As Miss Maudie Atkinson once said, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Mockingbirds live as purely innocent creatures, which happens to explain why killing them qualifies as a sin. In Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the targeting of the innocent remains a key component. One very applicable theme to this novel is that sometimes the guilty are just the innocent being targeted. Three characters that exemplify this theme include Arthur “Boo” Radley, Tom Robinson, and, though possibly unexpectedly, Mayella Ewell. These characters exist as examples of innocent people who other may see as having
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This remains true because in the novel, one of the only reasons why the jury’s verdict of his guilt of raping Mayella Ewell, is that it so happens that his skin color differs from the white-skinned ‘normal’ folk of Maycomb . In the time period of the story, the 1930’s, major prejudice and racism existed and thrived, especially in the southern United States. After Tom’s death, Scout reads Mr. Underwood’s editorial about his death likening to the hunters killing mockingbirds, a sin, and Scout realizes the meaning of the article, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (241). Tom possessed no chance at winning the trial because a black man’s word against a white woman’s word means basically nothing; in the 1930´s, if a colored person became a suspect of some sort, most considered them guilty before a trial would even come to play, regardless of evidence. Even though the evidence provided during the trial supports Tom very strongly, it wouldn’t matter anyways- a black person never wins. If he entered the world a white man, there would be no doubt of his innocence, a trial possibly wouldn’t have commenced at all. To put it briefly, Tom Robinson stood as a purely innocent individual who had been framed as …show more content…
She lived as an innocent before the trial, in that she meant no harm to anyone, but because of probable pressure and possible threats from her father, Bob Ewell, she gave in and testified that Tom Robinson beat and raped her, even though she knew that he did no such thing. During the trial, when Mayella began to testify, Scout commented that “Mayella must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years. When Atticus asked had she any friends, she seemed not to know what he meant, then she thought he was making fun of her, She was as sad, I thought, as what Jem called a mixed child” (191-192). One would find it shocking to see that Scout, a mere eight year old, sees how alone Mayella feels. Mayella spent her life socially isolated, and she contained no intention of causing harm to anyone, but her vulnerability and fear of what her father would do to her if she didn’t testify against Tom Robinson was what most likely caused her to commit this action. Another instance in the story, when Scout describes the grimy filth that stands as none other than the Ewell residence, she mentions, “One corner of the yard, though, bewildered Maycomb. Against the fence, in a line, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson, had Miss Maudie
This remains true because in the novel, one of the only reasons why the jury’s verdict of his guilt of raping Mayella Ewell, is that it so happens that his skin color differs from the white-skinned ‘normal’ folk of Maycomb . In the time period of the story, the 1930’s, major prejudice and racism existed and thrived, especially in the southern United States. After Tom’s death, Scout reads Mr. Underwood’s editorial about his death likening to the hunters killing mockingbirds, a sin, and Scout realizes the meaning of the article, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (241). Tom possessed no chance at winning the trial because a black man’s word against a white woman’s word means basically nothing; in the 1930´s, if a colored person became a suspect of some sort, most considered them guilty before a trial would even come to play, regardless of evidence. Even though the evidence provided during the trial supports Tom very strongly, it wouldn’t matter anyways- a black person never wins. If he entered the world a white man, there would be no doubt of his innocence, a trial possibly wouldn’t have commenced at all. To put it briefly, Tom Robinson stood as a purely innocent individual who had been framed as …show more content…
She lived as an innocent before the trial, in that she meant no harm to anyone, but because of probable pressure and possible threats from her father, Bob Ewell, she gave in and testified that Tom Robinson beat and raped her, even though she knew that he did no such thing. During the trial, when Mayella began to testify, Scout commented that “Mayella must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years. When Atticus asked had she any friends, she seemed not to know what he meant, then she thought he was making fun of her, She was as sad, I thought, as what Jem called a mixed child” (191-192). One would find it shocking to see that Scout, a mere eight year old, sees how alone Mayella feels. Mayella spent her life socially isolated, and she contained no intention of causing harm to anyone, but her vulnerability and fear of what her father would do to her if she didn’t testify against Tom Robinson was what most likely caused her to commit this action. Another instance in the story, when Scout describes the grimy filth that stands as none other than the Ewell residence, she mentions, “One corner of the yard, though, bewildered Maycomb. Against the fence, in a line, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson, had Miss Maudie