The Cruciable

Thesis Judging and being judged is a big problem in the world today. It affects so many different people of every race and gender. In the book To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, it shows the effects of judging people in many ways, such as the effects on the people being judged, the people around them and the people doing the judging. Judging affects the people being judged more because it has a more direct impact on their life. Being judged can completely change someone’s life. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man named Tom was falsely accused of raping a young white girl. When a white lawyer with a good reputation came upon this case he knew how people would react to him defending a black man, but he took the case anyway because he truly believed that the man was innocent. In the end of the novel it is proven that the woman made the story up and one of the kindest black men was put to death just because he was black and people judged him based on that fact. They stereotyped him and believed that just because he was black that that was something he would do. Unlike most characters in the book, the reader got to know the character of Tom and they got to know his personality. He doesn’t turn out to be like the other people in the town judge him to be like, but instead he turns out to be a very kind, loving and hardworking man with a family that he loves a lot. In the end of the novel the reader also discovers that he was actually trying to help the women when she came on to him and he refused. If people in the town of Maycomb, where the story takes place, would have gotten to know the man his life could have been saved. The two children of the lawyer, Jem and Scout, were also very much affected by judging. People in the town would make rude comments to them just because their father was doing the right thing by defending the black man when the children had nothing to do with it. Being judged is also the leading cause of suicide in the United