Equality in To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Sample

đź“ŚCategory: Books, To Kill a Mockingbird
đź“ŚWords: 719
đź“ŚPages: 3
đź“ŚPublished: 08 June 2022

 

To say that not every man is equal may seem ignorant, old fashioned, or just straight up wrong at first. Yet, Atticus Finch chooses to say this in his closing argument of the Tom Robinson case. Though saying such things may seem false, the fact is that as much as humans try to provide equal opportunity to all, people are born with certain advantages and disadvantages. This is why Atticus’s quote, “We all know men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe,” (Lee, 233) is right.

Even in Maycomb we see that not everyone is created equal. Jem says, “There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes,” (Lee, 258). He then goes on to say, “The thing about it is, our kind of folks don’t like the Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don’t like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise the colored folks” (Lee, 258). These two quotes reflect the views of Maycomb citizens, and how they divide themselves into different groups, regardless of race. One group holds themselves above the other. It doesn’t matter if you are a good person or not, what matters is what family you are born into. An example of this is how Scout looks down on Walter Cunningham in the beginning of the book, but by the end she realizes that the Cunninghams as a family are good people.

The Tom Robinson case is yet another example in the story of not everyone being created equal. It was driven solely on the fact that Tom, a black man, was below the Ewells, yet he felt bad for Mayella Ewell. After saying that Tom felt bad for Mayella, Lee writes, “The witness realized his mistake and shifted uncomfortably in the chair. But the damage was done. Below us, nobody liked Tom Robinson’s answer. Mr. Gilmer paused a long time to let it sink in.”(Lee, 224).  The case shows that no matter how much proof there is, someone like Tom would never prevail simply because of the color of his skin. After the case, Atticus says, “‘In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins.’”(Lee, 251 and 252). The case proves Atticus’s point very much and shows that no matter what, people will never be created or viewed as equals.

Throughout the novel a different type of inequality is also shown. This is Boo Radley. The children portray Boo as a monster, even though they never saw him and provide a description that is based off word of mouth and assumptions, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” (Lee, 14). Boo never harmed anyone in the town, but was still deemed a bad person from stories. Some people who have seen Boo even defend him such as Atticus, and in the book Miss Maudie tells the kids, “‘I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did... The things that happen to people we never really know. What happens behind closed doors, what secrets--’” (Lee, 51). From the get go, Boo’s story is never told from his point of view. People were scared of him for no reason, and we even see at the end of the book that Boo is actually a good person. The book uses The Gray Ghost to represent Boo, with Atticus showing how most people are good, and what others say about someone is not always accurate.

People are taught from a very young age to treat others equally. But this novel reflects that in the real world no matter how much people try, no one is created equal. Certain views prevent everyone from seeing each other as equals. Humans have certain abilities and advantages that allow them to excel in different crafts. The novel shows that skin color also makes up an individual’s worth in the eyes of others. No matter how hard people try to say everyone is created equal, the Ewell family, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley all prove Atticus’s quote to be right.

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