to kill a mockingbird

Atticus Finch gives his daughter, Jean-Louise (Scout), a valuable piece of advice: “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.” Many of the people in Maycomb County have never taken the time to put Atticus’ guidance into practise, and this is why some townspeople in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, are misunderstood and unfairly judged. Tom Robinson, Arthur Radley, Mrs Dubose, and Mayella Ewell, are all examples of misunderstood or unjustly condemned people in Maycomb.

Tom Robinson is an unfairly judged Negro citizen of Maycomb. A jury of white men find him guilty of a crime he did not commit, and he is consequently taken to jail where he is killed for attempting to escape. This decent father and loving husband is judged as a cold-blooded rapist by the white Maycomb community, because their racist views keep them from ...