Justice and Injustice - to Kill a Mockingbird

Justice is the act of displaying fairness and equity towards all people. The themes justice and injustice are explored deeply all throughout Harper Lee’s best-selling novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the fictional, small southern town of Maycomb in the 1930s. Through the eyes of Scout Finch, the daughter of Atticus Finch and the main character and protagonist of the novel, it is evident that racial inequity, prejudice and bigotry were prominent during this time period. In the novel, innocence is represented by the symbol of the mockingbird. Lee has created various symbolic human mockingbirds in her novel – Tom Robinson, Boo Arthur Radley & Atticus Finch. Tom Robinson, although a humble and respectable member of the black community, is falsely accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Boo Arthur Radley is a mysterious, thoughtful, vulnerable man that is victimised by the community and is slain by society’s prejudice, purely based upon the rumours and preconceived notions that circle around town. This led Boo to living a reclusive life. Atticus Finch is a man with a strong sense of equality and fairness. He is constantly being mocked by his neighbours and the community because of performing an act of justice when he defends a coloured man, Tom Robinson. These three characters are symbolic representations of the mockingbird and display pure innocence and morality. The different ways in which these ‘human mockingbirds’ are exposed to either justice or injustice, or both, affects the way they see the world that is Maycomb and the way they behave and interact with it. The way the different characters live, varies depending on the justice and injustice they are shown.

Tom Robinson is a gracious African-American man that suffered the wrath of injustice as he was unjustly convicted for a crime he did not commit. He was sent to trial for allegedly raping a poor white woman, Mayella Ewell. In spite of the overwhelming evidence...