What was atticus trying to show

Dolphus Raymond, a white man who prefers the company of African Americans, uses a brown paper bag as a theatrical prop to act like a drunkard. He has mixed-race children and lives among the African American community as one of them. During the trial, when Dill feels sick, Mr. Raymond explains to Scout and Dill that he pretends to be drunk all the time so that people can explain away his behavior. He admits that he even staggers sometimes to reinforce his charade.

The African American community feels angry and upset, but they cannot show it in public. Many racist white people feel that justice was done because a black man is always guilty, no matter what.

Some white people are ashamed and sincerely saddened by the injustice done by the jury. Bob Ewell is satisfied because his lie worked, and Jem is furious and incredulous. As Jem and Scout walk home that night, two figures emerge from the shadows, each with their own intentions. Atticus accepts the case out of personal integrity and a firm belief that the racist ways of the deep South will slowly but surely change over time.

He sees this trial as an opportunity to help make that historic shift of attitude, even if it is just a small step. When he takes the case, Atticus assumes that they will lose the trial, but he believes they have an excellent chance in the appeal process. The people of his community trust him to do the right thing, and he does.

After the trial is over, Atticus feels discouraged by the outcome, but he is not beaten by it. Mayella Ewell lies on the witness stand because she is afraid of her father, Bob Ewell, and because she is humiliated by her own attraction to Tom Robinson.

She tells the jury that Tom beat and raped her when, in fact, it was her father who beat her when he saw her hugging and kissing an African American. Her father told her what to say while on the stand and likely threatened to hurt her more if she refused. She told the jury what they wanted to hear, so it was an easy lie to tell. She lied to protect herself.

He lets them be children by giving them their freedom, but he also insists that they work hard and take care of each other. Atticus provides a good home and a strong caretaker in Calpurnia. He is a pillar of the community who is elected to the legislature every term unopposed. He values education and justice above all else, and he is open-hearted and open-minded. Heck, however, realizes that Boo killed Bob Ewell, and wants to cover up the truth to protect Boo.

Atticus is a highly principled man who values law and justice, but he is a man who values his relationship with his children even more. He is concerned that doing something so hypocritical will ruin his relationship with his children. Atticus would rather that Jem face some difficulties than think that his father did not hold him to the same standard as everyone else.

Atticus does not have that kind of relationship with Boo, and in fact likely owes Boo for the lives of both of his children, so Atticus is willing to accept that subjecting Boo to public scrutiny would be a mistake. Boo specifically asks Scout to take him home — his only spoken lines of dialogue in the entire novel, revealing that this character who has been a source of fear for so many of the townspeople, including Scout and Jem, is actually quite fearful himself.

Ace your assignments with our guide to To Kill a Mockingbird! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. How is Tom Robinson a mockingbird? With that conversation, Scout is further educated about prejudice and the negative consequences that result from it. When Bob Ewell takes the witness stand, Scout notes that the only thing "that made him better than his nearest neighbors was, that if scrubbed with lye soap in very hot water, his skin was white. Ewell testifies with the confidence of someone who knows he's already won.

If his case weren't so clear cut in his eyes, he wouldn't make lewd jokes when being questioned on the witness stand. The more sophisticated white people in Maycomb at least try to pretend that their prejudices don't run so deep, but Ewell is beyond this sort of genteel pretense.

He boldly tells Judge Taylor that he's "'asked this county for fifteen years to clean out that nest down yonder, they're dangerous to live around 'sides devaluin' my property — '" If a man's life were not at stake, Ewell's testimony would be laughable. No one — not even a neighborhood of "lower-class" blacks — can devalue a piece of property that is basically an extension of the town dump. And, the entire courtroom will soon realize that the danger actually lies in living close to the Ewells, not vice versa.

Atticus gently shows the injustice of Tom's situation throughout the court proceedings. For instance, Atticus makes a point of noting that even though Mayella was badly beaten and claimed to have been brutally raped, no doctor was ever called to the scene. When he asks Sheriff Tate why he didn't call a doctor, the answer is a simple "'It wasn't necessary, Mr. Something sho' happened, it was obvious. But Tom Robinson is a black man, so calling a doctor simply "wasn't necessary," another indicator of the deep-running prejudice that blacks in Maycomb live with every day.

Scout as well as Judge Taylor is genuinely surprised when Mayella claims that Atticus is mocking her. He is only treating her respectfully. That Lee chooses the word "mock" here is important. Mockingbirds repeat sounds they hear. They're like little echo machines. Atticus is only repeating the story as it really happened, but in this case, an echo is a very dangerous thing to Mayella. Lee describes Mayella as being like "a steady-eyed cat with a twitchy tail," which is ironic given that Tom is much like a mockingbird just trying to make her life easier and more enjoyable.

Cats hunt birds, and Lee's description is of a cat stalking prey. After Mayella's testimony, Scout suddenly understands that Mayella is "even lonelier than Boo Radley. During his closing argument, Atticus ties the questions of race and social station together. Making no judgement about Mayella, Atticus tells the jury that "'she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with.

What did she do? She tempted a Negro. Had Tom Robinson been a woman accused of seducing a white man, the outcome of the trial would be no different. How then, is Dolphus Raymond allowed to live and procreate with black women? He's white, he owns land, and he comes from a "fine old family. Ironically, Scout thinks of Mayella as facing the same problems that a mixed child deals with: "white people wouldn't have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn't have anything to do with her because she was white.

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