by Julie Hartnett

Created on: August 09, 2008   Last Updated: June 20, 2011

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best novels of our time with a message that is timeless. In a world that still deals with racial issues, Harper Lee leads us on a journey through the eyes of an 8-year-old child. A widower, Atticus Finch is doing his best to protect his two children from the reality of racial injustice.

When a local girl claims to have been raped by a colored man, the town is thrust into the circus of a public trial. Atticus is appointed as the lawyer for the accused, knowing in his heart of hearts he is defending an innocent man. He receives pressure to ensure the man is found guilty.

Set in the depression in the deep south, we can see there is a clear definition between black and white. While the accused, Tom Robinson, is held in the local jail, Atticus keeps watch outside the door. He knows that if Tom is left alone, the local Klansmen will murder him. Our narrator, the young Scout Finch, and her older brother Jem go to see their father against his wishes. Keeping their distance, they watch as cars surround the building. A group of men approach Atticus and demand he let them by. Atticus stands his ground and his children appear from their hiding place. At first their father is furious and demands they go straight home. When one of the men roughly grabs the collar of Jem, Scout steps in a kicks the man with all her might. Having no idea the seriousness of the situation, she recognizes one of the men. She recalls to him and their audience that Atticus did legal work for him and payed her father with nuts from his farm, the only way he could pay. Ashamed and deflated by a little girl, the men leave.

When we read about the trial, we are painfully aware of the separation between black and white. The upper balcony is for the blacks, the main floor for the whites. Scout and Jem find room in the balcony and are embraced by the colored community. Atticus makes his case to the court and begins to question the girl. She's from a poor family;her father, Mr. Ewell, is a known drunk who has obviously coached her prior to the trial. Atticus, a plain spoken man, finds fault in her statements. At this point it becomes clear that she is lying and most likely a victim of sexual and physical abuse by her father. It is also clear that no matter what Tom Robinson says in the trial, he will be found guilty by an all-white jury. Atticus knows this and explains as much to his children, "The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom. There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads - they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life."

Atticus tells Tom to wait for a retrial, but Tom doesn't listen. He is aware that he will never receive a fair trial and tries to escape from prison. He is shot 17 times and killed. This story makes you ache for justice. The simplistic view of an 8-year-old girl brings the theme home even more. This novel has so much substance aside from racial issues that it highlights a social injustice as well: a separation of classes and color and a relevance to our world today with a realization that nothing has really changed.

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