Harper lee’s presentation of the trial of tom robinson

Harper lee was born in 1962 in Monroeville, Alabama. Her father, A. C Lee, worked as editor of a local newspaper as well as being a, member of the Alabama State legislature, a kind of regional parliament with the power of making or changing law. He was also a trained lawyer and his daughter would visit the Monroeville courthouse to watch her father in action.

Alabama was one of the southern most states, which decided to split from the union of American states in 1861 in order to continue using slave workers even after they lost the civil war, southern status like Alabama remained racist, and laws were passed which discriminated against blacks. These attitudes carried over into the 20th century. Much injustice against black American continued.

Harper was 6 years old and she saw many injustices done to the black, so she wrote ” to kill a mocking bird”, because of which readers of future generation will learn about the social injustice in America in 1930s, which includes a lot of different ways of prejudice and controversial issues. Harper projected Jem and Scout, two of the principle characters of the book, start off as being childish and play full kids, but as the story goes on, we can clearly see that there is growing awareness, specially during the trail, when their feelings are altered by injustice and prejudice.

Their father Atticus Finch sits on the Alabama state legislature and acts as Maycombs leading attorney, the epitome of moral character. He teaches his children and others to take stand against hypocrites and prejudice. One of the main displays of prejudice in the book is the court scene and the apparent rape of Mayella Ewell who framed this upon a black.

The reason Harper lee chooses to construct the narrative in this way so that it creates a greater impact when an injustice is committed upon someone either within the finch or someone in the family who extends their love or support to another person in this case the injustice is committed upon Tom Robison and one of the reasons that we feel such a sense of wrong doing is because Atticuss a man who ” does no wrong” extends the great deal of love to him. This frowned upon by the most of the town members and when they commit an injustice upon Tom Robinson (white jury) we see how wrong it is and this is reflected in Atticuss.

The unwillingness of Jem to leave his fathers side when inconsiderable danger and spots perception of them being physically unalike, ” but they were somehow alike. Mutual defiance makes them alike”. This is very important later on when we see growing where some in court. Harper lee has made us aware of the mutual affection between Atticuss and Jem, so therefore when Jem experiences and emotion it is heightened in the reader.

” Scout,” breathed Jem. ” Scout, look! Reverend, he is crippled! this is when Atticuss saying so, proved that is highly unlikely Tom Robinson, a man with a severely crippled left hand could have committed the assault on mayella because her injuries suggested someone with two hands committed the assault. If we were made to realise this on our own without the coincidental realization from a key character it wouldn’t be as affective. This piece of evidence didn’t convince the prejudice environment so Harper lee reflex an enormous sense of share wrong doing in Atticuss.

This is reflected as he loosened his attire, ” Atticuss did something I never saw him doing before, and he unbuttoned his wrist, unbuttoned his collar, loosened his tie and took off his coat”. He grows weary and we see the injustice, not only in maycomb but the injustice between all people everywhere begins to eat away at atticuss kind good nature being. This is a climatic moment in the book. Sometimes not even the best natured people can stop evil from manifesting. This is clear that we are experiencing one of Harper lees thoughts that not only about injustice in the novel but in real life too.

Sometime you can be kind and as to honest to a person but they can still betray your trust to your downfall. When we hear of this we think back to when Tom Robinson was helping Mayella Ewell at her request. We know that Mayella Ewell was not brought up properly one can pity her for being unhappy and desperate and maybe with these thoughts Tom Robinson helped her. He did so with honest intention, he was already a father of four children and goes to church regularly but as a result of being kind and honest he ended up in a court and ultimately being killed.

This emphasizes the theme of ” killing a mocking bird. ” We know that Tom Robinson didn’t do anything wrong and when we discovered his death we realise how sad it is and how much of a sin it was to kill him. We only realise this because of the way that Harper Lee has laid out the narrative. She delivers a piece of information for example the symbolism of the mad dog to a mocking bird and we later we realise its importance through the killing of Tom Robinson. Harper lee chooses Scout as a narrator.

The reason I think she does this over any other character is because it is told in a retrospective way. This means that Scout is telling the story looking back at the events that had happened. Jem has learned many of the lessons that scout have still yet to learn. Therefore, he were to tell the story there would not be as much progression or lessons of growing up that we see evident in scout. Scout is able to look at her life’s events at these times and then explain to the reader, their significance, and us.

Also because of her age when retelling the story compared to when actually being described we are able to learn how well she has being brought up. This highlights how much of a good father Atticuss is. Also the fact that scout acts in the story as a young child strips her of the usual self-conscious attitudes that occur, say at Jems age. It also means she is a lot more curious and we learn through her curiosity, ” I didn’t think so, Atticus was trying to show, it seems to me, that Mr Ewell could have committed the crime”.

And I think it was very true and proved. Bob Ewell was not a good man; he was a father of eight, white man, lived behind Maycomb’s dump. Ewell uses his welfare money while his children go hungry. When a person’s nature is like this, he can do anything destructive. In conclusion Harper lee wrote a lot of morals into the book including Prejudice, Racism and Peer pressure to teach people about common life in the 1930s and the life of black people in these times.

She also uses different methods of teaching in the book, with Atticuss teaching scout about racism in the community, with acts of racism being displayed against Tom Robinson and also Atticuss being spat at for defending a black man, these different ways of showing in which people can be discriminated against and showing how life was in the 1930s make the book a good way of learning about everyday life in a community with racist people (Mr Ewell), people easily by peer, pressure (Mr Cunningham) and also people who don’t agree with racism and who are against it (Atticuss)