6. Analyse how a character’s difficult decision(s) exposed an ugly truth.
Break your prompt into questions: Which character? What was that decision? Why was
it difficult? What ugly truth was revealed? How?
Atticus - to defend Tom Robinson in one of the most vehemently and violently racist
times and places in modern Western society. It wasn’t a difficult decision for him to
make morally, because he is the embodiment of justice, but it was very difficult for the
town to deal with - to the point where his life and the lives of his children were in danger.
It exposed their ignorant fear and bigotted way of thinking and living.
Exposed and ugly truth: What ugly truth did it expose? The ugly truth of the the town’s
ugly personality - the hypocrisy of the the way that they have been brainwashed to be
scared of black people when it is white people who are the violent and biggoted ones,
morally bereft, lack of humanity, sense and reason. This is a universal truth about many,
many, man, white people and an ugly reality indeed to swallow. An embarrassing legacy
that is still a deeply rooted sickness of the human condition.
How?: What techniques did Lee use to express the difficulty of the decision and the
ugliness of the truth? Lee explores the theme of courage through Atticus’s actions and
the lessons he tries to share with his children. Scout’s development from an innocent
young child to a worldly young teen shows us the importance of Atticus’s decision to do
the right thing. Lee also highlights the dangerous power of mass ignorance and hate
based on fear, with a clear call for a more just and humane future.
1 - Atticus’s decision - shows the positive side of human nature - standing up for what is
right despite being vilified for doing so.
2 - The ugly truth of the town’s evil nature in their hatred of black people first comes out
in children taunting Scout, but escalates to a lynch mob threatening Atticus as he
protects Tom from them. Their blind violent rage is only diffused by the innocent goodnature of a young girl. Despite the fact that he ‘won’ his case, the novel ends with Mr
Ewell taking his shame and rage out on Atticus’s children when he tries to murder
them.
3 - The ugly truth of a corrupt and racist ‘justice’ system who will prosecute an innocent
man at the whim of an angry, uneducated, vile and abusive man. It is clear to even the
children in the court that Tom is an innocent man, and indeed only the children are
shocked and heart-broken when Tom is found guilty. This reaction highlight’s Lee’s
point that children are highly superior in their morality because they don’t yet know that
the morals that are beaten into them as children do not actually apply to adults or the
justice system. The irony of this is crushing to a trusting and good-natured child. It
destroys their trust in adults, in the concept of justice and in the goodness of man.
“Courage is grace under pressure” - Ernest Hemmingway.
or
“Fear is a reaction , courage is a decision” - Winston Churchill.
Set in the deep south of America during the Jim Crow era and in the aftermath of the
Wall Street crash of 1929, life is bleak for many Americans, and especially so for the
marginalised African-American population of Harper Lee’s novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.
Atticus makes the decision to represent Tom Robinson, a black man, in court to
exercise justice and teach his children the importance of standing up for what is
right. While this decision shows courage and humanity, the reaction of townspeople
exposed the ugly truth of racism and the lengths racists will go to to pull others
down to protect their own sense of superiority. Finally, Lee explores the ugly truth
that the very system created to uphold justice is corrupt to the core.
Atticus uses the decision to represent Tom Robinson, a black man, in court to
exercise justice and teach his children the importance of standing up for what is
right. Atticus is the very embodiment of justice and therefore his decision to defend
Tom Robinson is not difficult for him to make, morally. However, it was a dangerous
one; the decision proves extremely difficult for the townspeople of Maycomb to accept,
and exposes the fact that he lives in one of the most vehemently racist settings of
modern Western society. Throughout the novel, Atticus works tirelessly to raise his
children to be empathetic people, capable of sound judgement with the ability to control
their negative emotions. His most important lesson is to teach them that ‘You never
really understand a man until you consider things from his point of view… until you
climb into his skin and walk around in it.’ He makes it clear to his children and those
around him that his decision to support Tom is the right one, despite his full awareness
that he cannot win and the danger he and his family are put in because of it. When
Scout asks him why he is defending Tom when he knows he cannot win, he tells her
that he could not live with himself if he didn’t because he would lose his self-respect and
integrity and could no longer expect his children to follow in his footsteps. Atticus’s
decision is a reflection of his own self-worth, his deep morality and pursuit of equality.
One of his biggest fears is revealed when speaking to his brother, “I hope and pray I
can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching
Maycomb’s usual disease.” The disease is of course racism, a truly ugly stain on the
cloth of humanity’s moral fibre. Lee uses Atticus’s honourable character as a foil against
which the true character of the Maycomb people is highlighted.
His decision exposed the ignorance, bigotted beliefs and violent racism of the people of
Maycomb, and through them, the same ugly truth about all racist people. Atticus warns
Scout that she “might hear some ugly talk about it at school” and asks her to “just hold
your head high and keep those fists down.” He recognises that the common (in both
senses of the word) reaction of the people of Maycomb to sticking up for a black person
will be violence and name-calling. One of his biggest fears is revealed when speaking to
his brother, “I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and
most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease.” The disease, of course, is
racism, a truly ugly stain on the cloth of humanity’s moral fibre. Scout not only remains
cool when she is attacked by school peers calling her father a ‘nigger lover’, she is able
to unwittingly use her good upbringing and manners as a weapon to diffuse the lynch
mob who are threatening to murder Tom Robinson and not afraid of hurting Atticus if he
stands in their way. Scout’s innocent inquiry about Mr Cunningham’s family diffuses
their violent intentions as a mob. In this way Lee is alluding to a more humane and
peaceful future where common courtesy and respect are passed from generation to
generation to carry on the tradition of shaming violent bigotry into oblivion.
Through the court scene, Lee reveals the stark contrast between the original intention of
the justice system - to uphold fairness and ensure equality, and the ugly truth that the
American court system is in fact very little more than a legal system created by white
supremacy to murder black people. Atticus’s closing lines in court attempt to appeal to
the jury’s sense of justice and patriotism, “Our courts have their faults, as does any
human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts
all men are created equal.” The readers and the children in the court know the only right
conviction would be ‘not guilty’, and there is a real sense of shock and sadness when,
instead, Tom is found guilty and sentenced to death. Dill, the most innocent of the
children, is left in tears at the injustice of the decision. Dolphus Raymond recognises
that Dill is not crying for Tom so much as crying for “the hell white people give colored
folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people, too.” He is crying about the ugly
truth of his fellow people, of a corrupt justice system and the abandonment of courage
and humanity in his world. The hypocrisy of the way that the white population of
Maycomb have been brainwashed to be scared of black people when it is persistently
white people who are the violent and biggoted ones bereft of humanity, sense and
reason. This is a universal truth about many white people and an ugly reality indeed to
swallow. This reaction highlight’s Lee’s point that children are highly superior in their
morality because they don’t yet know that the morals that are beaten into them as
children do not actually apply to adults or the justice system. The irony of this is
crushing to a child. It destroys their trust in adults, in the concept of justice and in the
goodness of man.
Lee uses Atticus’s morally just decision to defend Tom with integrity to explore the
ugliest side of human nature, the side that will kill mockingbirds and innocent people in
the name of ‘justice’. She exposes the corrupt and flimsy foundations of the justice
system and the white people who created it, none of whom have even half the humanity
of a bunch of children. The novel helps us understand the shameful way black people
were and, unfortunately, are still treated today. It is an embarrassing legacy that is still a
deeply rooted sickness of the human condition. With little to show for the near hundred
years that have passed since this novel was set, Dill’s sense of heart-break at the state
of mankind can only be shared.