To kill a mockingbird essay

To Kill or Not to Kill Why would one want to harm a mockingbird? Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Lee sends a message about human inequality and divisions within society through her mockingbird metaphor. Tom Robinson best fits the Mockingbird in the metaphor and in this novel, because a mockingbird is harmless and innocent, just as Mr. Robinson is. Tom shows theses mockingbird like traits plenty times throughout the novel. One time,it was when he displayed his kindness to Mayella Ewell by helping her around the house when she needs help, another was when Tom stood up in the courthouse showing everyone that he is handicapped and basically defense, much like the mockingbird, lastly it was when Tom Robinson was shot, seventeen times, to his death.
Tom Robinson always shows Mayella Ewell kindness by helping her around her house when she needed it and be just being thoughtful,but that turned on him quick. Tom, Atticus were in court fighting their case when Judge Taylor asked Tom Robinson:
“ Why did you go inside the fence lots of times”
Tom Robinsons forehead relaxed.”She called me in, suh.Seemed like every time I passed by yonder she’d have some little somethin for me to do-choppin’ kindlin’, totin’ water for her. She watered them red flowers every day-”
“Were you paid for your services?”
“No suh.not after she offered me a nickle the first time.I was glad to do it.”(Lee 218)
It’s very clear here that Tom is just a good man who is at the wrong place at the wrong time. Ms.Ewell was not a mentally stable woman, she had grown up in a dysfunctional family and just an awful person, she just wanted to let anger out on someone else a defenseless target and that target was Tom Robinson.When Tom says”i was glad to do it” thats when you can see that he really is just a good person who wants to do as much as he can to help even though it might not be much because of his paralyzed hand. The similarities between this and killing a mockingbird are almost identical, because there is no logic behind killing a mockingbird, no reason for it but it would only be for the killing of a defenseless creature and the defenseless creature is Tom Robinson.
Tom Robinson is a handicapped man and essentially is a defenseless. . Atticus is speaking to Miss Mayella in court in front of the jury, the Judge, and all of the townspeople asking her if Tom was the Man who raped her. “ ‘Tom stand up. Let Miss Mayella have a good long look at you. Is this the man, Miss Mayella?’ Tom Robinsons powerful shoulders rippled under his thin shirt. He rose to his feet and stood with his right hand on the back of his chair. He looked oddly off balance, but it was not from the way he was standing. His left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at its side. It ended in a small shriveled hand.” (Lee 211) Atticus is trying to get across to the jury and all the people that there is no way that Tom could have done it. Lee said that the hand “hung dead at its side” this is saying it is paralyzed, which would make him have one hand and make him a defenseless man. Tom could not have hurt her because the spot of the bruise would be almost impossible to a man with a “shriveled hand” to achieve. The whole crowd can see it, its obvious, Tom could not have done this ,but in the end the townspeople's racist attitudes pushed Judge Taylor and each other to the abstracted thought of Tom actually being guilty. Tom is defenseless in physical life, having one arm, but also in court. Even though Atticus is a very good lawyer there is an idea that racism surpasses justice and that idea is prevalent in the case of Tom Robinson.
Tom Robinson was shot seventeen times after trying to escape from jail. Atticus just interrupted Aunt Alexandra's tea party and told Calpurnia and Aunt Alexandra the bad news about the death of Tom and was explaining how he was killed and that he went on a blind rage:
“Oh yes, the guards called to him to stop. They fired a few shots in the air, then to kill. They got him just as he went over the fence. They said if he'd had two good arms he'd have made it, he was moving that fast. Seventeen bullet holes in him. They didn't have to shoot him that much. Cal, I want you to come out with me and help me tell Helen."(Lee 268)
Tom just wanted to escape, to escape what was unfair. He was caged in for so long he had to try escape. As Tom climbed the fence “They fired a few shots in the air” Tom just wanted to be free, feel free, so he kept running. He wanted to escape to past and move into the new, he wanted to escape the crime he didn't do. His death could not be escaped nor could it be stopped. He was shot “seventeen” times and this was so the racist people could ensure their “victory” There was no reason for this death, he did not commit the crime nor did the mockingbird but they both were killed for doing good. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Lee depicts Tom Robinson as a mockingbird, using the mockingbird metaphor. She does this to show everyone how big of a problem human inequality and divisions within society are. Lee was brave, she wrote this in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s, when no one could understand the severity of all this. Lee was far ahead of her time no one would think about this at this time, well people would but just wouldn't have the guts to make their ideas public. She brought the reality to the whole country what it was really like down in the prejudice south . She gave the perspective of the racist south that the whole country need to see.They finally saw, through this book how cruel and unfair ideas of racism are. It is very important to look at the history so we don't make the same mistake again and this book is makes it easy to look back on and be glad about how we overcame these awful racist ideas.