The Theme Of Justice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Liberty and justice isn't attainable for all. In To Kill a Mockingbird racism and discrimination seems to be everywhere in the Maycomb County. This didnt just happen in a story it has happened in many cases over history. There are many cases in the story when racism overruled justice. One of the many occasions was the trial of the Scottsboro boys that was unfair and unobtrusively thoughtless. Racism is considered a disease in Maycomb county.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, injustice is a main theme that is reflected towards many characters. To Kill a Mockingbird, is a novel written by Harper Lee and published in the nineteen-sixties. Many characters in the story are treated unfairly in society due to racial or prejudicial attitudes. Overall these characters are innocent victims of injustice. Atticus, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson are considered to be mockingbirds in the novel. A mockingbird was defined as a bird that did nothing wrong, but sang beautiful music for us to hear. These characters did nothing wrong and were treated unfairly in their town. In this different society, there are many factors that have had an influence on people’s perceptions towards others.

What is justice? Is it a fitting punishment for a crime? Or a court or officer of the law? Is it the law itself? It has many definitions and interpretations, depending on various people. Some interpret it very simply, saying that it is fairness in every situation. Others give the word more complication, saying that it is doing what is morally right and fair. Oxford Dictionary defines it as many things, including, “Just behaviour or treatment...The quality of being fair and reasonable.” Black’s Law Dictionary defines justice as, “The constant and perpetual disposition to render every man his due.” All are various meanings and interpretations of one, single, word, that has been explored in many books and novels, including one by Harper Lee. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the characters of Atticus and Mr. Raymond to show the meaning of true justice and how it transcends prejudicial divisions.

There is a dominant motif in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, regarding the symbolic importance of the mockingbird and how it relates to some of her characters. In Harper Lee’s portrayed world as well as our present day world mockingbirds represent nothing but pure innocence, thus to kill a mockingbird would be to destroy innocence. Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley are all perfect examples representing a mockingbird; innocents who have been injured or destroyed through contact with

Can you stand the sight of innocent people getting hurt everyday? In wars, bomb blasts, or even in local or personal issues. They are innocent people who do nothing but help us or they just don 't bother us, just like a mockingbird.…………………………. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Boo Radley and Tom Robinson could both be the symbolic “mockingbird”.

Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” is set in a small, southern town, Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The story is told through the eyes of a girl named Scout about her father, Atticus, an attorney who strives to prove the innocence of a black man named Tom Robinson, who was accused of rape and Boo Radley, an enigmatic neighbor who saves Scout and her brother Jem from being killed. Atticus does his job in proving there was no way that Tom Robinson was guilty during his trial, but despite Tom Robinson’s obvious innocence, he is convicted of rape as it is his word against a white woman’s. Believing a “black man’s word” seemed absurd as segregation was a very integrated part of life in the south. The social hierarchy must be maintained at all costs and if something in the system should testify the innocence of a black man against a white woman’s word and win then what might happen next? Along with the prejudice amongst blacks and whites, the story also showed how people could be misunderstood for who they truly are such as Boo Radley. Without ever seeing Boo, Jem and the townsfolk made wild assumptions on what Boo does or looks like. Even so, while “To Kill a Mockingbird” shows the ugliness that can come from judging others, its ultimate message is that great good can result when one defers judgement until considering things from another person’s view. Walter Cunningham, Mrs. Dubose, and Boo Radley are all examples of how looking at things

Justice. “the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness. [dictionary.com]” Justice is implyed when something in the right thing to do, whether or not the decision is in favoe of the reciever. Fairness. “the state, condition, or quality of being fair, or free from bias or injustice; evenhandedness. [dictionary.com]” Fairness is implyed when In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the concepts of justice and fairness are two conflicting topics. They don’t seem like they are two concepts that would have conflicts, though in this story, they are clearly displayed as conflicting topics. One thing is the fair thing to do, but it is not just. Many characters are prime examples of this idea, like Tom Robinson’s

When Atticus is explaining to Scout and Jem, Bob Ewell’s disgusting behavior, he tells them, “‘the man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella one extra beating, that’s something i’ll gladly take.”’(292-293). Atticus would want Bob Ewell to hurt him rather than his own children. Furthermore, when people speak poorly of Atticus, he also understands why they are disrespecting him. Atticus is explaining to his children that you have your own mind and you are entitled to think whatever you want and people can not change what people think about other things and other people, “‘ they’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect on their opinions”’(139). Just because other people do not like someone's opinion they can not control it. So, when Atticus tries to fight for justice for Tom Robinson there is always going to be consequences, even when he is trying to do something that is

The African Americans and Arthur “Boo” Radley were harshly put down for their differences from others.Tom Robinson was one of the main characters recognized as a mockingbird because he was killed by a blue jay “Mr.Underwood.”Mockingbirds deserve to be protected representing the background of why Atticus took on the Tom Robinson case.Anyone who tries to hurt them is committing a sin because these kind-hearted people have done nothing but make the world a better place for those around them.

Tom Robinson, an innocent man was shot in prison after he was wrongly convicted and falsely accused in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. This action, along with others is found commonly throughout the book as defenceless characters get hurt and wrongly judged despite their innocent persona. Along with Tom Robinson other characters suffer too, people such as Boo Radley and Atticus Finch suffer from the cruel world around them. In the surrounding chaos, those few characters manage to preserve their innocent nature.

In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the mockingbird is used to symbolize innocent people damaged by unjust, evil actions, revealing that prejudice against those who are different causes injustice and isolation of people within communities. Lee uses the mockingbird expose the strength of prejudice and its harmful effects. In the novel, the mockingbird is represented by Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley.

Through the study this term of the central text, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and related texts, films Rabbit Proof Fence by Phillip Noyce and In the Name of the Father by Jim Sheridan, my understanding of the concept of justice, or what constitutes justice, has altered considerably. We all think we know what justice is, or what it should be. In Australian colloquial terms, it is the principle of a “fair go” for everyone. In a perfect world, everyone is treated fairly. No-one is subjected to discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, sex or disability. But the reality is that the world we inhabit is far from perfect, human beings are by their very natures

Persecution of the innocent, a common occurrence in human history, has unfortunately stayed present in our modern era. Muslims are assaulted by islamophobes who assume them to be dangerous to us, and countless black people have been wrongfully shot by the police. These people show modern example of the motif of mockingbirds in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The book takes place in rural Alabama during the Great Depression, a time when lynching black men for false crimes was common. One of these men, Tom Robinson, is accused of rape by Mayella Ewell and is to be defended by Atticus Finch in trial. Lee expresses how it is wrong to harm those who did nothing to bother others, or ‘mockingbirds’, using the characters of Boo Radley,

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch encounters injustice in his everyday life which causes him to strive for justice. Atticus actively shows how he feels about justice with events such as the trial of Tom Robinson. He treats his children as if they are adults by indirectly teaching them about justice. He makes choices that could hurt his reputation, but benefit the whole town. Overall, he understands justice as doing the right thing, even when it is burdensome; he knows that failure is inevitable, but he must persist to teach his children, Scout and Jem, the importance of justice.

Justice plays a major role in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In a perfect world, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and other differences would not matter in the eyes of justice, but as it can be seen in this book, it does and the readers discover that justice is not served. Atticus Finch, being the hero of the story, told his son that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because all they do is create music and therefore are innocent creatures who mean no harm. Within the book, innocent characters are subjected to their own injustices by being victims of prejudice and racism, and are eventually destroyed themselves. Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Jem Finch and Mayella Ewell represented the mockingbirds within the book. The only voice of justice within Maycomb is Atticus who tried to teach lessons of morality to his children and also tried to spread his views of justice