Integrity and Conscience
Jem and Scout learn it is important to adhere to your conscience.
Atticus believes that morally, and legally, he must defend Tom Robinson against the charges of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. He cannot, in good conscience, let an innocent African Negro be charged with rape. He supports Tom Robinson’s right to a fair trial.
Atticus understands that a person has to remain true to conscience. He knows that he is likely to fail because it is rare for an African-American to be accorded legal justice, but this does not deter him. He states, “the one thing that does not abide by majority rule is one’s conscience.”
Atticus also resists the prejudice that surrounds the African Negroes. “This case is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience. I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man.” (104/116)
“If I couldn’t hold up my head in turn, I couldn’t represent this country in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.”
“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.”
Why Atticus? Tate anticipates that Atticus may be capable of sewing the seed of doubt in the minds of the jury. Heck Tate tells Jem and Scout, that “some men in this world are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father is one of them.” He draws attention to the fact that Atticus has a scrupulous reputation and is impeccably honest. Someone of his stature can make a difference because he can draw attention to the racial prejudice in the town.
Different types of Prejudice
Atticus’s beliefs contrast with the majority of the citizens in Maycomb, who seem to hold the belief that an American Negro is guilty until proven innocent.
Racial prejudice
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.” This allows the whites to feel superior to the blacks. In fact “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella opened her mouth and screamed.” Negroes were not allowed to sit on the jury.
Atticus realizes that he destroys the last shred of Ewell’s credibility, “if he had any to begin with”.
The trial makes the children confront the racial prejudice in the town. School; church with Calpurnia; this makes them realize that the “African Negroes lack the same privileges and rights as the white community.
Miss Maudie refers to bigotted citizens as “foot-washing Baptists” who are so “busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one” (they do not practice what they preach).
The trial
Atticus draws attention to the fact that it was impossible for a person with one usable arm to have raped Mayella. Tom Robinson is hindered by the disability of his left hand, which was 12 inches shorter than his right arm. Atticus tells the court that because of Mayella’s right eye was damaged the perpetrator would have hit with his left hand thus shifting the blame onto, and humiliating, Bob Ewell. She had marks on her neck redolent of choking. Two hands would have been needed to contribute to such physical assault. Also Ewell did not call a doctor. It seems that Mayella was obviously lying to protect herself from her father.
217 Tom reveals to the jury that he felt “sorry” for Mayella, which is difficult for Judge Gilmer and the audience to understand. He is indirectly casting judgement on the Ewells which is not allowed from a negroes’ perspective. This is an insult to the Ewells.
Boo Radley: shows the stigma attached to people who are mentally unstable or different. Many of the peoples’ attitudes towards Boo Radley are also caused by ignorance and intolerance towards difference. Boo is different in appearance and behaviour. Boo is portrayed as a monster, just because of the fact that he never comes outside of the house (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 (Page 13 spoken by Miss Crawford)). Initially, Scout and Jem mirror the typical prejudice in the town and persecute and ridicule him with their “asinine games” designed to lure Boo out of the house. However, once again Atticus’s tolerance triumphs. He forbids them to treat Boo in this way and the children come to see him as a friend rather than a monster. However, by showing us the growing relationship between Boo Radley and the Finch children, the author shows they are much the same as us.
Prejudice against women:
The relationship between Scout and Aunt Alexander draw attention to the feminine stereotypes reinforced in the novel. Scout’s difficulty following these stereotypes shows how unjust they are. “Aunt Alexander fitted into the world of Maycomb like a hand into a glove.”
Courage:
Atticus knows that in a racist town like Maycomb, his attempt to defend Tom Robinson is doomed from the start. He becomes an inspiration to his two children and to those who are ashamed of the injustice towards the negroes. Atticus endangers his own life and that of his family.
Atticus also displays courage when he confronts a very dangerous situation at the town jail, where Tom Robinson awaits trial. The drunken and unruly mob of racist Ewell supporters seek to intimidate him.
Atticus impresses upon the children that courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. Courage is not about physical strength; it is about moral strength and having the courage of your convictions.
Despite the fact that Atticus is one of the best marksmen in Maycomb, he wants his children to aspire to moral courage. Jem is impressed at his ability to shoot the dog with rabies.
Miss Maudie reiterates Atticus’ point that “God had given him an unfair advantage over most living things” . For this reason, he scorns the use of a gun until it is really necessary. (109)
Atticus knows that the children will have to show moral fortitude so as to confront prevailing attitudes of prejudice in the town.
Mrs Dubose: true courage
She was a sick woman, who ranted and raved at the children as they passed her house. Jem destroyed much of her garden, after he got angry after she raved about Atticus. “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for.” 113/102
To make amends, Jem has to read to her for several hours a night. Her death, to Atticus, represents “real courage”. (112; 124). Courage is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”
Although Mrs Dubose suffers greatly she is determined to rid herself of her morphine addiction before her death. She achieves this despite great pain and suffering.
(In a fit of anger, Jem wrecks her camellias because she echoes the prejudice in the town and calls Atticus a “nigger lover”. ) Like Mrs Dubose, who faces a terminal illness but “kicks her habit” anyway, Atticus knows that he is likely to fail but this does not deter him. In court, where everybody is supposed to be equal, it is a white man’s word against a black man’s and the white man will win every time. Mrs Dubose is very cantankerous and is hated and hates everyone – but she is determined to die with dignity. To her, this means free of her morphine addiction. Her death, to Atticus, represents “real courage”., in contrast to a “man with a gun in his hand” (124).
The children learn the nature of “real courage” through Atticus’s involvement in the trial; his shooting of the dog; Mrs Dubose.
As a result of his decision, Atticus and his children suffer racist taunts. Atticus is called “nigger lover” by many of the towns’ citizens.
Other citizens: Several citizens of Maycomb give their support to Atticus. Link Deas – comments in court that he has never had any trouble with Tom in the whole time he has employed him. He actively encourages Helen to work and escorts her to his property. Miss Maudie supports Atticus. Judge Taylor
Other prejudices – Jem and Scout defy other types of prejudice
Scout refuses to conform to lady-like expectations and wants to develop her own independent and bookish spirit. For this reason Aunt Alexander finds it so difficult to “tame” her.
Both Jem and Scout also develop their own views about Boo Radley independently of the prevailing myths about him as a monster. They develop a personal relationship forged through gifts and this helps to see him as someone who is worthy of pity and sympathy – not just someone to be humiliated and mocked. Their few personal encounters with Boo help them to dispel the myths that surround him; they come to see him as a troubled and persecuted person, who has a kind heart; they come to understand the different between perceptions in the town and his true or troubled personality.
Jem and Dill
After the trial, Lee contrasts the childlike sense of despair that dominates Jem with the capacity to hope encapsulated by Miss Maudie’s irrepressible good nature.
In a very simple, but complicated manner, Lee depicts Jem ‘s sense of disillusionment through the imagery of the “caterpillar in a cocoon”. Overcome by a “fatalistic” and “rueful” outlook, Jem expresses his frustration at being thrust from his secure and cozy comfort zone. “It’s like bein’ a caterpillar in a cocoon, that’s what it is”. “Like somein’ asleep wrapped up in a warm place. I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that’s what they seemed like” (237). He is bothered by the fact that no one seemed to “help Tom Robinson, just who?”.
Miss Maudie seeks to reassure Jem and gives him a sense of hope that social change can occur with a few “baby steps”. She knows that “Atticus Finch won’t win, he can’t win, but he’s the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that.”
Just as Scout stares down Mr Cunningham, it is left to the spontaneously fresh and innocent Dill to suggest that “there ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh”. For this reason, he will be a “new kind of clown”. “I’m gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks”. (239)
As Lee suggests, it is the children who are more intuitively genuine and sincere. They are able to penetrate the hypocritical and intolerant self-protective facade that isolates so many in the Maycomb community.
Return to the Study Page: To Kill a Mockingbird
Return to the Homework Tasks Page