Harper Lee shows her moral position in to kill a mockingbird through the use of characters. An example of a character is Atticus, because he stands up for Tom Robinson, who is a black man that is claimed to have raped a white women. At the time this was written there was a lot of prejudice towards the black community in the U.S and they were considered to be inferior to white people. Atticus knows that in a world full of prejudice towards black people Tom Robinson would definitely be charged with rape. However, Atticus’s moral compass guides him to the right path which is to help Tom Robinson as it seems that he is actually innocent, even if the whole community is racist towards black people. This shows that even if Atticus thinks he will not succeed he will still attempt to fight against the racism of Maycomb county. Atticus is questioned about why he is helping Tom Robinson and he replies says “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.”
Harper Lee shows the story through Scout’s eyes, who is an innocent young girl and the story is shown through her point of view. Scout does notice there is racism but she does not question it. Everything that happens is reported from Scout, she knows that her father wants to help Tom Robinson, however she does not question it. Harper Lee uses Scout to show racism, because a young girl can not be blamed for the things she sees. The audience can see that Scout is naive, and the readers decide their own point of view, as she does not really have one herself. Scout does not really question the events that happen to her, but she just lives through them.
These two characters reflect Harper Lee’s moral position, because Harper Lee lived through a racist era in the U.S and the characters show her moral position as Atticus is very fair to people and Scout shows her opinion as she is the one that witnesses all the racism and prejudice. Harper Lee prefers to express her moral position by allowing the audience to discover it for themselves rather than being direct to the audience. The author does through the use of her characters, but also that they are sympathetic, a good example of this is Atticus. This way Harper Lee allows the readers to gradually develop their idea on racism, furthermore discover Harper Lee’s moral position.
React!