To Kill a Mockingbird 2

In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the story slowly unravels to a different story. In my last blog post, I said that the story is about two kids, Scout and Jem, who want to get Boo Radley out of his house. Boo has never come out of his house before and there are many rumors about him.  But the story slowly turns into a suspenseful tale about an unfair court case.

Every so often, the story mentions that Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, is defending an African American in the trial. This is unheard of and is causing much distress in the community. Throughout the whole story, the kids struggle to not fight or hurt people who call Atticus names and tease him, because hardly any white person in the town wants him to defend Tom Robinson. What I find strange, is that no one seems to realize that it was not Atticus’s choice to defend Tom, although he will do a much better job than most. The judge chose him as the lawyer and he could not say no. What is even more interesting, though, is that the judge choses Atticus on purpose because he wants Tom Robinson to win (I’m not guessing----it says this in the story). I find it really interesting that some people try to hurt Tom Robinson, especially the people who go to the jail to try and kill him, while some people, like Judge Taylor, want him to win the case.

 I think “To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place near the end of the civil rights movement because of the fact that some people do care about African Americans, but earlier this was probably not the case. There will always be a few whites that care and do not approve of their harsh treatments, but because in this case it is a judge who cares, it makes me think that this trial takes place in the late part of that time period. Why does Judge Taylor want Tom to win the trial? The book never tells us this much, but I have a feeling that he, just like Atticus, Jem, and Scout, wants the way that blacks are treated to change. He thinks that it is unfair and if Tom wins, then that town is one step closer to integration.

In the civil rights movement, everybody had a different view. This is a theme that comes out in this story. Some people absolutely despise blacks, and some people don’t really care one way or another. Atticus considers them like everyone else, and Judge Taylor feels bad for them. This is what made the times so hard: the fact that every person thought something different. And it makes this story all the more realistic by having this be a theme.