Victims of Prejudice in The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

đź“ŚCategory: Books, To Kill a Mockingbird
đź“ŚWords: 848
đź“ŚPages: 4
đź“ŚPublished: 24 June 2021

The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, published in 1960, is about a little girl named Scout growing up in the town of Maycomb, Alabama during a time when racism was still acceptable. Scouts father, Atticus, is a lawyer, and midway through the novel he decided to defend a man named Tom Robinson, who was accused of rape. But the crux of this case was that Tom Robinson was a black man, accused of raping a White woman. In the end, Tom Robinson was convicted to be guilty, and when he lost hope and tried to run he was shot and killed. A question that came up after reading this novel is, “Who is the most tragic victim of prejudice in the novel?” Since Tom Robinson had little to no chance of being found innocent, was killed, and his family had to suffer, Tom Robinson and his family are the most tragic victims of prejudice from the novel.

Tom Robinson was a young black man with a wife and kids, and he had a life just like everyone else living in Maycomb. But since he was Black and was in a time where Black people were discriminated against and hated, he was seen as lesser. Atticus argues in his closing statement ,“ ‘And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people’s” ( Lee 204) This quote perfectly explains the predicament Tom is in. He was set up for failure because it was his, a Black man's, word against a White person. The White people were offended because someone they saw less than them had pity for them, which gave Tom even less of a chance to be found innocent. After the death of Tom, which justifies even more that he was one of the most tragic victims of prejudice, Atticus says,  “ ‘ ….. but I couldn't in truth say that we had more than a good chance. I guess Tom was tired of white men’s chances and preferred to take his own.’ ” (Lee 235-246) It shows that even after Atticus tried to convince Tom that he still had a chance, Tom lost all hope at that point so he decided to take things into his own hands, and having no hope for the future is a horrible feeling. Dill explains Helen's reaction Tom's death and says, '' Helen said ‘ ‘evenin’, Mr. Finch, won't you have a seat?’ But she didn't say any more. Neither did Atticus. “Scout,” said Dill, “she just fell down in the dirt. Just fell down in the dirt, like a giant with a big foot just came along and stepped on her.’ ” (Lee 240) When Tom's wife found out that he had died, she was extremely sad. Tom's family is probably going to struggle a lot because of this, one because one of their family members died and two, because their income was split and it is going to become difficult for Helen to support the family on her own. This shows how cruel prejudice and racism is. 

From the time To Kill a Mockingbird was made to now, a lot of societal changes have been made in the US and around the world, but we can still find many similar stories about Black people treated poorly due to their race, like the death of Daunte Wright. He was a 20 year old black man who was “accidentally” shot when Kimberly Potter thought she had her taser out. This can be interpreted in a few different ways, like she really did accidentally shoot him, she was not trained well enough and did it by accident, or she did it on purpose due to hatred. Personally, I think she was nervous because she had a stereotype associated with Black people which made her make that mistake, it's like a cause and effect chain. And I can connect this with what happened with what happened to Tom Robinson because stereotypes can be created from prejudice, vice versa, and how racism connects closely to the Tom Robinson Case. Words like racism, prejudice, stereotypes, all of those are closely connected but at the same time completely different things, depending on the situation.

Today, the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is still being used in schools all over the US. The novel is still relevant to this day because the issues and circumstances in the novel still happen in modern day society, but they are a lot less noticeable and subtle and they are also a lot more complicated due to the ever changing “rules” society. Some people say that the novel should no longer be taught in schools because it covers sensitive topics and we’ve moved past all that stuff, but I don't think we have at all, and you especially can't say that with the deaths of countless Black lives. There is also a reason the novels are only used in certain grades, and I think the novel is a good example of change, change in people and change in society. The way I see it, people just want to forget the past, just like how they’re trying to get rid of this novel, but forgetting the past doesn't fix anything so we have to find ways to deal with it and fix the issues people in history have made here and now.

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