Conscience In To Kill A Mockingbird

Conscience is the voice viewed as a guide to the rightness and wrongness in one character and behavior, and in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the brother of the narrator, Jem, changes throughout the story and realizes that the conscience of plenty of the residents in Maycomb is disturbing and wrong. When Atticus said “…before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience” (105). Jem represented the theme by having his conscience is not affected by other’s, and Jem found himself, by himself. Why is conscience not affected by others? Well, since a person is the only decider of how they act and how they feel about what happens around them, it is decided
Because of his refusal, Jem is against the status quo, since his conscience tells him that lynching Tom Robinson isn’t correct, even if he was accused of rape. Jem knows that Tom has not been proven guilty and hasn’t been given a fair trial, so Tom Robinson should not be sentenced to death, by those who aren’t the judges of the court. Jem knows that lynching is not moral, and Jem is a moral
His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. ‘It ain’t right’” (242). Jem was upset that Tom Robinson was sent to jail for something that he didn’t do, while others thought it was great since Tom Robinson insulted what they thought was a picture of a “good southern white woman”. Jem’s personal belief that people should get a fair trial broke the status quo because most believed that an African American man such as Tom Robinson, didn’t deserve as such, since they were racist. “Face was streaked with tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd” (242). Racism is a problem where a person of one race has prejudice and believes in stereotypes of the other, usually believing the other is lesser, and Jem could see this, however some might not see it that way. Others may say the only reason that Jem was crying, is because his dad lost the court case, this, however, is not the case. Jem is quite clearly quoted saying that “It ain’t right”, so he believes the outcome is not fair for Tom Robinson, and has empathy for him, as he has pity and knows how Tom Robinson feels. So, Jem is against the status quo, because he decided to go against what others thought and supported the African American residents of Maycomb. Jem’s personal belief that people should get a fair trial broke the status quo, Jem’s