To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a coming of age novel in which we follow Scout Finch, a 5 year old girl, over the span of 3 years. Scout lives in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama, in the 1930s. Maycomb society is typical for any southern American society in the 1930s, racism, sexism and prejudice are very evident. In the beginning of the novel, Scout is a concrete thinker. In the middle of the novel, Scout is a critical thinker. At the end of the novel, Scout is a complex thinker. Scout’s thinking style has grown throughout the novel, especially in regards to Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. At the beginning of the novel, Scout is a concrete thinker. She is a very judgemental and opinionated child who has little/no experience with the evils of the world. Boo Radley, one of Scout’s neighbours, had a troubled youth and so his extremely religious parents alienated him in their home. Boo became a figure for speculation and gossip. The hogwash stories told about Boo lead Scout to judge and fear him. The Boo Radley she thinks to be real is simply a frightening, imaginary, boogeyman-like presence who does not really exist. “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and
“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)
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.
In To Kill a Mockingbird by harper Lee, The story of a southern life in Maycomb during the mid-1930s you begin an exploration of human morality. Each character has morals on how to treat some one of the other race. Atticus and Bob Ewell are two characters with contrasting morals. Tom Robertson an African American male is court between both of them and is dependent the towns social morals in a court case.
Based on the first six chapter of the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we can see that it moves at a rapid pace. It starts off as the beginning of summer and by the end of the sixth chapter an entire year has passed by. Throughout this year, we see Scout 's, Dill 's, and Jem 's adventures during the summers and Scout going to school for the first time. We also receive some additional background information on the mysterious Arthur "Boo" Radley.
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
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has many ongoing themes such as Walking in Someone Else 's Shoes, Social Classes, Scout 's Maturity, and Boo Radley. These themes contribute to the story in many ways.
During Civil War period, a pro¬slavery mob chained Francis McIntosh to a locust tree, burnt him fatality in 1837. There are a lot of abolitionists, like Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who lost their lives when criticizing lynching. Elijah Parish Lovejoy showed both physical and moral courage fighting against inequality. The real courage of abolitionists during that time was gaining equal opportunities for African-¬Americans, and be treated the same as white people no matter the consequences. Even after a century, there is no slavery anymore, there is still racism happening. In Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird, she shows the real meaning of courage fighting for equal rights in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression.
Not only have the adult characters in the book To Kill A Mockingbird set a solid ground of good morals and beliefs for the children in the book but also young readers decades later. Children are often influenced by adults in their life whether it has been a positive or negative moral aspect. Children often receive advice and encouragement from their guardians or adult figures. In author; Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, readers observe three parents who have influenced their children heavily, in this essay readers will look further into Atticus Finch, Mr. Radley and Bob Ewell.
The same cool air that flows through the sky, is the same as the rotten prejudiced air, in which, the people of Maycomb breathe every day. It’s an unnecessary sickness that spreads throughout the whole town. In Harper Lee’s novel of To Kill a Mockingbird, it symbolizes the many divisions and classifications used in Maycomb to differentiate different groups of people. Although, each individual is in fact different, the people of Maycomb are blinded to the fact that, “’there’s just one kind of folks. Folks’” (Lee 304). Scout understood the fact that people shouldn’t be judged based on divisions and classifications, and rather focused on people’s similarities. Scout’s mature way of understanding, le her see something, that most people in
The townspeople associate his strangeness with evil and foster a prejudice against Boo” (Steven 272). As the talk and rumors go on throughout the town, people start to believe them, and it starts to overpower their thoughts. Scout, Dill, and Jem’s curiosity gets the best of them. They start to pretend to be in a scenario involving Boo Radley, in Jem and Scouts front yard. While they do this the kids start to get anxious about seeing Boo. They begin to plot their investigation to see Boo Radley. As ___ conformes, “Boo Radley is compelling enigma and source of adventure for the children, but he also represents Scout’s most personal lesson in judging others based upon surface appearance” (Felty 298). Atticus’s main lesson throughout the story is for Scout and Jem not to judge a person unless they have been in their shoes, and have gone through what that person is going through. Scout does not understand why Boo wants to stay inside, but as the novel continues Scout sees that Boo is not what people say that he is. She realizes that she and all the others are wrong about Boo. Boo gains a connection with the children after watching them act in their front yard. In the beginning Boo is compared as a monster or some kind of ghost, but in all honesty, he is the complete opposite. By the end of the novel Boo, as a matter of fact, can almost
The book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee was set in the 1930s in a fictional town called Maycomb County. Courage within that specific time period and town was seen as strength in the face of fear; whilst the way that Harper Lee has tried to convey courage throughout her book is as the act of doing something to benefit a specific person or a whole group of people, no matter what odds are against you, how uncomfortable you may find the task, and how dim the chances of succeeding are. Many characters in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” express this form of courage. This is demonstrated firstly by Atticus Finch when he went to trial defending a black man who had been accused of a rape he didn’t commit whilst systematic racism was still at large, purely to help an innocent man, to hopefully further the black rights movements at the time and to give his children a firm faith in the justice system. By Boo Radley when he stepped out of the comfort of his home to rescue Jem and Scout from Mr. Ewell, despite the fact that fighting was not at all in his nature. And lastly by Jem, when he and Scout were attacked by Mr. Ewell and Jem was needed to protect Scout at no matter what costs, as she was unable to fend for herself.
The saying “Life isn’t fair” is always right. No matter fair something seems, there is always something just about, no matter how small it is. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a young man named Tom Robinson is sentenced to death because of his race. Even though all of the evidence backs him up, he is still found guilty because he is African American. This happens because of all the prejudice that the people of Maycomb possess. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee depicts her views on prejudice and how it affects society. Harper Lee asserts that the amount of prejudice someone receives is dependent on one’s race and gender, and that to overcome prejudice one must become acquainted with many different groups of people.
[7:17:28 PM] David | Meaty: Throughout history and especially in the 1900’s, the southern areas of the United States have possessed a prejudiced hate against various groups. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a small town called Maycomb and is based in the heart of discrimination. Racism is a key aspect of the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, because the entire storyline revolves around it. Racism is revealed in this novel through the continuous use of the word “Nigger” that is used in a discriminatory way against the coloured people of Maycomb. Also Racism is revealed in the Tom Robinson trial in which Atticus chose to defend Tom because there was no reason he shouldn’t, other than for inequitable reasons. Gender
In the 1950’s Harper Lee wrote a novel that would eventually change how people looked at literature. Her masterpiece, To Kill A Mockingbird, started much controversy. Some people looked at it as one of the best novels ever written, while others despised it calling it inappropriate and racist. The arguments dragged on for years and still continue to this day. This novel, which tells a story about a white man defending an African American and his children, goes beyond race. If you look deep enough into the background of the novel you can see a connection with childhood. Not only does it focus on how the children grow up, but it focuses on the connection the children have with the adults.
The text type of To Kill a Mockingbird is a fiction novel which deals with the racism the author observed as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee, who wrote her novel in a retrospective point of view. There were numerous aspects of historical, personal, cultural and social context in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee was born on the 28th of April, 1926, in Monroeville Alabama. Monroeville was a close-knit community that has many similarities with Maycomb, which is the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee’s father was a prominent lawyer, whom she drew inspiration for the protagonists father, Atticus Finch. Among Lee’s childhood friends was Truman Capote, from whom she drew inspiration to the character Dill. These personal details help portray Harper Lee’s own childhood home, where racism and segregation was highly evident. Another example of context which helped shape To Kill a Mockingbird were the events that occurred during Harper Lee’s childhood. In 1931, when Harper Lee was five years old, nine African-American men were accused of raping two white women near Scottsboro, Alabama. After a series of lengthy, highly publicised, and often bitter trials, five of the nine men were sentenced to long term imprisonment. Many prominent lawyers and various members of the general public saw the sentences as spurious and believed that it was motivated by racial prejudice.