial slang to talk about Tom, and uses the term n*gger quite casually.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Social Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1169 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

    858 Words  | 4 Pages

    Though most of the town Maycomb feels negatively and discriminates the African-Americans, characters like Atticus show us how one person can impact his surroundings if he has high morals. Although he couldn’t change the mindset of the other town residents , he made sure that his own children didn’t discriminate people, purely on the basis of their skin colour. Racism can be seen even in the first few chapters of the book. These racist comments by nonracist children typify the culture in which they were growing up.

    Read More

More about How Does Tom Robinson Create Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Open Document