Subalternity and Silence in Harper Lee’s Novel To Kill a Mockingbird

Abstract

This research studies Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird from the perspective of Subaltern Studies and subaltern silence. The novel tells the story of number of subaltern characters systematically silenced in the Southern American society of Maycomb. Even though number of characters fall under subaltern category, this research analyzes the subalternity of black character Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson faces court trial in the charge of raping a white woman Mayella. The narrator of the novel is teenage a white girl named Scout whose father Atticus Finch fights the case to save the innocent black man. Even when proofs point out that he is innocent, the court has to declare him guilty because of the social expectation and racist belief that the blacks should never secure a win over the white people. Tom cannot speak against the white, white lawyer has to speak for him but even then, he is not heard speaking by himself or by the means of his generous lawyer. He is imprisoned and shot dead by the white police devising his fake attempt to escape.