Sometimes the use of a fiction story can help people realize things. Just from reading a novel you can make a change in society. A novel I have read that I think really influenced change in our world today is, To Kill A Mockingbird. It deals with the issues of racism not only throughout the town but also in the courthouse. Also it deals with putting yourself in other people’s shoes.
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, a big issue that is dealt with is racism especially in throughout the town of Maycomb in the book. Racism was out of control during the time of the novel was written. It shows how throughout the town, the people would not black people be educated, they were forced to go to different churches, some black people worked as domestic servants or had poorly paid jobs. Black people were treated like dirt on the bottom of a white person’s shoe. Honestly the worst of it all was that if a black person was sent to court for doing something to a white person and it was false chances were that the court would find the black person guilty over the white person.
Before Tom Robinson’s trial who is the black person in the novel there is a lot of racism towards the blacks. Whites are given more rights than the blacks because they can get successful jobs and can make black people’s lives misery by lying in court under oath about serious matters which can end up getting the black person killed. In this novel Tom Robinson is pleaded guilty even though his lawyer Atticus found strong evidence to show that he is innocent. Tom was pleaded guilty because it was a black man’s word over a white mans and in that day blacks weren’t believed of anything they said. After the trial racism still existed but not as much. We are lucky that in today’s society racism isn’t as bad as it was and that black and white people both have equal rights. But not only does this novel show how poorly black people were treated it also showed how poorly certain white people were too like the character Boo Radley.
Sometimes you have to put yourself in other people’s shoes and learn to walk around in them says character Atticus Finch in To KIll A Mockingbird. The character Boo Radley also came from a very prejudice and unfair judgment background like Tom. Boo Radley was a man who was never seen out of his house. Since the people of the town saw that he was different than them they thought he was bad. Boo had no chance to stand up for himself because he always stayed inside. Like Tom Robinson, Boo Radley is characterized by what the people of Maycomb county say about him. After many years of thinking Boo Radley as a scary bad person characters Jem and Scout come to realization how nice and thoughtful he really is when he saves Scout’s life. The lesson they learned that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover like they judged Boo before they really got to know him. This situation really influenced change on society today on how we see other people in the world.
As you can see, the book To Kill A Mockingbird had a pretty big impact on today’s society. It’s funny how one fiction novel can change the way people in the world act and make them come to realization that nobody’s perfect even themselves.
