Atticus Finch Politics Or Justice Analysis
More Politics Than Justice
As said by Atticus Finch, “A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up” (Lee 173). This quote is made by Harper Lee’s most famous character, Atticus Finch, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus may be noble, but he is not naïve. He may believe that all people should get equal treatment in the court, but he knows that it won’t happen in Maycomb. Through the novel’s setting in a small town in the South and the trial of a black man by a white jury, Lee uses the character Atticus to show the frequent injustices in courts and juries in the American South.
The setting of the fictional town Maycomb, Alabama helps show the bitterness between different races, especially in courts. Lee uses the setting to show the townspeople aren’t fair to each other. As Jem explains to Scout “There’s four kind of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind of people like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the …show more content…
It is the case of a black man’s word against two white people’s word. As Atticus explains to his son Jem, “Tom Robinson’s a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world’s going to say,’ We think you’re guilty, but not very,’ on a charge like that” (Lee 186). Atticus is trying to explain to Jem that no white jury is going to take a black man’s word against a white person. Atticus also said to Jem “The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box” (Lee 187). Atticus knew he couldn’t win because of the prejudices of the jury, but he was going to make them think what a jury should do. As Atticus says “Serving on a jury forces a man to make up his mind and declare himself about something” (Lee
As said by Atticus Finch, “A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up” (Lee 173). This quote is made by Harper Lee’s most famous character, Atticus Finch, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus may be noble, but he is not naïve. He may believe that all people should get equal treatment in the court, but he knows that it won’t happen in Maycomb. Through the novel’s setting in a small town in the South and the trial of a black man by a white jury, Lee uses the character Atticus to show the frequent injustices in courts and juries in the American South.
The setting of the fictional town Maycomb, Alabama helps show the bitterness between different races, especially in courts. Lee uses the setting to show the townspeople aren’t fair to each other. As Jem explains to Scout “There’s four kind of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind of people like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the …show more content…
It is the case of a black man’s word against two white people’s word. As Atticus explains to his son Jem, “Tom Robinson’s a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world’s going to say,’ We think you’re guilty, but not very,’ on a charge like that” (Lee 186). Atticus is trying to explain to Jem that no white jury is going to take a black man’s word against a white person. Atticus also said to Jem “The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box” (Lee 187). Atticus knew he couldn’t win because of the prejudices of the jury, but he was going to make them think what a jury should do. As Atticus says “Serving on a jury forces a man to make up his mind and declare himself about something” (Lee