Examples Of Social Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Harper Lee expressed her idea of social injustice by developing one of the main characters, Atticus Finch. Through the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Atticus is faced with many problems as he upholds his moral code carefree of society's standards. Atticus continually responds to these conflicts, in which, develops his character. Harper Lee slowly divulges her ideas about social justice by portraying Atticus as a bold, wise, and ethical as he deals with strong internal and external conflicts throughout the novel. Lee develops Atticus as a Bold man throughout the novel many times. However one of the most evident times is when Atticus is faced with the task of protecting tom Robinson while he was in the prison, instead of running away he “He sat…show more content…
For example, when Atticus was faced with the execution of the Tim Johnson his Jem, Atticus's son realized that there was a reason that Atticus would have told them about his shooting skills if he wanted them to know. In the text, it says “I reckon if he’d wanted us to know it, he’da told us. If he was proud of it, he’da told us.”, he didn’t tell them because he wasn’t proud of his skill, nor did he want to share it with his children because he didn’t want them to look up to him because of his shooting but because of something else. When Lee writes this in the novel it exposes to the reader on how wise Atticus is and that he thinks of his actions before he acts upon them. Another example of Atticus’s wisdom is when Atticus proves a very valid point in his court case. When Bob Ewell testified Atticus first asked Heck, the sheriff that was at the scene, which side Helen ’s, Ewells daughter’s, face was bruised the most he replied with “Her left” then Atticus proceeded to ask if Ewell could write, he said yes, so Atticus asked if he would write his name, he did so, in the text Atticus soon discovered “You’re left-handed, Mr. Ewell,”. Taking in this knowledge he managed to figure out that Helen was possibly beat by her father, not only that but he goes further and proves that Tom Robinson would have difficulty holding her and beating the left side of her face if his right arm was disabled.…show more content…
In all the examples above, it shows Atticus as ethical, however, there are two places that also show Atticus as ethical. For example when Atticus is first faced with the offer to defend Tom Robinson. This was difficult because Tom was black, and the time period was an era of segregation in the United States. Atticus is asked to defend Tom Robinson, he responded yes even though it wasn’t very smart to defend a black man in court back in the 1930s. In the text Lee writes “If I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town”, this shows how much Atticus’s moral code means to him, portraying him as very ethical. Another example Harper Lee gives us is when Atticus tells his children after the trial “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”, this reveals to us that Atticus is very ethical about the situation despite public
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