Tom Robinson example essay topic

To Kill a Mockingbird The book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a novel written with a certain substance that is lacking in many novels of the 20th Century. Harper Lee was able to write this book, which heavily represents a very robust set of morals, in a way that expresses her opinions, rather than desecrating other people's beliefs. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee introduced her feelings towards the injustice that happens in our justice system, the ways that segregation and discrimination are sometimes overlooked in our society, and that you can't fully understand someone else's opinion until you "climb into his skin and walk around in it". She was able to express her views through these themes, without being overly manipulative. The injustice in our society's justice system is represented by the trial of Tom Robinson. A woman named Mayella Ewell accused Tom Robinson of rape.

Even though Tom's lawyer, Atticus Finch, was able to prove that Tom could not have raped Mayella, Tom is found guilty because he is a black man, and according to Atticus when he tries to describe what happened to his daughter "Scout", a judge will always believe a white woman's word, no matter how low she is in the caste system to any black man's word. This is just one of the many overlooked ways of segregation. Harper Lee also expresses her views on how hypocritical many Americans were when it came to segregation. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee describes an elementary school teacher that denounces the way that the Jewish people were treated by Hitler, but she sees nothing wrong with the way that Tom Robinson is being treated for merely being accused of rape by Mayella Ewell. Another point that Harper Lee makes clear is by describing that there is a group of people who run charities to raise money for the people of Africa, because the Africans lead lives which are so awful, but they completely overlook that there are African-Americans living in the same town who live as poorly as they would in Africa, but no one seems to notice and care about them.

One of the final themes that Harper Lee presents is that it is impossible to understand anyone else unless you "climb into his skin and walk around in it". For instance, there is a character named Boo Radley, who always stays in his house, and everybody believes that he is mean and scary, but at the end of the story Boo saves "Scout's" life and "Scout" realizes that he is just a very nice old man who would prefer to get away from the many tragic things in life. This book would not have been as well written, if it wasn't for Harper Lee's open-mindedness, and ability to convey her ideas in a non-threatening manner. She was able to write this book as a guide to the many "blind" people in America who really didn't realize that they were not being as open-minded as they could have been. The same morals that were written about in this book 40 years ago can be taken out of this book even by today's generation.