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Examples Of Illusions And Illusion In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Illusions and Realities Discovered Through Scout’s Childhood
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, one can learn an extreme amount of life lessons. Throughout the told adventures of Scout, her family, and her friends, the characters are constantly developing into new, better people. To what may seem to many as a simple mistake may turn into a growing moment for the one actually in the experience. Although, for Scout, as she goes through her growing points, she observes many events and theories that may seem, to her, as a quite accurate. It turns out that several of these turn out to be an illusion in actuality. Numerous illusions shown in different events throughout Scout’s childhood eventually turn out to differ greatly compared to reality. …show more content…

Before she witnesses the court system through her own eyes, Scout strongly believes that the system is fair in the town of Maycomb. As time goes on, she begins to realize how the court system is actually biased. From racist juries, judges, and witnesses, the African Americans were greatly discriminated against in the court. As Atticus says, “In our courts, when it’s a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins” (Lee 295). This quote from the story showed Scout, Jem, and the reader how the court system truly was not equitable in Maycomb at the time. Had there been a fair court system, Tom Robinson would have never been ruled guilty. Atticus acknowledges in his speech at the end of Tom Robinson’s case, “Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury” (274). This, being another well-said quote from Atticus, shows again the discriminatory court system. Through the large case told about in the story, Scout learns that it is an illusion that court systems are just. Realistically, the system was unfair and intolerant. Through the court system, one can see how racist people were back then towards the African American people and how the white people believed humans of the opposite color are terrible people. This leads to another illusion that Scout eventually learns the truth

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