Two men, one town, one problem. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson and Mr. Raymond are both judged by society. Atticus, Tom’s defender, puts up a great counter argument and convinces the whole court that Tom is not guilty. Tom losses the trial. Mr. Raymond is the town drunk. He walks around town drunk with whisky in his hand. Mr. Raymond doesn’t care that people talk about him drinking because it avoids the subject of his wife. Sometimes, to be able to hear the song of a bird, you have to shut your eyes. Tom Robinson gets sent to trial for raping Mayella Ewell. Atticus convinces the whole court that Tom is not guilty, but he still ends up losing. He lost because he was black. Back in those days people were really …show more content…
Raymond’s was not. Throughout town, Mr. Raymond is known as the town drunk. However, he is falsifying this claim. He uses the label town drunk to cover the fact he is married to a black woman. He walks around town pretending to be drunk, a brown bag with a bottle of Coke a Cola in it. Since he is known as a drunk, it allows people to accept that he is married to a black women. The people think that he did it cause he was drunk and not thinking properly, but he was thinking clearly. Mr. Raymond wanted to marry her. He just uses being drunk as an excuse. So, he walks around town pretending to be drunk, but why. Mr. Raymond does this so people don’t make fun of him or think bad of him. This is so he can stay with his wife and live the way he wants to live. Mr. Raymond even says it himself, “Secretly, Miss Finch, I’m not much of a drinker, but you see they could never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live.”(Lee 200). This proves that this is what he wants, but why can’t people hear his song? It's because if they did they would never understand. So, Mr. Raymond hides his song. He hides it by pretending to be a drunk man. This is a time Mr. Ramond shows that he is hiding his song, “Some folks don’t-like the way I live. Now I could say hell with ‘em, I don’t care if they don’t like it. I do say I don’t care if they don’t like it, right enough-but I don’t say the hell with ,em, see?”(Lee 200) The last sentence
Author uses Atticus teach these lessons through his wise words. Atticus teaches these lessons to not only the audience, but Jem and Scout too. Some of the main things he teaches his kids about are understanding people, using the mind instead of the body, the cruel reality of stereotypes, and true
In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson is in trial for the supposed rape of Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson was on his way home when Mayella Ewell asked him to help her with something. Being a kind man, he went into her yard and started to look for some of the plants he usually dug up for her when she asked him for help. He didn’t find any, so he asked her what it was she needed. She told him a box she needed was up in a place she couldn’t reach. He went in the house and grabbed the box, and after he did Mayella told him the door was broken. Tom Robinson proceeded to look at the door, not finding anything wrong with it. He told her and she jumped on him, hugging him and saying she never kissed a black
Tom Robinson was a man who respected others and had good moral standards. He was a truthful man and always helped those who were in need. For his kindness he was repaid with the judging eye of the whites and it cost him his life. ‘You’re a mighty good fellow, it seems- did all this for not one penny?’ He died in prison when he should have been a free man. He is seen as a man of truth, love and dignity. Tom Robinson was an innocent man who told the truth throughtout his trial while the whites lied just so they could see a grateful, kind, helpful man pay the price for their wrongdoing and all because he had different coloured skin.
As Stephen King once said, “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee, Jean Louise Finch, a young girl who also goes by Scout, experiences many things such as racism, friends, and family. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who is sacrificing his reputation to defend a black man, Tom Robinson. Scout and her friends take it upon themselves to uncover the mystery of Boo Radley. In this book the mockingbirds represent innocence. Many characters take on the role of the “mockingbird". Exploring Lee’s title, to kill a mockingbird is to kill innocence.
Jem and Scout, throughout “To Kill A Mockingbird,” learn to consider things from other people’s perspectives. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, says “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” (Lee 39). They learn this through experiences with their neighbor Boo Radley as they mature beyond their years. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout make fun of Boo and assume that all of the rumors going around about him are true. However, later on in the story the children grow an admiration for Boo and learn to understand him. As they matured, Jem and Scout naturally learned many life lessons of appreciation, respect, and courage
Lee implies that people learn lessons through life experiences that school can ever teach. Throughout this novel, Atticus taught his kids many lessons that was hard for them to hear at times, but it later on helped them in the story. Or it helped them grow up and mature. On page 40 of To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus was explaining to Scout that Miss.Caroline was new and didn’t know anyone, and she especially didn’t know the Cunningham’s story, Atticus states, “Atticus said… but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes we’d have seen it was an honest mistake on her part” (40). This quote by Atticus is meant to explain to Scout that Miss. Caroline just made an honest human mistake. He tried to get Scout to realize that if he put herself in Miss.Caroline’s shoes then she might better understand the confusion. Obviously you can’t really be in her shoes, but he said it figuratively to show her why it was important to give her another chance, or at least try to be nice and listen. Atticus taught this to Scout at home later on that night. At her school after that she tried to just get by in her class. Lee also shows mainly throughout that the school system doesn’t help when it comes to teaching children life lessons. As shown in the earlier quote Atticus, had told Scout to jump in Walter’s shoes, and walk around in it. This other quote shows how Scout actually takes into consideration of Atticus’ words, and chooses to not bother Jem because she tried to imagine what it had
Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel takes place during the depression in Alabama with the main character, Scout, viewing her lawyer father, Atticus, defending a wrongly accused black man of rape. The reader gets to understand Scout’s childhood view of this controversial situation. Scout’s character in to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is really the author’s own life playing out in the novel, which is most likely why this novel is thought to be one of the best American Novels of the 20th century.
"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (pg. 119.) Miss Maudie spoke the previous quote with deep thought going into each and every word. She wasn't just trying to teach Scout a lesson, but she wanted there to be a powerful meaning behind it. Miss Maudie's main purpose was to stress that you shouldn't kill something that is doing no harm. Everyday "mockingbirds" are killed, broke down, and mistreated by society.
The nature of humans causes us to harm others, but some of us don't hurt others, instead they get wounded physically or mentally by others, those are mockingbirds. Three peoples are mockingbirds in the book To Kill a Mockingbird.
Yesterday morning, a trial was held regarding an issue of a black man, Tom Robinson, raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. The case took place at the Maycomb County Courthouse which was divided into two levels, black folks in the balcony, and whites at the bottom. The case was conducted by Judge Taylor and a hand-picked jury. The defense lawyer was Atticus Finch and Mr. Gilmer was the prosecutor. The case ended by declaring Tom Robinson as guilty after long hours of jury deliberation.
Harper Lee tied the Southern situation, during the 1930’s, to fiction in her most famous novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The era of America’s Great Depression led to an escalation in racial profiling of Negroes, and an intensification in lynching of those Negroes, as mentioned in the book, Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching That Launched 100 Years of Federalism (Curriden & Phillips, Jr. 198-214). This directly correlates to the trial of Tom Robinson in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” (Lee 221-283), in which a Negro, Tom Robinson, was sentenced to death due to an accusation by a white man. Also correlating to this trial is the attempted lynching of Robinson (Lee 201-207). Racism in the Southern United States was presented historically through the trial of the Scottsboro Boys, as portrayed in the encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Tanenhaus 340-345).
Tom Robinson is accused of raping a white girl which has the town completely upside down because Tom is Black. Being a black innocent man who eventually is shot shows it is as much of a sin to kill an innocent human being as it is to kill a mockingbird.This all started because Mayella had asked Tom to help her out in the kitchen. When Tom saw that there
The the book, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Mr. Underwood compared Tom Robinson's and his death, to a mockingbird. It’s believed that since it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, it’s also very frowned upon to kill any crippled man. For instance, in the text it states, “Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin the kill cripples, be they are standing, sitting, or escaping. He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children…” (Lee 323). In other words, just like it’s a sin to kill mockingbirds, it’s just as bad or frowned upon to kill any crippled human being under any circumstances. This evidence highlights mu claim because of the significance of how society during that time period influenced such actions that took
Finally, it's the day of Tom Robinson's trial. The kids sneak over to see, and it's pretty apparent (to us, at least) that the white woman, Mayella Ewell, is lying. Great! Truth and Atticus's lawyering skills win the day, right? Not so much. Tom is convicted, and some of the white folks aren't too happy about Atticus basically accusing the girl and her dad of lying. Then, a few weeks later, Tom is dead, shot while trying to escape prison.
In both the text “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee and the film “A Time to Kill” directed by Joel Schumacher, similar ideas are presented using language devices and stylistic features in differing ways to appeal to their target audience. Each have very similar storylines in which a white lawyer defends a an African-American in a prejudiced court case. Racism is a key idea presented strongly in each due to the eras they are set in. The era and country set in each story provide a strong base for the prominent issue. With the unpleasant happenings in each text and through the racist acts the idea of compassion shines through. As well as compassion being a significant idea, forgiveness is also presented through the racists acts.