Similarities Between To Kill A Mockingbird And Scottsboro Trial

Superior Essays
To Kill a Mockingbird and Scottsboro Trial Essay Every now and then a case comes across in which it is race against race. This issue is becoming less frequent; however, the issue still exists today. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is similar to Hollace Ransdell’s piece “Report on the Scottsboro, ALA. Case.” Between these two well-respected writings, the plot and theme are very similar. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses the perspective of a young girl, Scout Finch, to tell a childhood experience along with one of the most intense, controversial trials Maycomb, Alabama has ever held before, Tom Robinson’s conviction of raping Mayella Ewell. Ransdell’s report is similar in that the nine Scottsboro boys are convicted of rape which relates …show more content…
Without themes being included in writing pieces, the readers cannot fathom the true meaning of the text and how to relate the piece to real life. In both Lee’s and Ransdell’s writings, two significant themes are expressed throughout each of them which include racism and empathy. In To Kill a Mockingbird, racism is especially portrayed in Tom’s trial. When Atticus asks Tom why he runs when he knows he is innocent, he replies with, “Mr. Finch, if you was a n***** like me, you’d be scared too,” (Lee 261). This is an example of racism because an African American man expresses the fear of his life to which a white man could take away at any moment. Essentially, Tom knows that if he stands there while Bob Ewell walks in, he will be killed in a heartbeat and nothing will be done about it. In support of this racism, Atticus says, “…absence of any corroborative evidence, this man was indicted on a capital charge and is now on trial for his life” (Lee 270). The whole town of Maycomb knows that Tom Robinson never received a fair trial to begin with. Tom is sentenced to death before he even walked foot into the courtroom. The jury convicts him of rape with no substantial evidence to support the ruling. This is indeed an act of racism. In Ransdell’s report, the African American boys are given the worst charge possible with no valid evidence to support the ruling because they are not white, “conflicting and untested evidence upon which the Negro boys were convicted, and assuming what has by no means been proved, that the Negroes are guilty of the worst that has been charged against them,” (501-503). Also in the text, Ransdell includes a quote from the townspeople that acknowledges the pure hatred of the African American community, “’The N***** must be kept in his place.’ Repression, terror, and torture are the means that will do it” (567-568). In addition to racism, empathy is a key theme in both writings. In To Kill a

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The Scottsboro trials were one of the most blatantly obvious examples of racially corrupted systems in the 1930’s. Nine boys were convicted, not on evidence, but on the color of their skin. There were many appeals and retrials, but for these boys, honest justice was served too little too late. The boys faced a corrupt system made up of unfair trials, several appeals, two completely different judges, and they were not pardoned until eight of the nine were dead forty-six years later.…

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alabama was one of the most segregated, racist, and judgmental states in the 1900s. The time period and the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird is very similar to the Scottsboro trial boys trial. They both took place in the South and during the Great Depression. Most families in South, back then, have been living there for many generations. The family traits along with the way of living and the racism has been passed down to each generation.…

    • 77 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Scottsboro trial and Tom Robinson trial are the same, in fact Tom Robinson’s case in To Kill a Mockingbird is based on the historic event, the Scottsboro trial. Of course the book was written after the Scottsboro case, the author had the idea of this because when she was younger she grew up during the infamous case. The Tom Robinson trial and Scottsboro trial had similar characters that portrayed one another. Mayella is portrayed as the two white women that were in the Scottsboro trial. The names of the women were Victoria Price and Ruby Bate.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (Lee 271) Atticus have said that Tom Robinson is pleaded guilty and charged with lack of evidence from cross-examination, but the Ewell's were not guilty and Tom was an innocent man being accused guilty. Even though Tom was clearly proven innocent 11 out of 12 voted for Tom to be guilty from the jury because they didn't see a reason why he should be innocent. In both trials and novel Tom and Haywood were killed after being convicted guilty. [In February 1941, an inmate paid…

    • 1836 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Scottsboro trial was unfair. It had all evidence saying they are not guilty but they are still murdered. The Scottsboro boys are nine African American teens that were falsely blamed for rape of two white women. The boys was looking for work so they boarded a train. On the train there was a group of white hobs.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    If you ever read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird you would find that it is very similar to the Scottsboro trials. Lee used the trials beautifully when she wrote her book. She captured all the aspects and the very essence of the case in her story. First, Harper Lee wrote about a black man being accused rape, furthermore he was a accused by a white woman.…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Scottsboro trials of the 1930’s had more victims than just the boys, the girls were victims as well. Society has a huge influence on how people act and what they do, and it victimizes people by creating scenarios that are a lose-lose situation. Just like the case of Mayella Ewells in To Kill a Mockingbird or the 2 girls who accused the Scottsboro boys of rape. Mayella Ewells, Ruby Bates, and Victoria Price are all accusers and victims because of society. Mayella Ewells and Ruby Bates have been made victims of our society.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this novel, the author, Harper Lee, displays interesting literary devices to help contribute to the themes that she is trying to convey. Lee so beautifully uses these techniques to develop not only her storyline but also her broader message. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the author uses literary devices such as motifs, symbolism, and characterization to convey the theme of racism during the scene at the jailhouse.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article Scottsboro Boys and To Kill a Mockingbird: Two Trials for the Classroom it stated that, “The lessons of the infamous 1930s Scottsboro Boys case in which two young white women wrongfully accused nine African American youths of rape illustrate through fact what Harper Lee tried to instruct through her fiction”. Black people were always accused from white people and the judge will always believe the white race, they were considered criminals, barbarians and savage. Also in the article “To Kill a Mockingbird”: Two Trials for the Classroom it stated that, “Both historical and fictional trials express the courage required to stand up for the Constitutional principle providing for equal justice to all under the law.” This quote shows that in the fictional story displayed the injustice that black people…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tom Robinson Racism

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Maycomb County, the setting of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, has a deeply ingrained culture of racism over reason. Tom Robinson’s death was unjust, yet few mourned and the eventual death did not shock anyone. The reason for this tragedy is that Tom was too confident that people would show good morals when faced with a complicated decision. He made a series of poor choices that placed him in a difficult situation that even the best lawyer could not get him out of. Although Tom was framed, it was his own mistakes that enabled Bob Ewell to prosecute him in the first place.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, has many themes, but the most outstanding are racism, bravery, and justice. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the deep south, thus racism is the centerpiece of main story of the novel. The south’s racisms is unbelievable harsh that even if the evidence is pointing at the white man the jury would still side the white man over any black man. “ Confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption-the evil assumption-that all negroes lie, that all negroes are basically immoral beings, that all negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Tom Robinson, an African-American man, who was represented as a “Mockingbird” in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, was wrongly accused of raping a white woman. After he went on a trail filled with unfair juries and lost the case, he was sentenced to jail, but was then brutally murdered by some guards. Based on this storyline, the main theme is social injustice, the moral unfairness in a society of colored citizens and other minorities, which is mentioned the greatest and gradually developed throughout the book.…

    • 86 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird Essay - Racism It doesn’t matter what race you are. In the dark we’re all the same color. In Harper Lee's book, To Kill A Mockingbird, there are many examples of racism. During this time in history racism was acceptable.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    (271), and ““The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is.”” (271). In other words, the court members, and audience vote Tom as guilty, because he is black, and in Maycomb there is no way he will get a fair trial. Since the town is racist, even if Tom is innocent, he was sent to prison, because the jury is still stuck in that mindset. Not to mention, when Tom was in prison, he tried to escape, but the police shot him many times, and killed him. When Atticus came to tell everyone what happened, he said, “They fired a few shots in the air, then to kill ...…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, there are many different themes depicted such as hypocrisy, prejudice, courage, coming of age/loss of innocence, justice, femininity, but racism is illustrated more heavily. Living in maycomb, racism is allowed; if you were not racist towards the blacks then you would be criticized by being called names such as “nigger-lover”. Atticus ignored the rest of the people in Maycomb and went out of his way to support a black man known as Tom Robinson, who was accused of rape. Racism is the key theme in the novel.…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays