The Themes of Truth and Justice in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

This essay delves into the critical themes of truth and justice as portrayed in Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird." It examines the societal context of racial injustice in 1930s Alabama and Atticus Finch's courageous, yet ultimately unsuccessful, defense of a black man wrongly accused. The essay highlights the importance of truth, even in the face of overwhelming prejudice and a biased judicial system, drawing parallels to real-life cases like that of Johnny Lee Gates. The essay underscores the novel's enduring relevance in addressing issues of racial discrimination and the ongoing struggle for justice in contemporary society, citing scholarly sources to support its analysis. The essay further analyzes the novel from the perspective of the narrator and discusses how the themes of rape, social injustice, and others are redolent in the novel.

Running head: TRUTH AND JUSTICE
TRUTH AND JUSTICE IN THE NOVEL “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”
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Author’s Note:

1TRUTH AND JUSTICE
Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960) is widely considered to be one of
the classics of the American Literature and was even awarded the Pulitzer Prize1. The novel
is largely autobiographical in nature and highlights the incidents of 1936 in Monroeville,
Alabama which Lee herself faced as a 10-year old age child2. The novel represents the
wrongful conviction of a black man for a murder and the manner in which the narrator’s
father Atticus Finch tries to help the convicted man to get justice.
Merumesenaka3 is of the viewpoint that although the novel has been told from the
perspective of the narrator, who is just a 10-year old girl in the novel, yet at the same time it
is seen that the novel is redolent with some serious themes like truth, justice, rape, social
injustice and others. According to Johnson4, “In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird
is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its main character,
Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism”.
The theme of justice and truth becomes apparent in the stand which Atticus takes for
the black man who is charged with rape and murder and his decision to not give up the case
despite the building social pressure that he and his family had to endure5. This standpoint of
Atticus is being appreciated by the black community who had received nothing but
discrimination and inhumane treatment from the white-skinned people and becomes apparent
from the line “We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right.
1 Porsdam, Helle. "Literary Representation and Social Justice in an Age of Civil Rights: Harper Lee’s To Kill a
Mockingbird." Law and Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 255-272.
2 Johnson, Claudia Durst. Reading Harper Lee: Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman.
ABC-CLIO, 2018.
3 Merumesenaka, S. "New Waves in Language and Literature Inhumanity of Man in Harper Lee’s Novel to Kill
a Mocking Bird." IJELLH (International Journal of English Language, Literature in Humanities) 7.3 (2019): 7-
7.
4 Johnson, Claudia Durst. Reading Harper Lee: Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman.
ABC-CLIO, 2018.
5 Baggett, J. Mark. "Tumbling out of the Beautiful Dream: Go Set a Watchman and Harper Lee's
Legacy." Cumb. L. Rev. 47 (2016): 3.

2TRUTH AND JUSTICE
It's that simple”6. More importantly, Atticus himself knows that because of the societal
pressure and also the nature of the judicial system of the nation trying to help the black-
skinned man to get justice and bring to light the truth regarding the incident would not be an
easy task7. In this regard, trying to sum up his courage he says “Real courage is when you
know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter
what”8. It is true that Atticus fails to achieve his desired aim in the novel yet at the same time
it is seen that albeit in a small manner he is able to bring in a substantial amount of change
and people become aware regarding the concepts of justice and truth which itself is an
achievement for him9.
The manner in which the black man in the novel under discussion here was convicted
and persecuted is similar to the kind of treatment which had been meted out to Johnny Lee
Gates in the nation of USA. In 1977, Gates, intellectually disabled black man, was arrested
for the alleged rape and subsequent murder of a white woman in Georgia although he
completely denied and despite the fact that the police could not produce any substantial
evidence against him an all-white jury convicted him under the “Antiterrorism and Effective
Death Penalty Act”10. However, Judge John Allen in his recent review of the case clearly
stated that “The evidence of systematic race discrimination during jury selection in this case
is undeniable” and even after spending more than 30 years in the prison for a crime which
6 Lee, Harper. To kill a mockingbird. Random House, 2010.
7 Holmes, Sierra. "Cross-Examining To Kill a Mockingbird: Three Questions Raised by Go Set a
Watchman." Language Arts Journal of Michigan 31.1 (2015): 11.
8 Lee, Harper. To kill a mockingbird. Random House, 2010.
9 Sinclair, Meredith N. "Decolonizing ELA: Confronting Privilege and Oppression in Textual Spaces." English
Journal 107.6 (2018): 89-94.
10 Cohen, Andrew. "Why This Victim Of Blatant Racial Discrimination Struggled To Get A Fair Trial". 2019,
https://newrepublic.com/article/153000/victim-blatant-racial-discrimination-struggled-get-fair-trial.

3TRUTH AND JUSTICE
Gates had not committed he had to stay in prison because of the bias and racism that the
black people had to face in USA and within the spectrum of its judiciary system11.
To conclude, the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is an integral part of the American
literature and its major themes like truth and justice, racism and others are still valid in the
present time. For example, the conviction and treatment meted out to Gates clearly indicates
the bias as well as the deprivation in terms of justice which the black people have to face
even in the 21st century.
11 Cohen, Andrew. "Why This Victim Of Blatant Racial Discrimination Struggled To Get A Fair Trial". 2019,
https://newrepublic.com/article/153000/victim-blatant-racial-discrimination-struggled-get-fair-trial.

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References
Baggett, J. Mark. "Tumbling out of the Beautiful Dream: Go Set a Watchman and Harper
Lee's Legacy." Cumb. L. Rev. 47 (2016): 3.
Cohen, Andrew. "Why This Victim Of Blatant Racial Discrimination Struggled To Get A
Fair Trial". 2019, https://newrepublic.com/article/153000/victim-blatant-racial-
discrimination-struggled-get-fair-trial.
Holmes, Sierra. "Cross-Examining To Kill a Mockingbird: Three Questions Raised by Go Set
a Watchman." Language Arts Journal of Michigan 31.1 (2015): 11.
Johnson, Claudia Durst. Reading Harper Lee: Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird and Go
Set a Watchman. ABC-CLIO, 2018.
Lee, Harper. To kill a mockingbird. Random House, 2010.
Merumesenaka, S. "New Waves in Language and Literature Inhumanity of Man in Harper
Lee’s Novel to Kill a Mocking Bird." IJELLH (International Journal of English Language,
Literature in Humanities) 7.3 (2019): 7-7.
Porsdam, Helle. "Literary Representation and Social Justice in an Age of Civil Rights: Harper
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird." Law and Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 255-
272.
Sinclair, Meredith N. "Decolonizing ELA: Confronting Privilege and Oppression in Textual
Spaces." English Journal 107.6 (2018): 89-94.