The Scottsboro Boys Of The North By Harper Lee

1904 Words8 Pages
Throughout history, it can be seen that the influence of fear far surpasses that of reason in controlling the actions of people, leading to destructive outcomes. In the Scottsboro Boys interracial rape case in Alabama in 1931, several Black teenagers were deemed guilty in every trial, even though during a retrial one of the two white victims admitting to fabricating the rape story. Additionally, in the 1948 case of the “Scottsboro Boys of the North” or the Trenton 6, a jury convicted six Black men who did not even match eyewitness descriptions, sentencing them to death. Such unreasonable decisions were made due to the widespread Jim Crow laws in that era and in fear that society would change in the already unsure future, since it was…show more content…
Fear of the unknown prompts Maycomb society to fabricate false rumors about Boo Radley and by doing so, isolate him as an outcast. The Radley family is different from the other families in Maycomb society as they do not follow the accepted traditions of the townspeople: “The Radleys...kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb...The shutters and doors of the Radley house were always closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb ways” (9). By describing the Radleys as “alien”, Lee reveals the extent to which the family is unknown to Maycomb. Since their customs are unusual of a Maycomb family, they are distanced from the rest of society, thus making them even more mysterious and alien to the townspeople. However, this is just the beginning for a string of unexplainable and incomprehensible actions concerning the Radleys. After an incident with the law, the son Arthur Radley “was not seen again for fifteen years” until one day he “drove his scissors into his parent’s leg…[and] Mrs. Radley ran screaming into the street that Arthur was killing them all”, a rumor spread by the town gossip (10-11). The first event scares the townspeople as they cannot understand why a person would associate with bad influences and commit such acts of violence in disregard of the law. Also, being locked
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