To Kill a Mockingbird contains a lot of themes regarding the issue of discrimination in regards to disability. In an attempt to demonstrate the struggle that many disabled people go through, Lee’s narrative focuses on a disabled African American man struggling to find his way through a trial of a crime he didn’t commit. This has especially been apparent by the fact that he was both African American and disabled. To Kill a Mockingbird centers on themes of the present discrimination within disability as seen in Tom’s discrimination, Boo Radley’s struggle to unveil himself, and the treatment Atticus receives for supporting Tom.
For the bulk of the book, Tom ultimately is the one that receives the most amount of discrimination for being African American. This is shown most clearly through the trial that he is forced to be a part of. Throughout the trial, Tom finds that he is treated unfairly, most of the evidence being against him. In one of the arguments that is made against him, “Tom Robinson hesitated , searching for an answer, ‘Looked like she didn’t have anybody to help her, I says’” (Lee 204). In this scene, the pressure that Tom feels shows how much of the court is biased against him. This is further exemplified through some of the names that the judge calls him, such as “But you weren’t in a fix—you testified you were resisting miss Ewell. Were you so scared that she’d hurt you, a big buck like you?” (Lee 225). The derogatory term of “big buck” demonstrates how Tom was judged by his appearance. Tom’s race and disability prevented him from getting fair treatment. Ultimately it is sad that these were the defining traits that the judge saw, preventing him from becoming more acquainted with Tom. It shows the extra weight that race holds with disability.
Another aspect that Harper Lee tries to put a lot of emphasis on is the isolation disabled people go through. This exhibits itself through the life of Boo Radley. In the beginning of the book, Scout described “the Radley’s kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb” (Lee 14). Considering that isolation was an unforgivable predilection, it shows how Boo Radley was discriminated based on a mental illness that he had. Lee uses Boo to show the struggles he had with his disability interfered with his communication with the people in the society. After some time, Boo comes out and Scout come to have a more mutual understanding towards him, especially after he took care of Jem. With this, Scout says “The Radley’s place had ceased to terrify me, but it was no less gloomy” (Lee 247). This goes to show that she has overcome her initial fears and speculations she had of Boo Radley. Ultimately she came to have a more mutual understanding for Boo because she came to know him as a person. Unfortunately, based on the fact she still saw gloom on the house, the rest of society probably would never come to accept Boo Radley for who he really was. No matter how hard he tried, he would always be alienated for his disability by the greater society. This shows that the disability he had will always leave a mark on his social standing. The development of Scout’s understanding towards Boo Radley demonstrates how misunderstood many people with disabilities are.
Finally, Lee tries to expose how the insults of one individual can affect the welfare of the other. Through the character of Atticus Finch, it is seen that he is insulted because he does not believe that Tom did any wrong. When he is talking to Jem and Scout about how he was insulted by two other men for his defense of Tom, he states “‘There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn’t be fair if they tried’” (Lee 238). In this sense, he is saying that people exist within their own independent selves, unable to understand anything that is outside of it. This applies to Lee’s theme of the stigmatization of disability because the reason most of the disabled characters are misunderstood has to do with the fact that people do not want to comprehend an individual that is different. The reason people like Tom received an unfair trial without good evidence had to do with how they refused to understand his status as a disabled and African American person. Because Atticus was the only person that was willing to understand Tom, he too becomes stigmatized since they view that he is sympathizing with someone that is otherwise considered a disgrace to their society. Atticus goes further with this when he states “ ‘There is nothing more sickening than a low-grade white man who’ll take advantage of a negro’s ignorance’” (Lee 252). In this statement, Atticus is saying that a lot of white people seem to assume that African Americans are not that smart and easy to take advantage of. However, because Atticus is the only one that is able to understand that this is just a presumption, he gets made fun of for it because he has grown to see the holes within the white individual’s thinking. In this case, popular thinking tends to blind people because it is not based upon reasonable facts or logic. Instead, a lot of it is based on myth and unreliable data. The reason that Tom Robinson is accused of rape in the first place has a lot to do with the nature of his social standing over anything that he has done in the past. In the same vein, because Atticus is able to overcome these falsehoods, he is able to see the truth; however, it is not without the cost of losing the respect others once had of him.
To conclude, To Kill a Mockingbird carries many of the same weight that other literary works involving disability do. Many of the characters within the book find themselves becoming ostracized and being social outcasts because they do not have the means necessary to recover form the plight they are in. Most of the social woes that the characters of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson suffer from is because of their disability. All in all, To Kill a Mockingbird is very insightful with how it handles the frailties of disability.
Work Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Harperprennial. New York, New York. Modern Classics,
2002. Print.
Words: 1071
I pledge-
Daniel
