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Atticus Finch Ethos In To Kill A Mockingbird

1428 Words6 Pages

Dan Novak
Mr. Yeager
English 9H
27 December
The Bold Deeds of Atticus Finch From the stone ages to modern times now racism is still a continuous fire burning in society. To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is a novel that has many similarities and symbols to our current government and laws. Atticus finch representing Tom Robinson, an African-American character that is wrongly accused of, imprisoned, and later killed for supposedly raping Mayella Ewell, helps make clear the problems in our society and how racism comes into play. Atticus is a independent attorney who decided to help and clearly innocent man disregarding his skin color. Atticus looked passed Tom’s skin complexion and only fought for the truth. om Robinson, an African-American …show more content…

She shows this through an African American character named Tom Robinson, his representative, Atticus Finch and the happenings of his trial. In the book, Harper Lee uses Tom Robinson to convey how racial discrimination is used in the supreme court. Just because of Tom’s complexion, he was put in jail and killed for a crime he did not commit. Lee really conveys the theme of how Tom was heavily discriminated against just due to his skin complexion. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch talks about higher white power. "There 's something in our world that makes men lose their heads --they couldn 't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it 's a white man 's word against a black man 's, the white man always wins. They 're ugly, but those are the facts of life" (Lee 220). Finch mainly talks about if the roles were switched as a ‘black man in a white man 's world’ white men are mainly chosen because of their complexion and believed white men hold more power. Even though Tom Robinson was innocent he still was wrongly accused, then apon going to prison Tom Robinson was later shot 17 times. One would think if he was breaking rules 1 bullet would take care of things, but 17 shots is clearly a act on hate and racism. Another quote that helps determine how Lee used Robinson to expose the truth about the justice system is, "Tom Robinson 's a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world 's going to say 'We think you 're guilty, but not very ' on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing" (Lee 219). After reading this in the novel the quote really shows that if a white man and a black man both commit the same crime almost a certain chance the black man will get accused wrongly first before the white man will ever be. This quote changed the point of view on many characters in To Kill A Mockingbird. It changed the view of Tom Robinson

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