“Boo Radley, Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell are all outcasts” Explain the factors responsible in at least three of these cases and discuss what this suggests about the community’s attitudes and values.
T Topic Statement: analyse the most important aspect of character/theme (How Tom suffers from prejudice/ how and why he is an outcast)
E Evidence: Author’s values: most important narrative devices : Lee’s critique of the town’s attitudes and values
E Explanation and quotes/ examples from text: examples of injustice and how Tom suffered unfairly
L Link or Relate back: show significant with the topic: how the attitudes prompted his exclusion/outcast/ death
As an African negro, Tom Robinson is a victim of the racial discrimination that Lee believes leads to a serious miscarriage of justice in Maycombe.
In court, where everybody is supposed to be treated fairly, a white man’s word is more credible (believable) than a black man’s. The Ewell’s contempt of the Negroes is typical of much of the townsfolk. They perpetuate the “evil assumption” “that ALL Negros lie, ALL Negroes are immoral beings, that ALL Negro men are not to be trusted around our women.” Because of their sense of superiority, Lee suggests Lee citizens like Ewell scapegoat the African negroes and blame them for their woes. In fact in Tom’s case, he was a “a dead man the minute Mayella opened her mouth and screamed.” As Lee suggests, ‘it is a sin to kill a mockingbird” because of its purity and innocence. (compassion) and Tom becomes a victim and symbol of man’s cruelty to each other. In particular Bob Ewell is particularly hostile towards Tom Robinson because of his compassionate attitude towards his daughter that challenged his authority and exposed his abusive nature. However Lee suggests that it is unlikely that Tom will achieve a fair trial because the jury, consisting solely of white men, overpower and silence the voices of justice. Even after destroying the last shred of Ewell’s credibility, “if he had any to begin with”, Atticus knows that Tom still does not stand a chance. Atticus proves that Tom could not possibly have committed the crime owing to his incapacitated left arm. For this reason,. Lee depicts Mayella’s shame and uncertainty through her evasive replies and … Clearly, the Ewells, like many citizens in Maycombe, are responsible for Tom’s death because of their unfair (contemptuous) attitudes towards the African Negroes who they believe to be racially inferior.
Discuss Harper lee’s views about social restrictions and barriers.
If Scout bumps up against the restrictions of the feminine, she also directly, or indirectly, bumps up against other codes that undermine social and racial harmony. Like Scout, Dolphus Raymond is also a code breaker, and it is not surprising that he reveals his story to the quietly amazed Scout and Dill. Harper Lee suggests that those who break the white-negro colour divide are vulnerable to the social censure that erupts in violence. Scout is amazed that Raymond “deliberately perpetrated fraud against himself” by posing as a drunkard and living with the coloured people. The point is that the pretence protects him from social censure. In this regard, Raymond has broken the unspoken code that the white people are inferior to the negroes and should therefore not cohabit with him. Despite his chequered past (and the violent death of his fiancé), Raymond realises that one can only ‘cry” against the violence that one does to another and “cry about the hell white people give coloured folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people too” (222) In a much more sinister way, Mayella also breaks the taboo of female desire for a negro. As Atticus suggests, she must “destroy the evidence”. Atticus points out, “no code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards” (225) Likewise, Tom Robinson breaks this code with his show of sympathy towards the poor and desperate white girl. (222)
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