To Kill A Mockingbird - Movie Analysis Essay

Introduction

The selected movie is an adaptation of Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird". The 1962 American drama film, was directed by Robert Mulligan. In the movie, a six-yield old Jean Louise Finch (Scout)narrates events that she witnessed in her town in Alabama. The case was a controversial trial in which her father defended a black man who was accused of allegedly raping a white woman. In the story, the gradual moral awakening of finch and her sibling Jeremy, (Jem), as they come to lend of their father's courage to defend a black man against the backdrop of increasing dishonesty in the court of law (Mulligan). Atticus Finch resisted the pressures of the Alabama biopsy and injustice by defending the unpopular views and in the process imparting strong moral values to his children hoping to help the overcome Maycomb's usual diseases of overt racism, classism and gender discrimination.

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A Description of the Type of Criminal Court Proceeding Observed.

The toe of criminal court proceeding includes the criminal trial in which the offense is tried by the court in the original authority (Mulligan) The accuse discharged with a capital offense and thus he is assigning a counsel (Atticus) based on the legal assistance scheme for capital offenses of rape to defend him.

Similarity Between Each State of the Proceeding and the Description in the Textbook.In this case, the complainant, Bob Ewell filed a court case against Tom Robinson, accusing him of assaulting and raping his daughter. A plaintiff is a white man; thus, he has white privileges which include faster response to the case. After describing the suit, Tom is summoned to the court. After the summon, the evidence in the case is filed by both the defendant. In this criminal court, Atticus must defend tom in an all-white jury where race, class, and sex prejudice reigns. The jury wrongfully holds that Tom, the African American with the disabled left hand is the one who assaulted Mayella Ewell. However, Atticus holds that it is bob Ewell, Mayella's father who assaulted her since the Bob Ewell is left-handed. In Maycomb, the race is only the other social problems that should be addressed but also a class that created the caste systems that underlies the Maycomb functions.

The caste systems play the same role as that of superstition, education, and racial discrimination. These social systems are maintained that way to help in maintaining a sense of security. In protecting the security of the white women, the nigger is seen as mythic, lusty, and hotblooded. Any white woman who falls in love with a nigger is considered white trash. The case is settled inside the court as Atticus destroys Ewell's last shred of credibility at that court when tom argues that Ewell's daughter had previously kissed Tom against his will. Tom also stated that he had gone to Ewells property to assists his daughter with some chores despite the white being superior to the black. The trial takes place and tom is convicted of the crime of rape and assaulting a white lady. He is sentenced to life in prison and not allowed to appeal the court's decision and even his right to appeal is denied.

Description of the Difference Between Each Stage of the Court Proceeding and Textbook

There are six stages in the criminal court proceeding. At the beginning of the case, tom is arrested by the police because there was a problem cause that he committed a crime and within the first twenty-four hours he is brought before a judge for his initial appearance. The judge determines toms name and address then informed him of the charges against him and read him his Miranda rights. The judge is the one who appointed an attorney to defend him. In the preliminary hearing, the evidence presented to the judge. The judge determined that there was enough evidence to prove that Tom may have committed the crime. Tom was held for trial in the high court and the data for arraignment was set. During the arraignment, the defendant was not allowed to enter a plea of not guilty and a date to sentence tom was set (Potyk and Swanson 100). While the opening statement was supposed to be made by both sides but in this case, the opening statement was made by the prosecuting attorney only. It evident that Toms's case was decided even before the jury sat to hear the case. The jury was prejudiced because Tom was a black man in the white-only jury. Positive law can act on different and conflicting ideas.

Within the national level standard, the United States law and regulations tend to view the natural law in the form through which it guarantees citizens equality and freedom. However, what has been presented forth to a Mockingbird, several states together with the local laws within deep South had the intention of the preservation at all cost in case the white power would have been structured in a way that perpetuates discrimination and racism (Potyk and Swanson 100). This would have been operational in the case that it would have been in opposition to both natural law and the constitutional guarantee which is collectively referred to as the Jim Craws Laws.

The laws only had a proper capability over a considerable period mainly to undercut the negate the underlying natural laws and to cut short the constitutional guarantees by proving a separate but equal rate of accommodation to both the black and the whites. The main intention of the application of this kind of idea was to minimize the rate of racism that was being realized. Therefore to Kill the Mockingbird tends to reflect the natural laws and the belief that human beings are always sustained, motivated and improved by a good positive law that offers good governance to each citizen in a given country.

Conclusion

In the movie, there is adequate evidence that art imitates life. mimesis is the poetic concept in which art simulates life by reducing life to an instructive schematic. The movie reflects life in the then Alabama at a time when negroes were animals. The movie is a direct impression of life. prejudice along class, race, and sex was common in ancient Alabama such as when a black man was not expected to be associated with a white man unless in the context of mater servant relationship. Black men were a scapegoat that could be used to defend the white man's shortcomings. Civilization, therefore, rests on the respect and adherence to the law and as a result, it brings forth moral values that reflect the moral law. Human beings can do good and evil and the only guiding and controlling factor against the vagaries of human beings is the rule of law. But for the rules and regulations to be effective they must conform to the required standard of moral laws and standard legal proceedings. In the review in To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch tends to represent the moral laws, as the main sanction of moral thinking and the same is reflected in the constitutional guarantees of, fairness, justice, equality and the respect for the rule of law.

References

Mulligan, Robert. To Kill A Mockingbird Official Trailer #1 - Gregory Peck Movie (1962) HD. 2011. Web. 11 Feb. 2020.

Potyk, Darryl, and Judy Swanson. "A Lesson from The Mockingbird: Patient Autonomy In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird." The American Journal of Medicine 127.1 (2014): 100. Web.

Raljevic, Selma. "To Kill Or Not To Kill A Mockingbird: Rethinking Harper Lee'S Question." Filolog - casopis za jezik knjizevnost i kulturu 21.11 (2016): 430-441. Web.