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In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story tells how an innocent black man, Tom Robertson, is accused of rape and gets sent to jail. It’s a sad story that shows racism and how the world has a stereotypical view of a black man.
I personally feel that the story doesn’t revolve around justice, in fact, I feel it’s the complete opposite with injustice shown to more than just the accused innocent black man Tom Robertson. Tom Robinson is really a nice man and I think the story is pretty horrible. Atticus Finch and his family are nice people and have good morals and it's sad. That they had to go through these horrible events as kids. The movie helped me understand it more.
The story revolves around a little girl named Scout Finch and her older brother Jem Finch. They are the children of Atticus the lawyer who defends Tom Robertson who is the innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. This white woman is named Mayella who is the daughter of Bob Ewell, a man who is poor and very angry all the time.
Early on in the story, there was a young boy who was bullied at school because he was from a poor and large family. He forgot to bring his lunch so the teacher gave him lunch money. He took it and the teacher said, “Pay me back tomorrow”. Walter could not pay her back seeing the family was so poor. Scout tries to tell the teacher and explain the situation and the teacher gets mad and wacks Scout’s hand with a ruler. Scout got mad that she got punished for something she never did. That is not justice! So Scout fights with Walter, pushing his face into the dirt. Jem stops her.
Now back to the main story...Tom Robertson is a young black man with a paralyzed left hand. He is married to a woman named Helen and he has kids. The reason why he was accused so badly was that Mayella - the supposed victim, was too frightened of what her dad could do to her if she didn’t go along with the story of the rape started by her father. It was so unjust that the Sheriff and almost the whole town didn’t believe Tom Robertson even though there was no evidence besides the injuries on Mayella.
Atticus Finch didn’t believe Tom Robertson was guilty from the start and came up with evidence about the injuries on Mayella’s neck and face were done by someone left-handed. Tom Robertson’s left hand was paralyzed from an injury from when he was a child. Atticus proved that the injuries were done by the father Bob Ewell because he got the father to write his name and wrote his name with his left hand and he was the only one left-handed. Atticus also threw an apple towards Tom Robertson who caught it with his right hand proving he couldn’t use his left hand.
None of the arguments by Atticus Finch were good enough to release Tom Robertson and he was sentenced to years in prison.
Tom Robertson tried to escape prison by climbing the wall but because his left hand was paralyzed he didn’t have much time and strength so the police came and shot him 17 times and he died. So Tom didn’t receive any justice at all.
Boo Radley is a man who lives in a house with a view of the town. No one has ever seen him come out. No one knows what he looks like but they know he lives there. Scout and Jem would always walk past his house, peeking in the window, scared thinking he is a bad, angry man. But Boo Radley left gifts in a tree for them like soap with their face carved on it. The kids still thought he was a scary man.
At the end of the story when Bob Ewell tries to kill the kids, Boo Radley stabs Bob Ewell with a knife and carries Jem who was unconscious to his house. Scout followed. When they reached the house Scout still didn’t notice who the man was at first. But as she looked more closely she saw the features that were Boo Radley’s and she was very thankful and her state of mind changed about Boo Radley being mean and angry.
When the sheriff was looking at the crime scene he found Bob Ewell’s dead body with a stab wound and as he talked with Atticus, Atticus knew it was Boo Radley who stabbed him - so did the sheriff. But the sheriff said, “We’ll say that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife”. So that wasn’t the truth but we can say that Bob Ewell got what he deserved.
So we can say that in the story there was mostly injustice. My personal thoughts of how Tom Robertson got accused of something he didn’t do and got sentenced and killed was a terrible injustice.
Walter, the bullied poor boy who didn’t have the money to pay back the teacher, with Scout telling the teacher the situation with no money - got punished for something she never did because of the anger of the teacher. This is injustice.
Boo Radley was thought to be a cruel, scary man even though in the end he saved Jem and Scout from being killed by Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell certainly didn’t deserve to die - but true justice would’ve been served by prison time.
I personally think the book provides more information than the movie. Although I found the book a bit complicated the movie helped me understand it all. I hope in our world today we are more just and that whole towns don't turn against people just because of their race. I'm sure that there are people in the world today in jail that haven't done anything wrong. Such as Christians are persecuted overseas when they are trying to spread good. Atticus Finch was a very just man and Jem wanted to study the law. So there were good people. I'm glad the judge chose Atticus to defend Tom Robinson he tried his best to prove the innocents and make justice for him.
So I believe that the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about injustice.
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