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To Kill A Mockingbird Ignorance

Decent Essays

Litsa Kapsalis
P. 2 Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is often considered a classic “Great American Novel”. It was the winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize in fiction and is the subject of many pop culture references and English classes. Set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, it tells the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer, who defended a black man who was accused of raping a white woman. His children, Scout (Jean Louise Finch) and Jem (Jeremy Finch), are major characters who the reader watches grow up and live. Lee’s novel stands the test of time as it blends thematic examinations with thoroughly developed literary elements. Lee uses her small town setting to exemplify a theme of ignorance through the development of Miss Caroline, …show more content…

He is another character where Lee urges the reader to think about whether his ignorance is to blame for the conflicts he causes or he deserves the blame. Bob Ewell was the white man who wrongly accused an African American man of raping his daughter. Atticus was assigned to defend the African American man, Tom Robinson, and most in Maycomb frowned upon Atticus for this because he tried hard to defend him even though he was a black man. Like gender biases, racial biases were commonplace. Even though the Ewell family were the most unsophisticated and uneducated white family in the community, they had an immense social hierarchy over any respectable African American family, such as the Robinsons. Even though Atticus’s evidence made Tom Robinson’s innocence completely conspicuous, he lost the case because of this racial bias. Lee shows the reader that despite winning the case, Bob Ewell was a deficient representative of himself. “Mr. Ewell reminded me of a deaf-mute. I was sure he had never heard the words Judge Taylor directed at him--his mouth struggled silently with them...” It was obvious that Bob Ewell was not a sincere man, but he tried to hide his deception: “Smugness faded from [his face], replaced by a dogged earnestness that fooled Judge Taylor not at all,” (pg. 174). Lee used this and similar actions to expand her analysis on ignorance. Bob Ewell was an eminently proud man. He acted as if “Atticus was an easy match” (pg. 176) in court. Lee demonstrates that hostile and pathetic people often have the most pride, pride that easily is destroyed by genuine and intelligent people like Atticus. Atticus did destroy Ewell’s dignity after the case, because everyone could see, despite his victory, Bob Ewell’s lies. Bob Ewell was ignorant of how people could easily see passed his cover. Lee uses Bob Ewell as a symbol for both that kind of social ignorance and clear-cut ignorance. Bob Ewell

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