This is an excellent question, and I believe it lies at the
heart of Lee's message in the story.
There is no doubt that Harper
Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is an icon amid American Literature. Her
characters are admirable and/or memorable, but her messages, and there are several, touch on the
true fabric of society, even of humanity.
As a reader, we are struck
by the unfairness and lack of justice in the case of Tom Robinson. Here is a man whose life has
been difficult in a variety of ways: he lost the use of his arm in a cotton gin accident, has
been in jail for getting into a fight (and not having the money to pay the fine), works hard to
support his family, and lives in a community that sees him as less than human. His only "sin" is
that he takes the time to be kind to Mayella Ewell, and she becomes the tool of his
destruction.
It is unfair that Tom is accused by Bob Ewell: Ewell's
biggest problem is not that Tom was in the house. Bob Ewell
knows that Mayella was at fault in this
situation, but even while he calls her a whore, his contempt for her actions and Tom Robinson's
skin color become melded as one. Ewell accuses Tom for three reasons: he is angry at his
daughter, he hates the blacks, and he is personally mortified that his daughter has been found in
a compromising position.
(If we read between the lines, it seems
that Bob Ewell may have sexually abused
Mayella:
She says she
never kissed a grown man before...She says what her papa do to her don't
count.
In that there is not a loving
or gentle bone in Bob Ewell's body, a father-daughter kiss seems
unlikely.)
Tom Robinson is found guilty of something he did not do.
The prison guards shoot Tom seventeen times in the back as he tries to climb the prison fence
(with only one good arm). These instances are neither fair nor
just.
Boo Radley's treatment at the hands of his father is not fair
or just. Though Boo (Arthur) started out as simply a typical teenager who got into a little
trouble, his father takes it as a personal affront (much like Bob Ewell), and punishes his son.
He allows him to be left in the jail for an excessively long time. When ordered to remove Boo
from the jail, Mr. Radley imprisons his son at home, and abuses him until he is a shadow of the
person he was. This is terribly unfair and unjust.
However, we do
find justice in the story. We see if first when Boo Radley saves the children, killing Bob Ewell
in the process. Ewell is evil personified. If it were not enough to glean some personal
satisfaction with Tom's conviction, and ultimately his death, this drunken, lying, abusive,
socially reprehensible man attacks the innocents: Atticus' children Jem and Scout. Justice is
served to Bob Ewell at the unlikely, gentle hands of Boo
Radley.
Next, when Heck Tate realizes that Boo has killed Ewell (not
Jem, as Atticus suspects), justice and fairness come together. Boo has saved the children's
lives. Tate knows that in light of what Boo has dealt with in his life, sending him to jail would
be wrong. Justice is served in that Ewell can no longer hurt anyone else, and it is only fair to
Boo that he is not linked to the tragedy. No one is harmed in releasing the story that Ewell
drunkenly fell on his knife—a knife which he tried to use on Jem and
Scout.
Lee shows us the frustrating lack of fairness and justice in
several situations in the story, but allows us as readers to witness what is both fair and just
in the end.
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