The Injustice Of The False Prosecution Of Tom Robinson In To Kill A Mockingbird

In To Kill a Mockingbird, fairness is a significant concept during which Scout addresses uncomfortable realities about inequality and discrimination within her culture. She discovers that while the courts are often a possible source of redress, there are other avenues beyond the courtroom to hunt justice too. This lesson is very important when she learns that the judicatory isn’t always giving back the morally right verdict. Atticus tells the court in his closing statements at the Trial of Tom Robinson, “Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but during this country our courts are the good levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.” In this idealised dream, a jury will achieve justice by making a rational, instead of passion-led decision. Their decision should treat all people fairly, no matter ethnicity or social rank, because justice and lack of discrimination are important preconditions for justice.

However, the jury considers Tom Robinson guilty although the crime he’s convicted of was physically impossible for him to commit, which demonstrates that the strategy isn’t fair. As Atticus tells Jem, “The one place where a person should get a deal is during a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have the simplest way of carrying their resentments right into a box.” When people put their perceptions into the courtroom they’ll not make a very reason-based decision. Then while Atticus believes that the courthouse will remain a refuge of justice (“the one place where a person should get a square deal”), the court system’s inability to incorporate an fair jury indicates that characters still seek for other ways to hunt justice. Learning to pander to injustice is a continuing challenge for the most characters of the novel, who must continue battling for justice while acknowledging the complexity of their journeys.

The novel establishes a deliberate contrast between revenge and retribution. Scout and Jem focus on revenge in early portions of the book. When their cousin makes a rude remark on Atticus, Scout starts a dispute with him; when their elderly friend, Mrs. Dubose, insults Atticus for portraying Tom Robinson, Jem cuts up all her bushes with camellias. Atticus however tells the children that such acts of anger are not necessarily doing justice. Instead, he maintains that Jem should apologise to Mrs. Dubose by reading her daily aloud. Atticus means that Jem’s remorse and penance account for the loss of the flowers of Mrs. Dubose, and indicates that restitution is done when the culprit takes penance, not when the wrong party performs the punitive action as vengeance. Attempts by Bob Ewell to gain vengeance on the characters he claims to have embarrassed him backfire – Tom Robinson ‘s wife is safe, the judge is unharmed, and Scout and Jem largely survive unhurt. Ironically, Bob Ewell is the only one truly suffering from his need for vengeance, when Boo kills him when fighting the children.

Tom Robinson, who is wrongfully prosecuted for the abuse of Mayella Ewell, is the most visible survivor of discrimination in Mockingbird. While Atticus has hopes for his appeal, Tom is shot and killed while attempting to escape from prison. His death means he can never seek redress in the judicial system. While several citizens in Maycomb were against Tom, there are still a few who see his arrest and death as horrible miscarriages of justice.The newspaper runs an editorial calling Tom’s killing a “senseless slaughter” though Aunt Alexandra and Miss Maudie regretted his passing. Some community leaders agree that Tom’s prosecution sends an significant warning to the black community on the adverse implications of achieving parity with whites. Although the trial could have shifted the perceptions of a few citizens in Maycomb, fairness for Tom, as well as the black characters in general, remains unattained.

There is a question on how justice is completed within the death of Bob Ewell following Boo Radley’s death to guard children. During a way the death of Bob would be wont to prosecute the murder of Scout and Jem and his guilt for the death of Tom Robinson. As Atticus says, the prosecutor, “There’s a black boy dead for no reason, and therefore the man chargeable for it’s dead. Atticus finally decides that this is often the correct path to continue. She says when he tells Scout if she understands their answer, “Well, it’d be style of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” This passage relates to the section where Scout knows that ‘this could be a sin in destroying a joke’ since they’re innocent and live solely to learn others. it’d even be unfair for Boo Radley to be charged for attempting to save lots of the ladies.

While death of Bob Ewell is a sign that he is convicted and disciplined for what he did, it often distracts the reader from the continually unsolved injustice of the false prosecution of Tom Robinson. While Bob Ewell ‘s death will expiate his crimes against the children, it does not eliminate Tom’s mistakes.The nature of justice shows in episodes like the flowers of Mrs. Dubose and the death of Bob Ewell in the killing of the Mockingbird where conventional forms of punishment have never been implemented but guilty parties are penalised. Nevertheless, the result of the Tom trial, which is a flagrant breach of justice and never reversed, cannot be changed. There is no such chance. Thus, while penance or revenge may be used to create certain types of justice, at the end of the Tom trial book the injustice remains irreversible and can never be remedied. 

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