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Examples Of Ignorance In To Kill A Mockingbird

Decent Essays

Ignorance Constructs Fear

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that revolves around Harper Lee’s perspective on innocence and ignorance. Harper Lee utilizes this ideology to demonstrate how children are influenced by individuals that surround them. The novel is centered around the trial of Tom Robinson and the aura of suspicion surrounding Boo Radley. Lee uses Scout’s interactions with various individuals throughout the novel to convey that fear is created from ignorance and innocence.
Firstly, Lee utilizes Boo Radley’s character to express the ignorance the town has towards him and how it instills fear. The name, Boo was created from the interpretation of him being a scary individual. Towards the beginning of the novel, the narrator introduced Boo as “a malevolent phantom”(Lee 10). The town, Maycomb, had a bias against him which resulted in him being framed as an antagonist for a single wrongdoing. He may have a mental issue, but the townspeople are ignorant, they frame him up as an antagonist since he proceeded with one incorrect action. As the novel continues onwards …show more content…

She was introduced as “ a mean lady”(132), she instilled an aura of fear in the kids through her callous comments towards Atticus which the children took to heart. They did not understand that Ms. Dubose was a “morphine addict”(147), which was the reason she said those mean comments without knowing. They walked away from her comments without knowing the reason why she said them. Later, Jem destroyed her garden after some of her mean remarks, he was then told to by Atticus to go to her house every day and read to her. After a few weeks of reading to her, he realized that she was sick. He then felt the slightest of sorries for her, but he still hated her. The ignorance towards her by Jem before he knew of her illness caused them to think of her as a monster. In addition to Ms.Dubose, Tom Robinson continues to emphasize how ignorance leads to

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