To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird

I decided to do my chapter summary on To Kill A Mockingbird because in the book, it shows a lot of racism and it shows that when people are raised to hate something, like a race, they hate it even though they have no reason to hate it. This book shows what most people in the mid 1900's felt like towards African Americans.

In this book, the racism shows in many ways. There are a lot of people who say things casually, but it would be a very bad thing to say at the present time. For example, a lot of people all throughout the book would refer to African Americans as niggers. It was a very common thing to do and it was just like calling them African American in the present time. Nowadays though, to say the word nigger is a very derogatory thing to say to anyone, but especially an African American. Also, people would call African Americans boy all the time. Now, that may not be a very bad thing to say to a younger boy, but they would refer to adult men as boy, and that would be very disrespectful. Adults would not like to be referred to as boy because they would want to be treated as equals, not some boy to everyone.

People in mid 1900's did not like to associate themselves with an African American if they could help it. So when it came to having to provide a lawyer to an African American by the name of Tom Robinson, no one wanted to be his lawyer, all because he was black. So, a nice, decent, respectable man by the name of Atticus Finch decided to take the job for this poor man and that he would help prove him innocent. A lot of people disliked and even hated Mr. Finch because of his choice to protect an innocent African American. But Atticus didn't do it to make friends, he did it because he knew it was right and he knew if he didn't try, then Tom Robinson was, without a doubt, going to jail or he could even put to death.

Tom Robinson was being tried because he was accused of beating and raping a young white girl by the name of Mayella Violet Ewell. Her father, the accuser, was a big husky man that went by Mr. Ewell. Now, as Miss Mayella was called up to the stands, their was something oddly finicky about her. Atticus Finch began the questioning of Miss Mayella and he noticed that her story kept changing. He would ask her if Tom Robinson beat her and she would say yes. Then he would ask when she was beat, and she would say