The Morality Of Action In To Kill A Mockingbird

Atticus Finch was involved in a very controversial case that arrived in Maycomb county. During this case, Atticus, a white man, was chosen to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was accused of raping and abusing a white female, Mayella Ewell. In the 1960s, southern life was divided between colored and non colored people. Those who had white skin, received more privileges than those with dark skin. Atticus’ challenge was to convince the jury and a white judge that Tom Robinson was not pleaded guilty. Citizens of Maycomb all ended up choosing that Tom Robinson was guilty. However, Atticus put up a good fight with different types of appeals that were able to persuade the jury in a variety of ways. Atticus used the appeals of ethos,

Atticus displays these characteristics of positive morals, dignity and fairness by defending rape accused Tom Robinson and trying to provide him with a credible defence against the wishes and social norms of the community, however Atticus Finch abided by the social norms of the community while livingin a racially segregated community, carrying on with his day to day life in such a community, while using “white only” parks and white only buses without directly challenging the racist legal system and Atticus Finch did not dispute the fact that Tom Robinson is tried before an all-white jury and that it was fairly reasonable to assume that they would convict him of rape as a predetermined outcome on the mere fact that he was a black man and she was a white

If you were a parent would you want the best for your kids? Would you want to teach them to search out for the true meaning of dignity and respect? This was the goal of one father, Atticus Finch. Being a nearly fifty-year-old man with extremely young children he wanted to share his wisdom and firsthand experiences with his children to shape them into a respectable young man and woman. Throughout his life, Atticus is taught many experiences himself about not judging someone, and to stand up for the helpless and defenseless. Some important morals that he carried through to teach his children in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is to never judge someone by their social class or race, and to fight for the justice of all the people of Maycomb.

Undoubtedly, one of the most controversial subjects in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, would be whether or not Atticus Finch should have defended Tom Robinson. However, in order to understand this controversy, a person must first be able to understand Atticus Finch himself. Atticus as a character is a very intellectual person who possesses the fortitude to stand up for whatever he believes is right and will not let other people’s choices affect his own. Furthermore, it is also important to understand that Atticus is not a racist, nor does he approve of the idea that one group of people are better than another based on their appearances in general, and because of this, a person can generalize that Atticus’s characteristic traits are why he did not complain when given the task of defending a black man, Tom Robinson, who had been wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. A man that he, as well as a small group of other people from town, viewed as the picture of innocence. In their eyes, Tom was no more than a mockingbird, “[and mockingbirds] don’t do one thing but make music for [people] to enjoy” (Lee 119). Knowing this, anyone with a reasonably strong sense of what is right and what is wrong can conclude that it does make sense for Atticus Finch to have taken the case due to his belief that it is a sin to kill the innocent as well as his courage that allows him to stay true to his ideas, even though when taking the case, he was inevitably going to be putting his

In To Kill a Mockingbird by harper Lee, The story of a southern life in Maycomb during the mid-1930s you begin an exploration of human morality. Each character has morals on how to treat some one of the other race. Atticus and Bob Ewell are two characters with contrasting morals. Tom Robertson an African American male is court between both of them and is dependent the towns social morals in a court case.

Furthermore, Atticus displayed integrity while defending Tom Robinson. Atticus made decisions based on his own conscience and not that of others. Lee writes, “Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience. (105) Atticus is a man with morals, and therefore defends Tom Robinson in front of a racist jury to give him his right to a fair trial. Even though he knows he has a slim chance of winning the case, Atticus continues to do his best. Atticus asks the white jurors to consider the case on its merits and not take into consideration the race of the defendant, Tom Robinson. Atticus’s neighbor Miss Maudie, further describes his integrity by stating, “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets.” (46) Miss Maudie is saying that Atticus does not have anything to hide and does not try

During the Tom Robinson case, Atticus had to defend Tom Robinson, an African American, from Robert Ewell’s accusation that Robinson had raped his daughter. Atticus asserted that Robinson cannot use his left hand, the oppressor’s item of harming Mayell Ewell, the crime has been committed surely so someone had blatantly pursued this act, and that this case is prejudice where whites have a much larger priority than African Americans. He also uses Aristotle’s Thee Appeals, ethos and logos and pathos, in his arguments in which makes that no holes can be punctured through his argument.

Lawyer Atticus Finch, in his closing argument from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee states in Tom Robinson’s case that racial prejudice has blinded the county into deciding the misguided decision. Finch’s purpose is to convince the jury one’s race is irrelevant to justice. He adopts a moralistic tone in order to persuade the jury of Tom Robinson’s innocence. Finch furthers his purpose by effectively employing rhetorical devices to inform the jury to discard their differences and make the choice that can set an innocent man free.

Lawyering can be really difficult and requires a lot of patience when fighting for someone’s life on the line even though they didn’t crime. In the story, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys the theme of equal rights when Atticus Finch fights for Tom Robinson allegedly “raping” Mayella Ewell. In his final speech to the jury, Atticus applies ethos, pathos, and logos in order to collide with the jury for Tom allegedly raping Mayella because of his ethnicity(black).

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is a lawyer who decides to defend a black man. This man’s name was Tom Robinson, and he was accused of raping a girl named Mayella Ewell. Atticus believes that these accusations were false so he decided to stand up for Tom. Atticus was right to stand up for Tom Robinson because he believed in stopping racism, doing what is right, and defending an innocent man.

Tom Robinson’s case, in which we see in that time period how a white man’s word goes against a black’s, is perceived as unfair by Scout, Jem, Atticus, and many of their neighbors. As Atticus says to Jem, “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it–whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.”(295) This quote explains that there is great injustice and extortion for personal gain. This is disturbing in its own right; The fact that Atticus needs to even make a comment like that is disturbing in its own right, let alone that any person would do that to another, also tells Jem this: “So far nothing in your life has interfered with your reasoning process. Those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom’s jury, but you saw something come between them and reason. You saw the same thing that night in front of the jail. When that crew went away, they didn’t go as reasonable men, they went because we were there. 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.”(295) Even a man like Atticus, a sort of rebel in that time period, accepts that the system is

The lawyer’s gallant defense of Tom Robinson displayed his progressive convictions regarding a colorless courtroom. Mr.Finch is entirely aware of the prejudice environment surrounding him, and the disgrace his choice to defend Tom has brought upon his children from their peers. His campaigning attempt for Tom is long and difficult, and based on the quote above, he is aware victory will not result. His reasoning is explained when he says, "The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.” ( Lee 295 ) Atticus’s occupation revolves around the belief that fair trial is mandatory, and a racially biased jury should not be able to destroy this. Mr. Finch chooses to make his lifestyle revolve around this idea, and consequently is active in enforcing it in his community. This aspect of life is similarly mirrored in the way Mamie-Till Mobley approached living after the death of her son.

While numerous citizens in Maycomb express how “Atticus[‘s] aim to defend him. [Is] what [we] don’t like about it”(Lee, 218) and that he has “got everything to lose from this... I mean everything.”(Lee, 195) Atticus full heartedly stands behind the fact that if he didn’t defend the Tom Robinson case he “couldn’t hold up [his] head in town... [and] couldn’t represent this county in the legislature.”(Lee, 100) This reveals the moral importance this trial means to Atticus, as he believes that everyone should be treated equally, regardless of their skin colour as “men are not to be trusted around women—black or white... a truth that applies to...no particular race of men.”(Lee, 273) Atticus’s personal definition of courage is revealed to Jem after he is forced to read to Mrs Dubose for an entire month. As defined by Atticus, real courage is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”(Lee, 149) Similarly, Atticus’s raw motives concerning the Tom Robinson trial run on the evident fact that he knew he was “licked a hundred years before start[ing]”(Lee, 101) Mr Robinson’s trial, but nonetheless defended him to his last breath. Atticus’s definition and actions correspond and show the reader how his values are congruent, no matter the situation. All in all, Atticus’s personal beliefs and values suggest to the reader

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for his theory of moral development developed in 1958. His theory was dependent on the thinking of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and American philosopher John Dewey. It consists of three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. These levels are based on the degree to which an individual accommodates to the conventional standards of society. Each level aquires two stages that serve as different standards of sophistication in moral reasoning. Overall, Kohlberg affirms that moral development is a process of maturing that emerges from thinking about about moral issues (“Kohlberg’s Moral Development”).

The first part of To Kill A Mockingbird introduces the Finch family and their daily lives. The father in the family is an attorney whose only care is the moral rights of others. His views aren't biased or prejudice, he only sees humans who deserve as much respect as they should. He gets a case of a black man being accused of rape towards a white woman. He explains to Scout as this, “..but there’s been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn’t be defending this man (Lee 75).” Ever since Atticus has been appointed to the Tom Robinson case, most of the conservative white people in Maycomb County found it a little dishonoring since the defendant was an African American. "Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win," Atticus said (Lee