Nate Goudreault 3/7/11

Period 2 Mr. Meehan

There is not always justice in the world. In the novel To Kill a

Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, injustice is present and a man’s life is the cost

of it. The city of Maycomb, Alabama was shaken up by the controversial trial

of Tom Robinson. Atticus Finch, a well-known lawyer of Maycomb, steps up to

the plate to defend this innocent black man, going up against not only the

prosecutors, but most of the town. Although Atticus is known to be honorable

and mature, he has too much trust in the fact that people will act the same

way.

From the beginning of the book, Atticus is trying to teach his children

certain values and habits. When Scout returns home from school

disappointed about her new teacher Miss Caroline, Atticus gives her the his

first major piece of advice. He says to her, “You never really understand a

person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into

his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee, 39). Even though Scout hears this

advice early on, she doesn’t harbor it for a long time. This is demonstrated

when she makes up the game of imitating her image of the Radley family

with Jem and Dill over the summer. Even though Atticus told Scout to try to

understand people before she made her opinions on them, she and the boys

continued to imitate Boo Radley as some sort of monster based on

Maycomb’s presumed vision of him. Atticus expresses his anger and states

they were “putting his life’s history on display for the edification of the
neighborhood.” (Lee, 65). Atticus trusted the children to heed his advice but

they proved him wrong when they imitated the Radleys, which was the

opposite of what he wanted. On the night Atticus leaves to watch Tom

Robinson, Atticus strictly advises the children to go to bed and says “you

folks’ll be in bed when I come back, so I’ll say good night now.” (Lee, 198) He

knows there will most likely be trouble and he does not want his children

anywhere near it. Although he trusts the kids to stay in bed, they proceed to

sneak out and see what Atticus was doing. The children try to heed Atticus’s

advice but cannot prove to follow through with it most of the time.

As the trial progresses, Atticus and Bob Ewell’s relationship worsens.

The more Atticus defends Tom Robinson, the more Bob Ewell’s hatred for

him grows. Bob Ewell cannot stand the fact that Atticus is standing up for

him. Throughout the trial, the reader can see the distinct contrast between

the attitudes of Atticus and Mr. Ewell. As Atticus interrogates Mr. Ewell, he

keeps his cool when he “looked around at Mr. Gilmer and smiled.” (Lee, 234)

Here Atticus expresses his confidence and composure even though he is

trying to get information out of the quite opposite Bob Ewell. Mr. Ewell

cannot control his anger and is described as “endearing himself to his fellow

citizens. The whispers and chuckles below probably had to do with what a

card he was.” (Lee, 236) Bob Ewell never learns to control himself like

Atticus even though Atticus set a perfect example. When the trial concludes,

even though Mr. Ewell came out victorious, he is still out to seek revenge on

Atticus. He portrayed Bob Ewell’s poor attitude in front of the entire court
and Bob would not allow him to get away with it. He spat in Atticus’s face,

and Atticus simply “just took out his handkerchief and wiped his face and

stood there and let Mr. Ewell call him names.” (Lee, 291) Atticus did not take

any offense to it and figured that Bob would get over it and realize he is

acting foolishly. Yet, unfortunately, Bob was bent on revenge. He went a step

further and attacked Atticus’s children. Atticus had faith that Bob would see

in the error in his ways, but was proven wrong. As the book was concluding,

Mr. Ewell pounced on the children in the middle of the night unexpectedly. If

it were not for Boo Radley, they children would have been dead. Bob Ewell

did not learn from the mature examples

Atticus set, like Atticus had hoped.

The heat of the trial began to die down and conclusions began to be

drawn. As Atticus closed his case, he encouraged the jury to find justice

when he stated:

“I shall be brief, but I would like to use my reaming time with you to remind you that this case

is not a difficult one, it requires no minutes sifting of complicated facts, but it does require you

to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant. To begin with, this case

should never have come to trial.” (Lee, 271)

When Atticus makes this final statement, he is hoping that the people of

Maycomb will see the injustice present in the court and will overcome the

prejudice of the African-Americans. He puts all his hope that the townspeople
will overcome the “Maycomb disease” and finally see the light of justice. Yet,

to Atticus’s dismay, Tom Robinson is announced guilty. On the bright side,

the case would be taken to higher court. Atticus assured Tom he would be

safe and if he laid low he would not be harmed. Atticus did his best to make

it clear to Tom that even amongst the many pressures from the townspeople

he would be safe. An example of one of these close calls was when Atticus

showed up at Tom’s cell in the middle of the night and was met by a large

crowd of men with assorted weapons, including Mr. Cunningham. In response

to the crowd’s demand for Tom Robinson, Atticus said to them, “You can turn

around and go home again.” (Lee, 202) Atticus had believed that if he made

a stand the mob would back off, but they remained confident and were

prepared to take Atticus down with Tom Robinson. Scout luckily interfered,

preventing the mob from riling up. With all of these pressures on Tom after

the trial, he rejected Atticus’s advice and made an attempted escape. Atticus

comes home to tell Alexandra, Calpurnia and the others that the guards

warned him and they put “Seventeen bullets in him. They didn’t have to

shoot him that much.” (Lee, 315) Atticus expresses his disappointment that

Tom did not listen to him. Atticus overall is frustrated that no one is really

listening to him.

Atticus is very smart, and knows how to act maturely. Yet as much as

he tries he cannot get most people of Maycomb to act the same way. Atticus

tries to pass on these traits, but they are neglected. If more people acted like

Atticus there would not have been as many issues and injustice present in
Maycomb.