A victor can be defined as the winner or conqueror over an opponent or situation. The opposite of this is a victim, which means someone who loses or is disadvantaged by a situation or a person with selfish aims. However, in the book these titles are not earned in a competition, but largely by a persons social status. Atticus Finch, Dolphus Raymond, Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell are characters that represent victor or victim.

Obviously a victor, Atticus Finch is a tolerant and accepting man who looks to the good will of all people and recognises everyone for who they are. He is moralistic and passes this trait onto his children, Scout and Jem. Despite the social structure of the time, Atticus strongly believed in equality throughout the human race. An example of this would be his passion in the Tom

Robinson case. Atticus represented Tom Robinson wholeheartedly, fighting for true justice, all along knowing the odds were against him. This attitude is evident when he said to Scout, "This case, Tom Robinson's case, is something that goes to the essence of a mans conscience - Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man."p116. Throughout the novel Atticus showed many more acts of an unbiased nature, he is a true victor.

Even though Tom Robinson's and Mayella Ewells lives differed in circumstance and outcome they were both victims of Maycombs' social order. Mayella was potentially a good person, unfortunately her upbringing had a great impact on her attitude to life. Because she was mistreated as a child, Mayella grew up unaware of anything but the abusive foundations of her childhood. Tom, however was a good person but did not have the opportunity to express compassion towards other people. Because he was black, Tom was expected to abide by different ethics to white people. Despite his innocence Tom was convicted against and in the end was killed, this punishment was incomparable to the guilt that Mayella had to live with for the rest of her life knowing she had put an innocent man to his death. There was little comparison between Mayella and Tom, however they both had a great impact on each others lives.

Racial inequality was so common in the 1920's that it was looked down upon to accept black people and to treat them in a fair manner. Fortunately the human race has progressed in a positiv

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Approximate Word count = 1037
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)