Destroying Innocence To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel about prejudice towards people of different races, female orientation, and lower class. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee reveals that even selfless people can face prejudice from others as seen through the characters of Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. Firstly, Atticus Finch is a kind soul who only wants to help others, but faces prejudice for going against what his community thinks is right. The white population in his town think they should stick together and not interact with the Negroes, but Atticus has a different opinion on the subject. In the novel he declares, “I do my best to love everybody....it's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks
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The citizens of the town just thought of him as another black man, but the people that actually interacted with him knew that was not the case. During court, Link Deas stands up in front of the whole town to tell them the truth about Tom. Even though he knows he will be judged, he exclaims, “I just want the whole lot of you to know one thing right now. That boy’s worked for me eight years an‘ I ain’t had a speck o’trouble outa him. Not a speck,” (Lee 199). For any white man this would help out his case tremendously, but since Tom was black it was just tossed to the side. Black citizens were not treated equally, but nobody seemed to find a problem with that. Though some people could see the wrong in the situation, they knew their place in Maycomb and knew how little of an effect their contribution would have on others. Jem and Scout did not understand how they could treat Tom so unfairly, so Atticus had to teach them a lesson on the way the court ran. Atticus expressed, "There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads --they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life," (Lee 224). This revealed to Jem and Scout how much prejudice took place in their town, and how nobody did anything about it. Tom was a kind-hearted man …show more content…
He has watched the Finch kids over the years, and has always protected them when they need it. Their lives were even threatened, and he came in like the hero he is to protect them. In Heck Tate’s point of view, “Taking the one man who's done you and this town a great service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight- to me, that's a sin. It's a sin and I'm not about to have it on my head. If it was any other man, it'd be different. But not this man, Mr. Finch," (Lee 280). To protect the children Boo had to hurt somebody else, but it was all out of the love he had for them. Boo is a hermit that did not want any recognition for the things he did in his life. Heck Tate understood this and wanted to put everything behind him because he knew who Boo really was unlike everyone else in the town. People assume that there is something wrong with Boo because of his lack of social interaction. Rumors were revealed about him throughout the book because nobody knew what to truly think of him. It was even once said, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch.There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time,” (Lee 13). If the citizens of the town actually knew him, they would have realized this was
The citizens of the town just thought of him as another black man, but the people that actually interacted with him knew that was not the case. During court, Link Deas stands up in front of the whole town to tell them the truth about Tom. Even though he knows he will be judged, he exclaims, “I just want the whole lot of you to know one thing right now. That boy’s worked for me eight years an‘ I ain’t had a speck o’trouble outa him. Not a speck,” (Lee 199). For any white man this would help out his case tremendously, but since Tom was black it was just tossed to the side. Black citizens were not treated equally, but nobody seemed to find a problem with that. Though some people could see the wrong in the situation, they knew their place in Maycomb and knew how little of an effect their contribution would have on others. Jem and Scout did not understand how they could treat Tom so unfairly, so Atticus had to teach them a lesson on the way the court ran. Atticus expressed, "There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads --they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life," (Lee 224). This revealed to Jem and Scout how much prejudice took place in their town, and how nobody did anything about it. Tom was a kind-hearted man …show more content…
He has watched the Finch kids over the years, and has always protected them when they need it. Their lives were even threatened, and he came in like the hero he is to protect them. In Heck Tate’s point of view, “Taking the one man who's done you and this town a great service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight- to me, that's a sin. It's a sin and I'm not about to have it on my head. If it was any other man, it'd be different. But not this man, Mr. Finch," (Lee 280). To protect the children Boo had to hurt somebody else, but it was all out of the love he had for them. Boo is a hermit that did not want any recognition for the things he did in his life. Heck Tate understood this and wanted to put everything behind him because he knew who Boo really was unlike everyone else in the town. People assume that there is something wrong with Boo because of his lack of social interaction. Rumors were revealed about him throughout the book because nobody knew what to truly think of him. It was even once said, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch.There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time,” (Lee 13). If the citizens of the town actually knew him, they would have realized this was