...theme, having to be faced with the harsh reality of the world which ruins your innocence. Atticus Finch stays strong and practical during the trial, defending Tom Robinson with his life. Atticus’s effort during the trial shows his courage because, despite it being tricky to get the judge and people of the racist South to side with Tom Robinson, compared to Mayella, who claims to be the victim. Atticus does not give up and continues to fight for Tom Robinson’s justice. Atticus shows courage through logical...
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...convince the jury of Tom Robinson’s innocence. Atticus uses big picture obvious statements to convince the jury of Tom Robinson’s innocence. He states things that everybody in the room knows to emphasize it. For example, in his speech where Atticus says “This case is not a difficult one, it requires no minute sifting of complicated facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant. To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (Lee 271.) This quote excellently summarizes the trial and how simple it was. The judge, the...
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...means someone who is a mockingbird is innocent. Harper Lee uses Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch, and Boo Radley as mockingbirds in her novel. First Lee uses Tom Robinson as a mockingbird. Tom Robinson is an African American male who was accused of raping a white female by the name of Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson ran away and wanted to escape the inevitable. Tom Robinson knew that he was going to be found guilty in court because the government is not bias. “ they shot him seventeen times in the chest. They didn’t...
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...Innocents In the book To Kill A Mockingbird,by Harper Lee she uses a lot of symbolism throughout her story. Symbolism is a literary device where the author uses an object to stand for an idea. One of Lee’s famous symbol is an mockingbird.A mockingbird is a symbol of innocent. In her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell and Boo Radley as human “mockingbirds” to contribute to the overall theme of innocence. The first character Harper Lee uses is Tom Robinson.Tom Robinson is an poor black man with an wife and three children. He is 25 years old and is known as a respectable kind young man. His left hand was crippled and caught in a cotton gin when he was a young boy. In the begin, Lee uses Tom Robinson as a mockingbird because he was innocent man who was accused of raping a young woman named Mayella Ewell.And he was shot seventeen times.Atticus...
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...Atticus makes it clear to the kids that everyone’s equal in value. When Scout tells her Dad about how most people think he’s wrong for standing up for Atticus, he replies, “They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” Atticus respects other opinions, even if he disagrees. He gives everyone a chance and lets them think whatever they would like. Atticus displays to the children how to live up to their actions. For example, he made the children read to Mrs. Dubose, an old lady who is sick, for ruining her rose bushes. Atticus teaches the kids to not judge before stepping into their shoes. Atticus gives Scout the advice of “You don’t know a person until you climb into their skin and walk around in it.”...
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...Mockingbird, Tom is helpful, friendly, courteous and kind to young and old and that also parallels the way most mockingbirds are friendly, courteous and kind. Tom Robinson helps out everyone from working for Link Deas to helping out Mayella Ewell.. Harper Lee writes “I just want the whole lot of you to know one thing right now. That boy’s worked for me eight years and I ain’t had a speck aco’trouble outa him. Not a speck.” This quote is yelled out by Link Deas during the court trial because he cares for Tom and Link knows that Tom is innocent. The importance of this quote is that it shows that he is a good person and the only people who don’t believe it are the most of the white community in Maycomb...
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...How Harper Lee presents Tom Robinson at the trial Tom Robinson’s physical appearance is described as quite a well built black man. When he stood up to testify Scout saw that his left arm was crippled – it was stretched out and his muscles in that arm had been detached from the bone. Scout says that ‘Tom would have made a fine specimen of a man if he has been whole’ (his left arm). From this quotation we can see that Scout sees Tom Robinson as not whole because of his arm, although other people might see him as not whole because of his skin colour. From the Trial chapters the reader can gather that Tom Robinson is a young, harmless, innocent man that is quite a handy man when it comes to DIY. He frequently helped Mayella Ewell with things around her house that had been broken, for example her door was coming off its hinges and he came in to help her. He also has chores at home to do, but he still helped Mayella when he could be doing his own things at home which tells us that he is selfless and always wants to help others before himself. Despite all this, due to Maycomb mainly being prejudice, nobody ever looked past his skin colour to learn that he is actually a very nice man. This was revealed to everyone when Atticus asked him questions about it and everyone in the court room found out that he is truly a nice man. When he is questioned by Atticus, he doesn’t try to hide anything from him or the rest of the court room. He is very honest and puts his past behind him. An...
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...Boo also does not hurt anyone and instead gives Jem and Scout gifts through the tree, gives Scout a blanket, and saves the children from Bob Ewell. Besides Boo Radley’s kind heart he has been damaged by his father who abused him. This shows how Boo’s kindness and damage make up the killing of a mockingbird. Boo was an innocent man who was destroyed by the evil in life. “...Tom Robinson was as forgotten as Boo Radley.”(Lee, 248). Another character who interprets a mockingbird would be Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was an innocent man caught up in a lie. He was innocent when it came to the rape trial. The town thought he was guilty mainly because of his skin color, this proves his destruction through evil. “...we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson’s skin,...” (Lee, 204). One last example of an innocent mockingbird is the narrator herself, Scout. She starts the storing being a good reader and simply living her life naturally. Things change when Atticus is put on the Tom Robinson trial. She is faced with school fights, fires, mysteries, and many other events. Throughout the story Scout’s young child innocence gets left behind and replaced with evil and dangerous things. “As if that were not enough, the state legislature was called into emergency session and Atticus left us for two weeks.”(Lee,...
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...character, Atticus, had to prove that a citizen of Maycomb county was innocent during a tough, but simple, court case. The case he had volunteered to investigate was about a black man, Tom Robinson, who was accused for raping a young woman named Mayella Ewell. Just before the jury was about to decide whether Tom Robinson was guilty or innocent, Atticus said a very remarkable and memorable speech to them. Atticus used the rhetorical devices of ethos, pathos and logos throughout his speech to convince the jury that Mr....
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...guilty trial of Tom Robinson. As Scout ages she looks back on her time in Maycomb and apprehends what was going on during those times because of that she realises the causes and effects of prejudice and intolerance through the trial of Tom Robinson. As Scout matures, her innocence is lost through the trial and sees the causes and effects of prejudice and intolerance through it. Scouts interaction with the black population brings the sense of innocence among her ideals. She interacts with the lack of knowledge of the word prejudice. Her thoughts and actions...
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...Every day, innocent people are convicted of crimes they did not commit. They face unjustified punishment and prejudice. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the mockingbird is repetitively used as a symbol of innocence. Scout and Jem Finch, the young protagonists of the novel are told that "It's a sin to kill a mockingbird” (119) because mockingbirds are peaceful creatures who cause no harm. Some characters in the story can be perceived as “mockingbirds” due to their acts of kindness and nonviolence. The three characters who symbolize the mockingbird are Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson because they are all innocent men who are discriminated against and punished for doing what is right. Tom Robinson was an innocent man who faced prejudice because he was African American. Tom displayed many respectable traits. He provided free help to his white neighbor, despite the fact he had only one arm. When asked why he did these selfless acts, Tom responded: " I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of 'em-" (264). Later, Tom was accused of raping and beating up young Mayella Ewell, the eldest child in the infamous Ewell family, and the same girl he had assisted. Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell,was a racist man, who knew that he could get away with wrongfully accusing Tom simply because Tom was black. When brought to court, evidence proved Tom not-guilty, yet he...
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...Tom Robinson and Atticus Finch, Two men who were counter opposites. But were alike in the fact that they were both the mockingbirds of the world. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the story is told of true character and honest integrity. The story being told by author Harper Lee, tells of a black man by the name of Tom Robinson. Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Mayella is the daughter of the Bob Ewell, the trashiest man in Maycomb. Atticus Finch, an average lawyer and single father of two is assigned the case. Atticus knows that due to Tom´s skin color and the common sickness of Maycomb (racism), they are going to lose the case, but he knows that Tom is innocent therefore he goes on with the case. It has been questioned if it made sense for Atticus to defend Tom, but it did make sense for Atticus to defend Tom, because he was selfless and because he was optimistic. The first reason it makes sense for Atticus to defend Tom Robinson is because he is...
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...next sentence. Mockingbirds represent those who are innocent in the novel. Background info: Discuss any pertinent information about the author or story details necessary for the reader’s comprehension The book is about a man who is on trial for rape. That man, Tom Robinson was black and the town was ruled under very unfair social standards. His lawyer Atticus Finch knew he was not guilty. So he was trying to protect his children from Maycomb's corrupt town by...
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...Thesis: Mayella Ewell uses vulnerability as an excuse because she in fact falsely accuses the innocent Tom Robinson of rape to cover up her father's abuse in a futile attempt to protect their family's already horrible reputation. Sadly, Tom is convicted despite his innocence due to Mayella's pitiful acts of desperate attention-seeking, resulting in Tom's unjustified and tragic death. Topic Sentence One: Mayella portrays vulnerability due to her petty attempt of accusing Tom Robinson of raping her to conceal her father's abuse. Body Paragraph One: Mayella portrays vulnerability due to her petty attempt of accusing Tom Robinson of raping her to conceal her father's abuse. While this can be seen as her being an overall bad person, there is...
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...the novel To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee Tom Robinson (a black man) was accused of raping Mayella (a white girl) in Maycomb County Alabama during the Great Depression. Atticus ( a white lawyer) was chosen to defend this black man in court. Many people supported this decision and many were against it due to the time period where Whites believed that they were better than the Blacks. The benefits of Atticus taking a stand did outweigh the consequences. One reason why it was worth it for Atticus to defend Tom Robinson is to set a good example for his children. It is ideal that Atticus...
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