Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

“Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice, and a profound tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there” ~ Scott Peck. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird abounds with the injustice produced by social, gender, and racial prejudice. The setting of the book takes place in the 1930s, where racism is a big deal in society. In the novel Harper Lee uses a mockingbird as an analogy to the characters. The Mockingbird is a symbol for Three Characters in the book, Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. The people of Maycomb only know Boo Radley and Tom Robinson by what others say about them. These Characters are then characterized by other people 's viewpoints. In the novel there are many themes that are adjacent to our lives, the one that is found in To Kill A Mockingbird is Human Conflict comes from the inability for one to understand another. “ You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (39)

Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is the story of two children coming of age and learning about their hometown and the whole world. The two children in the story are Jem and Scout Finch. Jem and Scout live with their father, Atticus, in Maycomb County. Throughout the story, many problems arise which teach both children about bravery. The three bravest characters in the novel include their neighbor Mrs. Dubose, a convicted black man named Tom Robinson, and their father Atticus.

She would get a better understanding of this as the novel progresses. Scout also learns more about maturity when she experiences hypocrisy from her teacher, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Pre-ju-dice,” She is contradicting herself, saying that it is acceptable to persecute blacks but not Jews. It dawned on Scout that people are hypocrites and have double standards when it suits them. The biggest step the children took towards growing up was during the Tom Robinson trials. There, the children received full exposure to the evils, malevolence, prejudice and sorrow of the cruel world as a white man accuses an innocent black man for raping when all Tom ever wanted to achieve was to help others. The children understood what was going on completely and was therefore changed because of it. At the unexpected climax of the novel, the children have an unpleasant encounter with Bob Ewell who wanted to take revenge on Atticus for humiliating him by killing his children. This was an absolutely outrageous act of insanity but also taught the children how dangerous reality could be, finalizing their journey into adulthood.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been banned and/or challenged over thirty times since its publication in 1960. Effectively preventing many students from enjoying the novel and benefitting from its message. To ignore racism is no different than denying it ever existed. To Kill a Mockingbird is appropriate for mature adolescence/students and should not be banned from schools. Despite its sexual related content, or profanity, a valuable lesson remains that should be taught to students.

Jem comes to the conclusion that there is jealousy and discrimination in Maycomb county. Even though Scout is never sure about the outcome of the trial, Jem displays unequaled faith in his father's lawyering skills. Tom’s impaired arm made him unable to beat and rape Mayella. Jem was aware of this, and disagreed with the jury’s conclusion. During the trial, Jem revealed to Scout positive words numerous times.

Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” is set in a small, southern town, Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The story is told through the eyes of a girl named Scout about her father, Atticus, an attorney who strives to prove the innocence of a black man named Tom Robinson, who was accused of rape and Boo Radley, an enigmatic neighbor who saves Scout and her brother Jem from being killed. Atticus does his job in proving there was no way that Tom Robinson was guilty during his trial, but despite Tom Robinson’s obvious innocence, he is convicted of rape as it is his word against a white woman’s. Believing a “black man’s word” seemed absurd as segregation was a very integrated part of life in the south. The social hierarchy must be maintained at all costs and if something in the system should testify the innocence of a black man against a white woman’s word and win then what might happen next? Along with the prejudice amongst blacks and whites, the story also showed how people could be misunderstood for who they truly are such as Boo Radley. Without ever seeing Boo, Jem and the townsfolk made wild assumptions on what Boo does or looks like. Even so, while “To Kill a Mockingbird” shows the ugliness that can come from judging others, its ultimate message is that great good can result when one defers judgement until considering things from another person’s view. Walter Cunningham, Mrs. Dubose, and Boo Radley are all examples of how looking at things

Every child has a time in life when they start to mature and look at life differently but it happens at different times for different people. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the trial case of Tom Robinson, the importance of Boo Radley, and the life of Mrs. Debose as examples to make the audience analyze to story to see the coming of age for Jem and Scout. Harper Lee uses these examples to make Jem’s coming of age stand out more in the book for and how it makes their views of Maycomb change.

As we enter the world, we are born with a “blank slate”, a mind consisting of zero experiences, no history, and no lessons learned. As the years go by, our judgments and experiences broaden, and we learn how to go through life and deal with society. This is something that occurs in every single individual, and the most important lessons occur in childhood and adolescence—where these monumental lessons will therefore pave the way for one’s perspective of life. These life lessons were a significant part of this novel, where the reader was able to grow and mature with Jam and Scout from the experiences that occurred in their lives. Therefore, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee traces Scout and Jem growing up by having them lose

The Price of Growing Up Maturation can be considered one of the toughest stages of one’s life. Ignoring all of the physical changes that happen, one truly begins to realize their place in this world and what goes on around them. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a story that reveals the loss of innocence interwoven with a sense of maturity. Scout and Jem find their sense of belonging and maturity through people like Boo Radley and the Tom Robinson trial.

In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee presents as a ‘tired old town’ where the inhabitants have ‘nowhere to go’ it is set in the 1930s when prejudices and racism were at a peak. Lee uses Maycomb town to highlight prejudices, racism, poverty and social inequality.

Although To Kill A Mockingbird presents a number of themes, losing innocence and coming of age provides the most dominant theme throughout the novel. As the story continues, many of the characters grow to understand that the world is not always fair and that prejudice exists in many ways. The theme that arises from the characters about coming of age means that they become more mature. Under the society that the characters live in, they experience events that test their current beliefs of humanity. To Kill A Mockingbird suggests that one is not truly mature until innocence is lost and responsibility is gained as shown through the actions of Jem, Scout, and Boo Radley.

In the three years covered by To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem grow up. At the start of the book they are innocents, with an uncomplicated sense of what's good (Atticus, the people of Maycomb) and what's evil (Boo Radley). By the end of the book, the children have lost their innocence and gained a more complex understanding of the world, in which bad and good are present and visible in almost everyone. As the children grow into the adult world, though, they don't just accept what they see. They question what doesn't make sense to them—prejudice, hatred, and violence. So while To Kill a Mockingbird shows three children as they lose their innocence, it also uses their innocence to look freshly at the world of Maycomb and criticize its flaws.

Maturation is an concept that all children endure at some point in their lives, but very few know the true explanation of it. Within To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem both encounter the struggle between purity and innocence within the town of Maycomb and the courageous acts of the town’s citizens. Through Mrs. Dubose’s revelations and Atticus’ wise words, Lee’s novel commends that the true meaning of growing up is looking through a person’s appearance and instead seeing them as who they truly are, within the heart. This recurring judgement of the world that society has made it out to be, blinds the children on what it means to be maturely grown and stops them from witnessing the true beauty it can be, all behind the charade of evil and bitterness.

All children have an awareness of innocence during their childhood because they have not gone through many situations in their life. Nevertheless, every child matures once the sense of innocence is lost. The same can be said in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, misplacement of innocence is seen indicatively with the character of Jem. The interplay of maturation jumps in when Jem slowly develops the insight to understand many of the adult situations that his family faces. In the story a trial tears apart a town and the Finches are caught right in the middle of it. This event is just one occurrence that take place in the novel, forever changing Jem’s mindset. Harper Lee uses these events to develop the interplay of innocence and maturation to show how Jem progresses and changes.

In Harpers Lee’s How to Kill a Mockingbird these two children, Scout and Jem get influenced by the citizens and their expectations. However their viewpoint isn't the same when Atticus their father decides to take a black man’s case, even if it seem hard to prove the Tom Robinson did not rape Mayella Ewelles. Jem and Scout realize who Boo Radley truly is, instead of being a monster. Scout also realizes the difference between a lady and a being stereotype lady. Since the children are growing without a mother, everyone believes that Jem and Scout aren't growing up right. Throughout the story it is proven that Jem and Scout both mature through experiences that make them look at their society and world in a different light.