To Kill a Mockingbird - review.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Jeffrey Levine "In the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case;" In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, she brings her readers face to face with the injustices in the world in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, both victims of prejudice; Tom a prisoner of the county jail and Boo a prisoner of his home. A black man accused by a white man and surely treated unfairly by the courts, the schools and the townspeople and because of this he never had a chance. Atticus knows that Tom Robinson does not have a chance in a white man's courtroom yet he does his best to defend him. He like others that came before him would prove guilty from the moment he’d be accused. Atticus displays his knowledge of this when he states, "I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and
when they do it-seems that only the children weep". His children, being the only ones that still believe a black man can be found innocent against a white man, look at the facts and not the color as a determining factor. The adults, however, accept the fate of Tom Robinson finding it inevitable and little can be done to change the minds of men that sit on the jury. Atticus knew that a guilty verdict would prove the likely outcome. He was satisfied with the fact that it took them a while to reach this verdict. Although the black people ...
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when they do it-seems that only the children weep". His children, being the only ones that still believe a black man can be found innocent against a white man, look at the facts and not the color as a determining factor. The adults, however, accept the fate of Tom Robinson finding it inevitable and little can be done to change the minds of men that sit on the jury. Atticus knew that a guilty verdict would prove the likely outcome. He was satisfied with the fact that it took them a while to reach this verdict. Although the black people wanted to hold onto some hope that Tom would be freed they knew in their hearts this would not be so. Reverend Sykes explains this to Jem, "Now don't be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain't ever seen any jury find in favor of a colored man over a white man". The school teacher, Miss Gates, like many other people in town, believe white’s superiority to blacks proved just, and therefore justly treatment of blacks should not be deserved. Even the school teacher who should know the importance of innocence until proven guilty has convicted Tom in her mind. Scout, confused from the contradictory remarks made by Miss Gates, who’d said it was a good thing Tom Robinson’s conviction proved guilty because the blacks “were getting high and mighty.” Scout describes her confusion at the inconsistency of her teacher in treating everyone equally. "Well coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was-she was goin'down the steps in the front of us, you musta not seen her-she was talking to with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say its time somebody taught em a lesson, they were getting way above themselves, an'the next they thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem how can you hate Hitler so bad an' turn around an'be ugly about folks right at home". Miss Gates, Scouts teacher taught the children that Hitler wronged, while failing to see the wrongs she committed by the hateful prejudice toward others in her own community. Prejudice goes beyond the boundaries of the classroom, it even creeps into the court of law. "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 resentment into the jury box". Atticus explains to Jem that the people on the jury being all white men and they will convict the person not based on the facts but based on their own prejudices. Knowing the treatment of Negroes in Maycomb when this takes place, its clear the jury of the white men will act prejudiced and this will effect how they decide the case. Based on their own views, no testimony or cross-examinations by Atticus could make Tom Robinson innocent. In the small town of Maycomb, blacks were considered to be so much less than whites, not even human. "Tom's death was typical. Typical for a nigger to cut and run. Typical of a niggers mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw" That's how the members of this small town viewed a man’s death, just because of color not because of what's inside. If Tom changed white he would be alive and well because obviously he told the truth in the court room. He should be respected for helping the Ewell children when no one else seemed to care. "You know how they are. Easy come, easy go. Just shows you, that Robinson boy was legally married, they say he kept himself clean, went to church and all that, but when it comes down to the line the veneer's mighty thin. Nigger always comes out in 'em". Even faced with Tom's death the town people failed to develop a conscious. "Senseless killing-Tom had been given due process of law to the day of his death; he had been tried openly and convicted by twelve good men and true. My father had fought for him all the way". Scout refers to the twelve men that convicted an innocent black man to almost certain death as senseless killing, done through the prejudice they held in their hearts.
