Examples Of Sexism In To Kill A Mockingbird

Also reminiscent of the Scottsboro case was the fictional Maycomb County’s jury composition. In the novel the jury composed of solely white men, there were no blacks or women in the ranks. The lack of diversity within the novel’s jury is mimicked in the Scottsboro case. In Scottsboro it was state law that “any businessman or professional people could excuse themselves from jury duty for any official reason” (Hamilton 210). Thus was formed a jury of uneducated, white, landing owning, males, with plenty of free time, alas a jury that would doom and black man or women. It is on this topic of the loaded jury that the defense counsel for the Scottsboro case, Mr. Samuel Leibowitz, fought for the hardest. The testimony of Scottsboro’s registrar and commissioner, it is made clear the mindset of legal system in regards to black jurors. In this testimony the feeling towards blacks is clearly outlined, “no black man and no woman is capable of servin on a jury, supporting their contention with the declaration that, even though there were black people who were educated, held professional jobs, and good reputations, none had ‘sound judgment’ and ‘they will nearly all steal’” (12). Due to the setup of the jury system both Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro boys were dooms to a sentence of guilty even before they reached trial.

In the courtroom, the only people allowed on the jury are white males. And in the book it has been referenced more than once that most, if not all, white men on the jury are racist and will vote against a black person no matter how much evidence they have that the black person is innocent. Atticus once said “A black person has never once won against a white person in court(Lee 90)”. This shows that the courthouse is unfair in judgment when it comes to blacks on the stand. Tom was dead the moment Mayella opened her mouth.

One of the most important cases in the history of the judicial system is little known in the modern world. The case of the Scottsboro Boys made headlines in early 1931 when nine African-American men were charged with the gang rape of two white females on a freight train from Chattanooga to Memphis. Since the time of the trial, it has become widely accepted that the allegation was false and that no rape actually occurred. However, the case represents an issue greater than itself, one that is explored similarly in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee through the case of Tom Robinson. The issue of large scale racism and discrimination has been a problem plaguing American culture for a very long time, finally becoming an issue of the

Mayella Ewell had the chance to put the real rapist to prison, but instead she backed him up and now she has to live with him and with that decision the rest of her life. Tom was at the witness stand when Atticus asked him about Mr. Ewell said: “Tom Robinson shut his eyes tight. “ He says you goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya””(Document B). Mr. Ewell has complete power over his Mayella and this exhibits how he has power over her.

In 1930’s Maycomb Alabama, a young woman is stirring up a sleepy town by accusing an African American man of rape. Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman has wrongly accused Tom Robinson of sexually assaulting her in her own home. Her testimony, as well as her fathers’, have gaping holes in them. Their stories do not coincide, and it is even implied that Mayella’s father may have been sexually abusing her.(DBQ Mayella page 15 Chapters 18 and 20) The lack of sufficient evidence and Tom Robinson’s claim that Mayella had made advances toward him should have been enough for the jury to find Tom not guilty, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, the jury believed Mayella’s deceitful testimony, and Tom was sent to jail, which ultimately led to his death. Mayella used her position in society to manipulate the court, and dispose of the only evidence of her mistake. Mayella Ewell is powerful as defined by class, gender, and especially race.

Atticus’s diction when he says, “must be removed” (272) is significant because it persuades the jury that Mayella was the aggressor in the case. Mayella brings Tom to court to get rid of him as a way to get peace with her decision to tempt him. Following this fragment of Atticus’s testimony, the jury can then recognize that Mayella threw herself on Tom and that he, the accused, is truly not guilty.

Gender plays a big part throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, and its role is still prominent in the trial. The people in the courtroom would assume that because she

Jem was used to seeing it generally at school and used by the townspeople, but never to this extent. Even the next day he was still severely bothered by the fact that the matter he puts a question to why “Can’t any Christian judges an’ lawyers make up for their heathen juries?” He’s heated to the point where he “mumbles ‘Soon as I grow up–”(246) when Miss Maudie cuts him off and states he should not talk like that. Jem is questioning why the Christian judges (emphasizing the Christian) can not speak further than the jury who has been blatantly proven to not have counted forth the actual evidence. If the judge is the one who is meant to have the most important say, why are the people of the jury, who are not even from said town, making the final call?

After the Robinson trial Jem asks Atticus why people like Miss Maudie are never on juries. Atticus responds by saying “‘Miss Maudie can't serve on a jury she’s a woman”’(Lee 252). This is brutally shocking because during this time it was legal in many other states for a woman to serve on a jury without question. “In some states (e.g., Wisconsin, California, Vermont), the pace of reform was swift. In other states (e.g., Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi), women did not win the right to serve on juries until the late 1960s.”’(Benford, Robert D). Not only with gender but also race and class, the south accentuates these horrible qualities. This can also be observed in the way Scout is treated on many occasions. She is put down for simply being a woman something she cannot help. After Jem touched the Radley's house he tells Scout that “‘sometimes you act so much like a girl it's mortifying.”’(Lee 42). This was not said out of anger, or in anyway seen as cruel for this was culturally normal in the south. By Jem saying being a girl is “mortifying” it is setting an example for Scout, a prologue for what is to come as she matures into a woman. At this time this is not at all unique, the south has been obstructed by their wall of discrimination, failing to see the importance of women's rights from the

To Kill a Mockingbird clearly reflects the false rape accusations that took place during the 1930s. Regarding one court case during March of 1931, author Daniel S. Levy says, “In order to avoid being charged with consorting with blacks, the women accused the men of rape” (Levy, par.5). Mayella Ewell falsely accuses Tom Robinson of raping her, similarly to the other white, young women in the 1930s. Women decided to accuse these black men of rape to avoid society’s judgement and criticism.

When Harper Lee was writing about the trial of Tom Robinson in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” she had a very real case to look to for inspiration. The trial of the Scottsboro Boys was a world renowned case in the 1930’s in which nine black youths were accused of raping to white girls in Alabama. Lee’s novel took this case and created the fictional case of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a lower class white girl in a small town in Alabama during the Depression-era. The Scottsboro trials were the main source of inspiration for Lee’s novel, and although the circumstances of the novel differed from the real-life scandal, the similarities between the two cases are quite abundant.

Throughout the book To Kill A Mockingbird Lee discusses the effects of ignorance and the toll it takes on people such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Scout herself, and many more. Through her examples of sexism, prejudice, and racism, from the populist of poverty stricken Southerners, she shows the readers the injustice of many. The victims of ignorance are the ‘mockingbirds’ of the story. A good example of this injustice is the trial of Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white girl and is found guilty. The book is from the point of view Scout, a child, who has an advantage over most kids due to her having a lawyer as a dad, to see the other side of the story. Her father tells her in the story, “you never really know a man until

* Jem still thinks that juries are a crock of @#$%, and Atticus tells him that if the jury had been made up of Jem and others like him, Tom would have been acquitted. He goes on to say that the jury left behind the written law to follow the unwritten one – that the white man always wins.

The 1930s was the beginning of an extremely unethical era, which led to the spread of corrupt ideas and principles through the nation. This is shown in the article, “Standards Focus: Historical Context, Based on True Stories”. As the author is telling of the events that occurred during The Scottsboro Trials, it is mentioned that out of the nine black men accused of rape, eight “were given death sentences, despite the fact that the defense attorney pointed out that one of the men was blind, the other too elderly and crippled to commit the crime, another underage, and that they were not even in the same rail car.” (Secondary Solutions). The verdict that the men were guilty was made because with the rough life people were living, they were willing to lie to keep themselves protected, and those who believed this act was wrong were not strong enough to protest. This is a parallel to To Kill A Mockingbird, because despite obvious evidence that Tom Robinson is innocent, he is still determined to be guilty. In the trial in Lee’s novel, the victim was hurt mainly on their right side. It is said that “He [Tom Robinson] rose to his feet and stood with his right hand on the back of his chair. He looked oddly off balance, but it was not from the way he was standing. His left arm was fully twelve inches

In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson, the black man falsely convicted of rape, had absolutely no chance of a fair trial. There is proof of this in the time period in which it occurred as well as evidence from the novel itself. Tom Robinson had an unfair trial because it was his word against the Ewell’s, a white, trashy family.