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To Kill A Mockingbird Coexistence Of Good And Evil

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To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is a novel that explores heavy issues such as Civil Rights and racism in the segregated southern United States during the 1930s, along with the significance of corruption of innocence and finally, the coexistence of good and evil. Narrated by Scout Finch, you learn about her father Atticus Finch, who is an attorney endeavouring to prove the innocence of a black man who has been wrongly accused of rape. Lee uses memorable characters and an appropriate setting to inform readers on the controversial issues addressed in the novel. I believe that young readers would benefit from reading this complex and intellectual novel, as it is important to understand what changes our society has gone through and …show more content…

The novel addresses this by focusing on Scout and Jems transition from having the perspective of children, in which they assume that people are good because in their lives they have not experienced much evil, to a more adult perspective, in which they have encountered evil and must begin to understand it. An example of this, was concerning Mr. Cunningham when the mob attacked the Maycomb county jail as they wanted to hang Tom Robinson. Scout talks them out of it, and later, when Scout and Jem talk to Atticus about it, Atticus said “Mr. Cunningham's basically a good man…he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us… you'll understand folks better when you're older. A mob's always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man." This shows that although Mr. Cunningham was a good man, he got involved in the emotions and accusations made during the case trial, potentially leading him to do something he may regret. Also, when Atticus is discussing juries with Jem after the trial when Tom Robinson is charged guilty, Atticus tells Jem “Those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom's jury, but you saw something come between them and reason. You saw the same thing that night in front of the jail… There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads, they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life." This can represent the good in the men that were a part of the jury as they are reasonable, but also show evil in that they can't make the decision to be fair, and will convict Tom on the sole grounds that he is black. Atticus is a character who understands that, rather than humans simply expressing good or evil, most people have both good and bad qualities and while it is important to appreciate the good

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