To Kill a Mockingbird is essentially a bleak novel.
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is a comprehensive, tragic and overwhelming novel, but it is not essentially bleak. When Tom dies it demolishes any hope of justice prevailing, as he is cruelly mistreated in what is meant to be an unbiased environment, the court. Although however heartbreaking Tom's death is, it is an essential component in this novel. The incident makes readers think about Atticus" final speech in the court, at the time the speech is not fully considered by the readers but when Tom dies the speech gives the readers a sense of responsibility.
Many things happen during the novel that may make it seem to be bleak. There are many drab incidents with Boo Radley and he never comes out of his house. Mrs Dubose yells at the children as they walk pass, she is dying and is in a lot of pain but the stories about her are bleak and obscure. Yet even though they are bleak own their own they are useful in the scheme of things. The stories are sad on their own but when put together with each other and the themes, the reader can learn a lot from each of the occurrences. Boo Radley chooses to save Jem and Scout after everything they have put him through, he lives a good life even though he hasn't been treated correctly. Mrs Dubose does all she can to obtain freedom in death; she is fighting an uphill battle of drug addiction. To Kill a Mockingbird cannot be a bleak novel if the reader is learning from the text.
Tom's death was a total devastation in the novel. It brought sadness over Maycomb county and every reader to ever pick up To Kill a Mockingbird. The tragic loss of life was amplified by the fact that Tom Robinson was totally and clearly innocent. Yet Tom was thrown in jail or raping Mayella Ewell. He was killed trying to escape that jail which he was wrongfully imprisoned in, shot in the back by an unjust white man law system. In this way To Kill a Mockingbird is an emotional and tragic novel.
