To Kill a Mockingbird Group

Question:

focuslearnjessica
focuslearnje...
Student
High School - 9th Grade

In Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," why is it unusual that Atticus is defending Tom?

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Posted by focuslearnjessica on Friday December 12, 2008 at 6:33 AM and tagged with defense, innocence, justice, to kill a mockingbird, trial.

Answers:


  1. notshawteeedooowop Student
    High School - 9th Grade

    Well most people wouldn't expect it in that time because tom was black.

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    Posted by notshawteeedooowop on Friday December 12, 2008 at 6:40 AM

  2. parkerlee
    parkerlee Teacher

    eNotes Editor

    Legally speaking, it's not. Atticus was appointed Tom Robinson's case by Judge Taylor, and he accepted to take on the case according to protocol.

    What's unusual is Atticus's determination to defend Tom and prove his innocence. Atticus can see through the Evell's dissimulation and he knows only to well how deeply entrenched in racial prejudice the people of Maycomb really are.

    Atticus will have no part of a kangaroo court going through the motions of a trial, and this is the real conflict of the story.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/mockingbird/

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    Posted by parkerlee on Friday December 12, 2008 at 6:49 AM


  3. engtchr5 Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Atticus has been appointed to defend Tom, but his veracity in doing so is what makes his stance unusual: At this time in American History, blacks and whites were racially segregated, and prejudice was very strong on both sides of the color line.

    Atticus proves to be the exception to that rule, as his defense of Tom Robinson is done with great professionalism and perseverance. For a white man of the 1930s south to defend an African-American in such a way was unheard of, at the very least.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/mockingbird/

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    Posted by engtchr5 on Friday December 12, 2008 at 7:57 AM

  4. vitale
    vitale Teacher
    Graduate School

    Atticus's character is made very clear from the beginning of the novel...therefore it is not unusual for him to defend Tom. Atticus is too honorable not to....

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    Posted by vitale on Friday December 12, 2008 at 1:46 PM