Published in 1960, the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee explores Maycomb through the eyes of Scout, a 6-year-old girl that lives with her older brother Jem and their father Atticus Finch, an attorney with high good measures appointed to vindicate Tom Robinson, an African-American erroneously charged with the rape of a white girl, Mayella Ewell. The novel was then transformed into a motion picture by Robert Mulligan in 1962 demonstrating that the legal system does not always return the morally right verdict – Injustice. The concept of injustice is the most dominant representation across both versions of the text through the conviction of Tom Robinson and the abuse Arthur "BOO" Radley has suffered. Whilst the movie did capture the
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To begin with, racial prejudice is, of course, thoroughly explored in the novel. However, what originally transpires as discrimination develops into an inferno of injustice, particularly in the debasement and death of an innocent victim, the impoverishment of his family and the humiliation of his race. Tom Robinson is believed to be guilty by the ‘superior’ race of Maycomb and was rendered victim of injustice simply because he is black. The novel focuses more on how Tom’s conviction was inevitable as a black man’s word against a white man’s was powerless and no jury could possibly be expected to take Tom’s statement over the Ewells through the use of foreshadowing, “Tom …show more content…
In Chapter 1, we learn about the abuse that Boo Radley has suffered, beginning when he was little, he was involved in several mishaps that resulted in his father's decision to confine Boo within the Radley house. Ever since, he becomes the most notorious character in Maycomb thanks to the mean-spirited gossip that has consumed the townspeople, painting him to be a nocturnal ghoul who stalks neighbourhood pets, peeps in windows, and upholds a reputation of a killer or murderer placed upon him. In the novel and the film Boo Radley is generally gossiped about by Miss Stephanie Crawford who recounts to Jem about an erroneous rumour spread about Boo Radley “As Mr. Radley passes by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg…” (pg.12). There is no proof that Boo has committed any of these acts, but the gossip persists. This could easily put Boo Radley on par with Tom Robinson who is repressed and forced to go along with what the white society tells him to because if he doesn’t, he is as good as dead. Boo’s saviour act at the end of the novel, particularly on the fateful Halloween night when he stops Bob Ewell from his completing his murderous attack on the children was justified and Boo Radley was spared an inquest. Boo’s act was his key to freedom and quite possibly ended his struggle for
To begin with, racial prejudice is, of course, thoroughly explored in the novel. However, what originally transpires as discrimination develops into an inferno of injustice, particularly in the debasement and death of an innocent victim, the impoverishment of his family and the humiliation of his race. Tom Robinson is believed to be guilty by the ‘superior’ race of Maycomb and was rendered victim of injustice simply because he is black. The novel focuses more on how Tom’s conviction was inevitable as a black man’s word against a white man’s was powerless and no jury could possibly be expected to take Tom’s statement over the Ewells through the use of foreshadowing, “Tom …show more content…
In Chapter 1, we learn about the abuse that Boo Radley has suffered, beginning when he was little, he was involved in several mishaps that resulted in his father's decision to confine Boo within the Radley house. Ever since, he becomes the most notorious character in Maycomb thanks to the mean-spirited gossip that has consumed the townspeople, painting him to be a nocturnal ghoul who stalks neighbourhood pets, peeps in windows, and upholds a reputation of a killer or murderer placed upon him. In the novel and the film Boo Radley is generally gossiped about by Miss Stephanie Crawford who recounts to Jem about an erroneous rumour spread about Boo Radley “As Mr. Radley passes by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg…” (pg.12). There is no proof that Boo has committed any of these acts, but the gossip persists. This could easily put Boo Radley on par with Tom Robinson who is repressed and forced to go along with what the white society tells him to because if he doesn’t, he is as good as dead. Boo’s saviour act at the end of the novel, particularly on the fateful Halloween night when he stops Bob Ewell from his completing his murderous attack on the children was justified and Boo Radley was spared an inquest. Boo’s act was his key to freedom and quite possibly ended his struggle for