To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee: Character Analysis

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Before you really know a person, you judge them by their reputation. For years, reputation helped criminal investigations for picking suspects. If you have a reputation of being dangerous, people are going to avoid you. It doesn't matter if you changed, because someone else might not know the real side of you. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee claims reputation is not always accurate, making it misleading, and this is true in today’s society. Harper Lee shows that reputation is not accurate with Boo Radley. For example, Boo Radley has a reputation of being a monster because he supposedly stabbed his dad with scissors. Even though nobody actually knows Boo Radley personally, it doesn't stop them from acting like they do. Scout was told many rumors about Boo Radley, so in her mind Boo Radley’s reputation was being a psychopath. In the book, Scout thought to …show more content…
Tom Robinson is looked at as less than a human because he is black. In the 1930’s, racism was a huge part of society. Most of the people that were black in the 30’s were treated terribly. In the book, Jem mentioned, “They don’t belong anywhere.”(215) Scout and Jem were talking about children who were half black and half white, and that nobody wants them. This relates to Tom Robinson because in the book, white people don’t care about him. In the book, the jury found Tom Robinson to be guilty due to his skin color. The reason why Tom lost the jury was because the jury was all whites, and didn't want a black man to win. In the courtroom in the 30’s, this was a very common thing. White people felt superior over blacks, so why should a black man win a case? In the book, Mr. Underwood mentioned, “Tom Robinson was a dead man the day Mayella opened her mouth and screamed.”(323) The reason why Mr. Underwood said this is because in Tom’s case, it would be impossible to win. This proves that reputation can be completely
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