Kaela Lopez

Period 3
12/22/16
English
Argumentative Essay: To Kill a Mockingbird
If the world was interpreted as a post-racial depressed society, the world would be in
denial. As for in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, this huge issue motivates a mass of
dilemmas. Victims are discriminated through a racist society, yet they do no harm, and are even
sentenced to death. Even until this day, some people still have these controversial ideas about
prejudice, racism, and ongoing conversations in discriminatory ways. These concepts will never
be equally solved without compromise, and it is up for the world to decide. Society will conceive
their own opinions of how they comprehend the equality of the universe, but in the end were all
human.
Some people may say Mayella Ewell is considered as a mockingbird because she is an
innocent woman who received no respect. However, this is not true because Mayella was not one
destroyed by innocence. For instance, when Atticus is talking about Mayellas objective, he says,
I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her...She is the victim of cruel
poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: because she is white. (Lee, pg. 203) This shows
that Mayella Ewell clearly demonstrates how she tried to put the evidence of her offense away
from her. Tom Robinson, who was an innocent man, was the one put to jail because she was
white. She wanted Tom Robinson be to put away from her. By putting an innocent man to jail,
Mayella Ewell is not considered as a mockingbird.

Even so, one loses their innocence through contact with evil. Boo Radley is an example
of the amount of characters who portray this topic. In the beginning of the story us readers
assumed he had bad intentions. The reason in which he portrays that character in our minds was
because he is associated with the horrible rumors that spread in the Maycomb community. For
example, as Scout talks upon the memory of gifts, she states, Boo was our neighbor. He gave us
two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good luck pennies, and our lives....We never
put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing and it made me sad
(Lee, pg. 278) As Scout says this, it shows how she feels sorry for giving him nothing. The
children seem to make him brave and strong.
By the same token, Tom Robinson is also a mockingbird. As said by Atticus, And so a
quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to feel sorry for a white
woman has had to put his word against two white peoples. (Lee, pg. 204) This shows how Tom
Robinson is a mockingbird because he is an innocent person due to his kindness. He was the one
to give Mayella respect and in return, was sentenced to jail. Tom Robinson was an innocent man
and helped others around his community, but was discriminated and killed in a racist community.
Being a mockingbird demonstrates that you are pure, free from moral wrong and Tom Robinson
shows that because he never harmed anybody, but was destroyed by evil.
Lastly, Boo Radley and Tom Robinson clearly show that theyre mockingbirds. Both
characters are innocent, and overall, demonstrate this with their good intentions throughout the
book. Both prove that theyre innocent in valuable ways that also taught us readers a few lessons
that it is important to not treat people upon prejudices.