The town of Maycomb is a small quiet area. Atticus Finch is a lawyer, and he has been picked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man. The setting is in the 1930s, and there is a lot of racism going on in this time period. Racism plays a tremendous part in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by change and discrimination. In this time period it is unacceptable for a white man to be with a black woman. One man named Mr.Dolphus Raymond is living with a black woman.He walks around the town drinking from a paper bag, and pretends that its whisky. This helps him explain to the town why he lives the way he does. This man has a double life because he lies to people saying hes drunk, but he is really happy at home, and has several woman with a african …show more content…
When the kids arrive they notice that its very different from their church. When they go to enter the church a black woman named Lula told Calpurnia to take the kids away. The other people, and Reverend Sykes lets the kids enter the church. There were also people that were mad because they were there, but in the end most of the colored folks accepted them, and it showed that everyone wasnt racist.Heck Tate says that the judge appointed Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, who is black, for a crime that he committed. Atticus's reputation suffers among some of the white town people, and they disagree with his actions and criticize him for defending a black man. They are mad because a white man is trying to help a black man, and in this time a white man would just let a black man lose in court. This makes Tom Robinson feel good because he's being treated equal, and it gives him hope. Tom was moved to the Maycomb county jail, and Atticus sat in front to guard it. A whole gang showed up, and they planned to kill Tom. They leave because they recognize there are children there, and they wouldn't want their kids to see that. This also takes
This was a big time for Atticus because Tom was supposed to win the case but they are very racist.So this is a bad time for Atticus,that why he is having a hard time.In
Instead of allowing the overwhelming hypocrisy and hatred of the town to get in his way, Atticus
Atticus becomes involved in controversy when he agrees to defend Tom, a young black man. Atticus chooses to defend him despite the fact that many people ridiculed him because he told his children not to discriminate black people and if he chose not to defend Tom, he would be a hypocrite and could never expect his children to respect him again. Atticus was a good man trying to change the way African Americans were treated in Maycomb. Atticus decided to defend Tom even though he would lose since he was an African-American, but the point was to show his children not to discriminate. In Chapter 9, Atticus states that “Every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally.” He is trying to say that there is no way he can
Tom Robinson an innocent, targeted man and a member of Maycomb County had been accused of raping a young girl with an abusive father, her name is Mayella. Atticus defended Tom Robinson and proved his innocence; Mayella continued to twist and lie about the story as her father threatened to beat her, when in reality the father was the guilty one after all; now of course everyone would believe Tom did it, he was a black man with a bad reputation with plenty of twisted rumors that pondered around the town, who would believe he was innocent? No one. Maycomb never thought for a second that a white man would ever do such a thing, even if so a black man would still be targeted due to the racism the town endured.
In the novel, Atticus expresses one of man’s highest ideals, courage in the face of defeat. Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a Negro who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. He simply is defending Tom because it was the right thing to do. He knows he would cause him troubles and perhaps his children will be involved, but Atticus is a very moral person. Another reason why he decides to defend Tom is to teach his children to do the right thing. Even though he accepted the case, he knows that he is going to lose: “‘Atticus, are we going to win it?’ ‘No, honey.’ ‘Then why–’ ‘simply because we were licked a hundred years
The reason why this case in particular effects Atticus so strongly is because it goes completely against the base ideals of the town and it's people. Atticus, believing that every single person, regardless of race, deserves fair trial, goes against the mindset of Maycomb citizens, resulting in a deep moral crisis in Atticus' thoughts between what is right and what is socially right. To actually strive towards a fair trial for Tom Robinson, Atticus had to fully understand the implications of what he was doing. This simple act of kindness and justice would bring hate and scorn down on his family name and his children. He was terrified that his moral compass, though pointing true, was leading him off the beaten path, and this is truly why Atticus
He went against the town and willingly defended Tom Robinson, a black man going up to trial for rape. Atticus took a lot of disrespect from many of the town's people. He dealt with all of the racism and hate and did his best to defend Tom. Scout says "If you shouldn't be defendin' him, then why are you doin' it?.” "For a number of reasons," said Atticus.
Atticus shows true courage through this by not giving up and not letting anyone get in the way of helping someone the best he could. It wasn’t just the color of Tom’s skin that made the trial hard it was the people
Tom Robinson was found guilty earlier this week. When we found out the good news, there wasn’t a sad face in my house. That black man shouldn’t have even had a trial. Touching a white woman is a sin and Tom should have been jailed immediately. I believe that black folks ain’t good enough to be treated like us whites. They should not have the privileges that we have and I believe that his punishment should have been decided earlier.
Atticus brought everything he could to the courtroom, and played a big role in showing the townspeople that making assumptions about people based on race is always
Throughout “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Atticus displayed his compassionate nature by explaining his sympathy through life lessons given to both Scout and Jem that they can easily apply to their everyday lives. During the second half of the novel, Atticus is chosen to defend an innocent black man accused of rape. Considering the Finches live in Maycomb, Alabama, much of their town is made up of prejudice people who believe that all African Americans are guilty and are to be blamed for any mishaps that occur in the small town; however, Atticus has a much different point of view. Instead of choosing to give up on the case, he believes that, “simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win”(Lee 101). By Atticus taking the case, proves his concern for others, even when everyone around him believes that the innocent man, Tom Robinson, is guilty. Instead of taking this case as a curse, he turned it into a lesson to Scout explaining to never give up and to always do
Atticus makes this remarkable speech even better by using such strong diction. He ends his speech by saying, “In the name of God, do your duty...In the name of God, believe him.” This is such a powerful statement and shows everyone that he is doing this for the good of the cause and because he honestly believes that Tom did not commit this crime of which he was accused of. He many times repeats that the only reason the Mayella is doing this, is to cover up her own guilt and shame of breaking the rules of society and kissing a black man. He even states, “I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state, but my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man’s life at stake, which she has in an effort to get rid of her own guilt.” Statements like this is what made Atticus’ speech so powerful, because he is not ashamed to stand up for what is right and call people out on a
Atticus does not just go through the motions of representing Tom Robinson at his trial; instead he does what he knows is right; he defends an innocent man. This puts his own life at risk, as well as the lives of his children.
Tom became a major part of the Finches lives and was of great importance to the novel. All did not approve of him, but the Finches did. The Finches put their lives and reputation at risk by doing what Atticus knew was the right thing to do, which was to save this
When Atticus took the case, he went up against Maycomb, a generally prejudiced town, in order to defend Tom. He understood that taking the case would make him an object of ridicule and that no one would forgive him for believing a black man's word over a white man's. Even his own sister expresses disapproval at his decision, practically telling him he was bringing disgrace to the family. Nevertheless, no matter how much his reputation suffered, he did not change his mind. Standing up for his morals and ethics was more important than what people thought about him. From the very start Atticus knows he will not win the case however he does his job and finishes what he set out to do.