The text I have chosen is the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The novel takes place in the 30s, and one of the major plot points involves the protagonist’s father, Atticus Finch, defending a black man,”Boo” Radley, in court who has been falsely accused of rape. This ultimately ends in failure however, as the man ends up convicted. The novel deals with themes of racial inequality, as can be seen by the court convicting Radley despite there being little evidence to do so. It is shown that the other members of the town do not seem to care about the evidence that Atticus provides, but have already made up their minds because Radley is black. However, one issue with the book is its relatively simple way of looking at the morality of its characters in regards to racism. The richer, educated white people are shown to be good, while the poorer, less-educated white people are shown to be bad. This ignores the complexities of how racism starts and seems to imply that it stems solely from a lack of education or being in a lower place in society. Additionally, the plot of Atticus attempting to defend Radley from a racist court system can be considered an example of a “white savior” narrative, where a white character steps in to help non-white character(s), who are often shown as being unable to help themselves. This can be seen in the novel as the black characters rarely have any opinions on the racism that permeates society around them, and instead just say their thanks to the white characters that do help them. That being said however, the book was released in the 60s, during the civil rights movement, and had a significant impact on how many white people viewed race relations. Its fairly simplistic view on racism certainly helped it when it was released, and race relations were reaching a turning point, even if the outlook it has may seem somewhat naive today.