Killing a Mockingbird
...hite people's hearts blacks are always guilty as charged. And so is Tom Robbinson. "How could this be so, I wondered, as I read Mr. Underwood's editorial. Senseless killing - Tom had been given due process of law to the day of his death; he had been tried openly and convicted by twelve good men and true; my father had fought for him all the way. [...] Atticus has used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robbinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed." Therefore, even though it is "sort of like shootin' a mockingbird" , Tom has to die - either on electric chair (to which he is sentenced) or during his escape from prison (the way he actually dies). The majority of the society ostracizes Atticus Finch as the defendant of Tom Robbinson. Atticus, however, believes that blacks are equal human beings and, as such, should be equally treated. For the plight of blacks, their ignorance and illiter-acy, is the result of their treatment by whites through the years. White people led black ones to their situation of being uneducated, of being people who are very easy to be deceived and deprived of the privileges that are for all equal people. "All men are free and equal" , but in the minds of Maycomb society blacks are still slaves: not in the respect of being someone's property, but in the respect of having no rights whatsoever. They are helpless and therefore, time and again, whites take advantage of them. "As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash." [...] "There's nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who'll take advantage of a Negro's ignorance. Don't fool yourselves - it's all adding up and one of these days we're going to pay the bill for it." The most shameful deed of the world is taking advantage of weaker beings. The treatment of blacks unfortunately shows that there is a great deal of such a shame, and that people are prejudiced to such an extent, that they do not even realize the fact. "Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd" - that is what people are. Most of them consider their conduct towards blacks the only right and possible one. They do not even let the thought that they are wrong enter their heads. This is the most horrible thing - "the simple hell people give other people - without even thinking. [...] the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people too." The saddest fact about people is...the unconditional confi-dence in the correctness of their judgments. Therefore, following their prejudicial judgments, people persecute and ostracize everybody who tries to help blacks or defends them, for example at the courtroom. Nevertheless, people with stout moral principles, like Lee's Atticus, do not only believe in truth and righteousness - they apply them in their life, in their conduct towards other people. Atticus is not a person one would call an enthusiastic social activist - he does not make edifying speeches aimed at drawing people's support of favor, nor does he play a local preacher. He simply does what his heart tells him to do and from the very core of it he knows that he must at least try to help Tom Rob-binson. The fact is, that "sometimes we have to make the best of things, and the way we conduct ourselves when the chips are down - well, all I can say is when you and Jem are grown, maybe you'll look back on this with some compassion and some feeling that I didn't let you down. This case, Tom Robbinson's case, is something that goes to the essence of a man's con-science - Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man." Everything is a matter of personal conscience, then. Atticus is a self-reliant man, who does not depend on anybody's views, but only on his moral rules and his own conscience. He is aware of his decision being a very unpopular one, and yet he does his job in accordance with what his heart tells him to do. "'Well, most folks seem to think they're right and you're wrong....' - 'They're cer-tainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions,' said Atticus, 'but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.'" That is why Atticus cannot give up the case: because he must be faithful to his principles - although he cannot win. Because Atticus cannot win this case - the human nature stands in the way. The court is made of people, and people bring their prejudice even to the courtroom - "the one place where a man ought to get a square deal" . Therefore, there is a considerable gulf between the institution of justice, where there is equality on principle, and people who compose the institution and are not able to leave their resentments outdoors. From the very first moment we realize that Tom is going to be pleaded guilty, but then there is the question of truth being given to all the people present. As Atticus says, "that boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truth's told." It was the only thing possible to be done in that time - and, at the same time, the first step towards changes. "I thought, Atticus Finch won't win, he can't win, but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that. [...] well, we're making a step - just a baby-step, but it's a step." It is exactly what it is crucial here - the fact that Atticus is able to inspire uncertainty in the minds of the jury, he causes a moment of hesitation. Even though the result of the trial is ob-vious, and the people of Maycomb have already given their verdict on Tom, every-body has to listen to the truth and this truth forces them to hesitate, to think about this case if only one moment longer. This might have been just a baby-step, but, by and by, it was followed by others until more important changes occurred. Black people are equal now; they work in the same places as white people, they learn in the same schools, live in the same streets, but...are they equal in the hearts of white people? Let me try and find an answer to this question later on. What is very important here is that Atticus could refuse to take the case without a single blot on his reputation in the eyes of the Maycomb society, but his morality and the sense of justice did not let him. He has the courage to follow his principles, and, as he tries to instill them in his children, he behaves in such a way, so that his children should respect him and f...