Skip to main content

How do the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird challenge society?

Three characters come to mind as challenging society: Jem, Tom, and Atticus. First, Jem is at the mercy of the society he was born into. He didn't create the prejudiced mindset that infects the whole South; yet, there he is facing the raw side of it when his father decides to defend a black man in court. As a result, neighbors such as Mrs. Dubose take out their disapproval for Atticus's decision on Jem. Atticus tells Jem to keep his head and not let an old woman get his goat. Jem is required to hold his tongue and act like a gentleman at all costs. But once Mrs. Dubose calls Atticus too many names, and then brings up his deceased mother, Jem retaliates. Scout explains why Jem challenges society as follows:



"In later years, I sometimes wondered exactly what made Jem do it, what made him break the bonds of 'You just be a gentleman, son,' and the phase of self-conscious rectitude he had recently entered. Jem had probably stood as much guff about Atticus lawing for ni***** as had I, and I took it for granted that he kept his temper . . . I thought the only explanation for what he did was that for a few minutes he simply went mad" (102).



Jem proceeds to grab Scout's baton, and with fury and angst against the society that says he should be a gentleman and simply take people's insults, he chops off the tops of Mrs. Dubose's camellia bushes. Mrs. Dubose and Atticus represent the society that Jem fights against on this occasion, but it doesn't last for long. He has to pay penance for it by reading to the old woman every day for a month after school; but, his feelings are made known by his violent demonstration.


Next, Tom Robinson challenges society simply by going to court and standing up against the Ewells. He could have taken off the night of the alleged rape, become a fugitive, and left his family in Maycomb--but he didn't do that. He stayed to face false charges against a court full of people who were not his peers, but his enemies. He took the witness stand and told the truth against a young, white girl, who would rather see him die just to save her face. Even though the battle might have been lost before it even started, Tom publicly faced his accusers thereby, challenging the prejudiced society he was born into as well.


Finally, Atticus challenges society by defending Tom Robinson. After Cecil Jacobs tells the whole school that Scout's father "defends ni*****," Scout asks him what it means. Atticus tells her that some people don't believe he should be defending a black man. Scout asks why he is doing it, then. He responds with the following:



"For a number of reasons . . . The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something" (75).



What Atticus means by this is he doesn't want to be a hypocrite. Most people in Maycomb like having segregation and treating black people like servants, but Atticus doesn't. He could have declined to take the case, but he didn't. When the people of Maycomb put on the pressure for him not to defend Tom Robinson, he could have caved and given up, but he doesn't. Even his friend Link Deas says in chapter 15 that Atticus has everything to lose in taking the Tom Robinson case, but Atticus doesn't see it that way. In fact, Atticus believes that he would lose his integrity and self-respect if he didn't do his best to give Tom Robinson the best defense he can offer; and, the defense he provides goes against everything people in his society believe.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more