Despite this, some people are critical of the book due to the way black people are portrayed. At its time To Kill a Mockingbird was regarded as an anti-racist book. Nowadays many point out how most black characters are depicted as docile, passive people waiting for a white saviour. One of the mockingbirds in the book is a black man in distress. Tom Robinson is the catalyst of the story, already changing Scout’s and Jem’s lives and views on things before
his best, Tom is still convicted despite significant evidence of his innocence. Jem’s faith in the judicial system is badly shaken, as is Atticus’, when Tom is shot and killed. Bob Ewell commits vindictive assaults in spite of having won the trial, driven by a false sense of indignation, as Atticus had "destroyed [Ewell's] last shred of credibility at that trial." These assaults were; spitting in Atticus’ face, breaking into the judges house, and harassing Tom’s widow, Helen Robinson. His last
representative of Maycomb and it people’s racist views. Atticus is the man who is asked to take the shot at the dog even though he never picks up a gun and his children do not even know anything related to his shooting prowess. This is also similar to the anti-violence that MLK Jr. preached, and like MLK Jr. Atticus shows that although he seems weak and passive he will not be pushed around and will do whatever it takes to uphold what he feels is