Atticus Finch Hypocrisy

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird chronicles the childhood of Scout Finch, specifically, her father, Atticus Finch, and his involvement in Tom Robinson’s rape trial. Atticus Finch, virtually the moral compass of the novel, and his decision to seek justice for Tom despite the sensibility he has on what the outcome of the trial will be ultimately speaks not only to his character, but also frames the novel with the theme of balancing good and evil. Despite the eventual loss of the case, Atticus Finch’s search for justice leads him to expose both the racial bias of the white community in Maycomb, and allows Lee to lay out her own case against the hypocrisy that existed in the 1930s. While Atticus Finch is unable to prevent Tom Robinson from being convicted, he is able to definitively prove that Robinson is innocent and that the only possible reasoning for the jury to convict him would be due to their conscious racist beliefs. As Bob Ewell testifies against Robinson, Lee is able to depict two extremes of racism existing within the courtroom itself. Both the antagonistic and unveiled contempt for African-Americans Ewell speaks with and the ignorant hypocrisy and silence of the jury …show more content…
Although Finch couldn’t get justice for Robinson, he was able to prove both Robinson’s innocence and people like the Ewell’s hypocrisy, leading to the beginning of a conversation of equality within the town, allowing Lee to depict the racial climate of the 1930s while decisively arguing for the deconstruction of barriers based on color by revealing the constant presence of those