Monroeville, Alabama, is a town in Monroe County known as being the hometown of author Harper Lee, and her book “To Kill a Mockingbird” which brings some spotlight on this small town. This is where the production of the film adaptation of the book brought the famous actor Gregory Peck to do some scenes as the character Atticus Finch, a white lawyer who bravely defended an innocent black man. Stevenson highlights the irony of Monroeville as being the birthplace of Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the town of Walter McMillian, a black man, wrongfully convicted of murder as his story shows a lot of similarities to the character Tom Robinson. In Lee’s book, Robinson is a black man convicted of false accusations of rape involving a white woman. This parallelism between a fictional story and real life brings up a few realities of race and justice in the south which have become a serious issue in many southern states. When thinking about the issue, nothing has really changed much to notice a difference, but also the fact that it is tricky to suggest something completely different if the root of one’s belief growing up believing throughout one’s whole life is really hard to change such perspective.
The change in how the community sees a situation is difficult for this town’s history, where there are many hidden dark truths of racial inequality and bias that leads to how the people see Walter and target him. The similarities between the novel’s plot and the circumstances Walter is facing is obvious, where an innocent black man is convicted of a crime he did not commit. For example when Stevenson mentions the “Nostalgia about Lee’s story grew as the harder truths of the book took no root” (Stevenson, pg 23) this leads to a reference of a deeper meaning the book represents that no one considers about. Where the story became a well known award-winning national bestseller, its message on prejudices and racism did not have a deeper effect on changing the perspectives of the people on what the issue meant in real life.
Tom Robinson was not successfully defended by Atticus and was found guilty (Stevenson, pg 23) this emphasizes the issue that the despite having the facts proven by Atticus Finch that Robinson was an innocent man the true meaning of the book is that racial prejudices run deep. This means that despite having the facts of proof of innocence, the court cannot overcome their personal beliefs to see the truth and still convict a person based on the color of their skin, not their character. Providing context of Walter’s life story and also a context for understanding the racial hierarchy that underlies the events and attitudes surrounding his trial and conviction. With… Walter’s conviction becomes unfair because of the communities fear of …
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