Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

The movie based on John Grisham's A Time to Kill is a Hollywoodized, modern-day version of To Kill a Mockingbird. Both movies employ many of the same themes and plot elements; but the former movie is one-dimensional and predictable while the latter is innovative and purposeful. The movie version of Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is considered a classic film, whereas John Grisham's adapted novel is merely another example of the money making efforts of Hollywood.

The classic book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the movie “Remember the Titans” deals with the concept of social injustice in terms of racial prejudice through the setting and characters. Both stories took place in a time where in Southern areas, people were treated very poorly based on their race. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, one of the main characters, Atticus Finch, was a white lawyer who was fighting to acquit a black man, Tom Robinson. Tom was being accused of sexually assaulting a white woman named Mayella Ewell, even though a lot of evidence in the case indicated that he was innocent. The jury declared Tom was guilty because of the racial prejudice against him.

Don’t you ever feel that a person in front of you is scary because of their skin? Well that is how people acted at the time at which the “Scottsboro Trial” was going on in Scottsboro, Alabama around the time of the 1930’s. A group of guys were accused of rap in two girls and they had not done that but either way they were put to jail. They only went to jail because they were black and no one trusted black people at the time. Also in the story “To Kill a Mockingbird” By Harper Lee, in the book, Tom Robinson was tried for raping a lady named Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson was black just like the Scottsboro Boys so he was guilty and died after a police officer had shot Tom. In both texts people are judged by their blood and are not able to change others perceptions of them.

On July 11, 1960 , Harper Lee made history by publishing To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel depicts a society filled with racial prejudice and inequality in the 1960s. More specifically, the novel revolves around a court case involving a black man who is wrongly accused of raping a 19 year old white girl. The defense attorney for the black man states that the case has an “inevitable verdict” (253). How could a verdict be inevitable? In fictional Maycomb County, Alabama, cases involving a white victim and a black defendant are solely based on prejudice against blacks; a prejudice founded in fear and sustained by segregation. While some might believe these racial divisions to be a thing of the past, recent events in Ferguson, Missouri suggest otherwise. Both Maycomb County and Ferguson, Missouri suffer not only from deep racial divides, but also from a police force that drives the wedge deeper.

In both the book and the movie people feel the need to take justice into their own hands and it results in people getting shot or hurt. In the book there is a lack of justice in the courtroom; this caused people to be racist. The judge finds him guilty of a crime he did not do and he is sent to jail, where he tries to escape and ends up getting shot. In the movie, Carl Lee shoots 3 people and the judge proves him innocent which brings up the question ‘was this just?’. These are both examples of injustice, even though Carl Lee was freed, it was still an injustice because Carl Lee did commit a crime, without receiving any punishment. In the court room there is a lack of injustice beginning with the jury, who are all white, and make their decisions based on prejudice which is shown when the jury goes out to eat and has a vote on who they believe will

Tom Robinson case was similar because he was falsely accused of raping a poor white lady just as those 9 boys were falsely accused of raping 2 white women. Mob leaders threatened to break out the nine boys in Scottsboro, Alabama and take them if the sheriff refused to let them get them like Attics did with Tom. In Harper Lee's story, the Old Sarum Bunch threatens Atticus at the jailhouse because they want Tom Robinson handed over to them but Attics refuses. Tom Robinson was found guilty even though he was not guilty. Atticus proved that he was innocent, but since the county was prejudice the Judge put Tom on a jury death penalty. Atticus was trying so hard to defend Tom, but his county didn’t like Atticus taking up for tom which caused Bob Ewell to spit in his face. In the Scottsboro case the 9 boys was proved innocent but since the judge was prejudiced the kids were put into prison just like Tom Robinson in To Kill A Mockingbird. With the cases being alike with the men the women were alike to because they were actually raped by white men but tried to cover it up by blaming it on a black man because the women knew that the men and boys were going to be put into prison. Moreover it shows how people in the 1930’s acted towards white lawyers defending a black man.

The inequality present in both greatly affects the outcome of both the cases. In both To Kill A Mockingbird and A Time To Kill, the jury is made up of white people. The only change in the juries it that in To Kill A Mockingbird, the jury is made up of only men whereas in A Time To Kill, it is made up of men and women. In A Time To Kill, Carl Lee knows that he has a slim chance of winning his case as he says ‘How can a black man get a fair trial, with the enemy on the bench and the jury box, my life in white hands.’ With the presence of black people on these juries, both Tom Robinson and Carl Lee would have had a better chance at winning as white people in both texts always believed the white man over the black man.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. John Grisham obviously subscribed to this point of view. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee was published in 1960 and is recognized as a timeless classic in American literature. Since the book was published, it has inspired many people to write stories and direct movies similar to this classic. A story containing many similarities is A Time To Kill, a 1988 novel written by John Grisham, and a 1996 movie directed by Joel Schumacher. John Grisham stated that To Kill A Mockingbird greatly influenced A Time To Kill. Although some important differences exist, both To Kill a Mockingbird and A Time to Kill explore racism and injustice, the plot and characters

The play, 12 Angry Men, and the film, A Time to Kill, have a similar theme. In 12 Angry Men, a Latino is accused of stabbing his father to death, where a guilty verdict would mean a death sentence. In A Time to Kill, a black man took the law into his own hands, killing two alleged rapists and the sentence for this man, if found guilty meant death in a gas chamber. The play and film both involve prejudice against two commonly accused minorities in America. All jurors were white and with the combination of racism it made it seem like injustice was certain. For example, Jake Brigance, the lawyer for Carl Lee filed for a change of venue. The reason for this was that he

A Time to Kill and To Kill a Mockingbird both have a number of similarities to be compared and contrasted. Both stories can be compared in their themes about justice and racial prejudice. However, this is where the similarities end. The themes and ideas in both novels are vastly different in shape and scope. In A Time to Kill justice is the main theme and most of the ideas are focused on justice and the gray in between the lines of black and white set by the law, racial prejudice is also touched upon very frequently in the comparisons between Jake Brigance and Carl Lee Hailey and how he wouldn't even have had to face trial if he was a white man. In To Kill a Mockingbird justice is a theme which is not expanded upon or explained in nearly

happens in The Help. Nearly the same thing happens in To Kill a Mockingbird, but they completely disregard black people by ignoring their rights in court. So in The Help there is a girl named Skeeter, and she believes that the maids deserve equal rights like the white girls, but to her they all are racist and do not have respect for the black maids. So the whole story is about Skeeter interviewing the maids so she can make a book to inform people about how the maids were treated. Then on the other hand in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, the story is about a rape case where a black male is accused as the rapist, but everyone knows that he did not do it; that did not stop anyone when it came to court. The whole town will pick a white person over a black person, and this is where the Finch family tries to defend him, and this is where scout first witnesses racism and prejudice. Both Scout and skeeter have different reactions to discrimination, Scout just ignores people to whereas Skeeter makes remarks about the discrimination, and their reactions show their moral beliefs.

To kill a mockingbird has themes of racial injustice that are still relevant today because today there are a growing number of act of hate crimes toward minorities and people of color and the judicial system is more likely to convict people of color over white people. “Your father is no better than the niggers and trash he defends in court.”-Ms. Dubose(pg. 117). This quote shows that black people are looked down upon.

During the 1930’s, the time of The Great Depression, poverty was not the only hardship that Americans faced. African Americans were still being subjected to racial prejudice. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses literary elements to bring out the social issue being racism. To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in a still segregated and prejudice county in Alabama. In the novel one of the most idolized characters is Atticus Finch, a lawyer who is very admired by the people of Maycomb County, is chosen to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a white women. This dilemma leads the residents of Maycomb County to have different point of views. Some of the characters insulted Atticus for instance, "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" (110). The insults went on even after the case, “you nigger-lovin' bastard”. Others however continued to revere him. Miss Maudie Atkinson continuously eulogized him to his children so they could understand how honorable their father was. Aside from the characters and their point of view what really brought out the theme was the conflict. There were conflicts incorporated in the novel that went along with other social or political issues such as poverty, but the trial that transpired in the novel was one of the main events that led to the theme associated with racial injustice. Atticus Finch understood that they would not win the case, "simply because we're licked a hundred years

There are many themes that Harper Lee talks about in To Kill A Mockingbird, but one of the most important themes is about racism. Racism changed the lives of many of the characters in in `To kill a Mockingbird'. The Finch family, including Scout and Jem are hounded just because Atticus was defending an African-American man. Other kids in Maycomb are influenced by their parents and others surrounding them about what to think about racism and African-American people. So, they believe that African Americans are lower than them.

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.