To Kill A Mockingbird And The Help: A Character Analysis

Compare how the theme of courage is explored in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help?

On August 9, 2014,a young man by the name of Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer. It is little known why the shooting occurred, but the boy was unarmed.This could be one of many cases of modern day racism and segregation. In 1930, “even after the abolishment of slavery in 1865, blacks were still almost powerless(BBC 2)”.Blacks were heavily segregated and had almost no rights.Many cases of segregation in the 1930s caused a lot of current day racial tension in the united states.

One central theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is courage. Mrs. Dubose had the courage to fight her addiction, Atticus had the courage to defend Tom Robinson, and Arthur Radley had the courage to save Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. What is different about the courageous acts of these characters is that their courage doesn’t come from not having fear, but from overcoming fear and expectations.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is an exceedingly powerful novel. It includes many significant minor themes such as racism and hatred which leave the reader to have grown more attentive to the past once they complete the book. The book takes place in Maycomb County Alabama during the great depression. During this period there was a great deal of hate and prejudice towards people of color, in addition to a great regard to social class. The novels protagonists, Atticus Finch a well-respected lawyer and his children Jeremy “Jem” Finch and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch are a few of the towns occupants who respect others regardless of social class or race. For this reason, Atticus has no objections

There are many similarities between To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch, a 9 year old girl and her brother Jem, sees the problematic behaviour in their fellow neighbours in the town of Maycomb, Alabama in 1933. Their father, Atticus Finch is a well known lawyer who feels morally obligated to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella. In contrast, The Help is set in 1962s Jacksonville, Mississippi, where a young woman named Skeeter Phelan helps a group of black maids publish a book describing their hardships working for white families. Along the way, Hilly Holbrook, an influential and ignorant woman, proposed the "Home Help Sanitation

Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”

To Kill a Mockingbird is filled with examples of courage, from Mrs. Dubose’s fight against her drug addiction, to Atticus’s determination to face down the racism in Maycomb, to Mr. Underwood’s eagerness to face down his own racist feelings and support of what he knows, and finding out that at the end he is

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience,” (Lee 120). This quote from To Kill a Mockingbird is a good representation of the book. The book is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, narrates the story of herself and her family facing the racial prejudices of the time. When her father Atticus, defends an innocent black man in a rape trial, Maycomb turns on Scout's family. Atticus, Scout, and her brother Jem stand up for what they believe in even if their neighbors disagree. By analyzing Harper Lee’s use of symbolism and tone, the reader can learn that courage isn’t physical strength, you gain morals as you grow, and prejudice kills innocence.

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee addresses many important and sensitive issues. Some of the issues include racism, discrimination and social class. In the early 1900's most of the people were racist and discriminatory, therefore the author trying to show the look and feel of that time.

In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Mayella Ewell, a young woman as well as the daughter of Bob Ewell, lives a life of insolence and isolation in the town of Maycomb. As a Ewell, which they are familiarized as being vulgar, uneducated, and indigent, Mayella is disrespected by the people of Maycomb as well as by her father. During the court case, Atticus shows courtesy towards Mayella by addressing her as a miss and a ma’am, which is not surprising for his values of equality. Mistaking his manners with sarcasm, she replies with, “Won’t answer a word you say as long as you keep mockin’ me” (pg.181). Harper Lee is demonstrating the amount of disregard Mayella faces in her life, so much that courtesy can’t be identified as just that. Mayella finds that Atticus is ridiculing her for what she doesn’t have, respect from others. With a reputation such as Mayella’s, people treat her like an outcast. Her lonely life can be a reason to explain why she always asked for Tom Robinson’s company, she wanted to experience friendship and perhaps love for the first time. Her loneliness was so clear to see, even Scout, who still has their childhood-innocent mind, can see through it. Scout compares Mr.Dolphus Raymond’s “mixed children” to Mayella because they both don’t know where to stand in their social class, “white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her

Can you recollect a person that you hate all the time? Is this person rude, not sociable, emotionally abusive, or just plain racist? In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the novel digs deep into the roots of Social Classes. One of these classes, in particular, is “White Trash.” “White Trash” is a class that has the poor white people that don’t contribute much to society and sometimes even make the society worse. There is one character that everyone loathes in Maycomb, and he is Mr. Ewell. Harper Lee portrays Mr. Ewell and his kids as uneducated, racist, murderous pigs because of three reasons. This family disrespects other members of the community in cruel ways, abuses their power by accusing a black man of rape, and tries to kill two

Imagine you are a lawyer tasked with an impossible case, and everybody in your community is against you, but still there is a shred of hope you cling to. What might that be you ask? That to which you cling are your morals. In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch had been given the Tom Robinson case, where a black man was convicted of raping a white woman. As a single father of two children, he continues to reinforce his values throughout the trial and during his daunting task of raising his children. In To Kill A Mockingbird what Harper Lee suggests about the nature of morals is that you should try to stand up for what you believe in even if people oppose or reject your ideals. Even when faced with an insurmountable opposition you should stand up for your morals because in the end if your don't follow your beliefs you are just contributing to the problem. We should try to create a voice for what we believe in and impress that upon the next generation so they can continue to exercise their beliefs to make the world a better place.

In her coming-of-age novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, portrays the main character Jean Louise “Scout” Finch to reveal to the causes and effects of lies in the small southern town, Maycomb County. In Maycomb County, Alabama, the civilians of the town make “telling lies” a helpful thing to do. Most of the people who live in the town come up with lies to protect themselves and other, affecting the lives of innocents. This harmful and selfish act harms the town and its citizens in many ways. Through the use of characterization, rising actions, and falling actions, Lee portrays gossip spreading and telling lies have a big impact on the town, Maycomb.

Commonly, everyone thinks that the age that kids start to show personality traits corresponding with their adulthood traits is between 14-20. The process of growing up and becoming an adult may be difficult, but it is also a very important part of life. Many authors use this concept as a main idea in their novels. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author expresses the responsibilities of maturing and becoming an adult by how the main characters develop throughout the story.

This is how childhood is presented in the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird: it’s a period of time that’s looked back on with a sense of longing; one thralled from the reality by the child’s inability to understand the cruelties of the world. Harper Lee constructs a sheltered innocence that defines the children’s earlier years, which she subsequently cracks away at with the aid of the events that unfold in Maycomb. What is perhaps the most prominent of these events is Atticus’ defense of Tom Robinson, which acts as a major driver in showing the kids in the novel the true nature of society.