...“To Kill a Mockingbird” Analysis Harper Lee published “To Kill a Mockingbird “ in 1960, a time buzzing with racial segregation and irrational injustice. She based the book on various events that were all to real, only fifty years ago. Throughout the book, the author captures these horrendous inequalities and is able to explore these subjects through various situations and characters. However, it is not always just the color of one’s skin as to the reason of why they are treated differently. Lee is able to display examples of prejudice based on class and status of a person, rather than race alone, through the use of abstract symbols through the use of characters. Harper Lee use birds to symbolize traits in various characters throughout the book. Although it is not just mockingbirds used as the only bird example. When Jem and Scout receive guns to shoot for fun, Atticus warns them against shooting mockingbirds. However, he states that they may shoot all the blue jays they desire. Blue jays are the nuance bird; this connects to Bob Ewell due to the fact that he is the perfect display of a blue jay. The blue jays represent the prejudiced citizens of Maycomb; they are ever present and continue to taunt others. Atticus goes on to tell the kids that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. The mockingbird is the innocent bird and therefore sums up Tom Robinson the most clearly. As being an innocent man that is only being tried due to his race, he embodies the mockingbird perfectly. Throughout...
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...Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel centered around a few years in Jean Louise “Scout” Finch’s childhood, featuring her experiences and the lessons that she learns growing up in the 1930s. Scout and her brother, Jeremy “Jem” Finch, mature in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in a one-parent home. Their father and aunt, Atticus and Alexandra, raise them with help from Calpurnia, their African American maid. Harper Lee weaves several different themes throughout the novel, but some are more prominent than others. Lee develops the main themes of growth, protection of innocence, and perception throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, disguised in the form of lessons learned during the narrator’s childhood. Harper Lee reveals her theme of growth...
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...Social values shined during the great depression. To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman take place in the great depression, which was a time in US History when the stock market failed and a lot of people lost a lot of money. With all of the money that was lost, companies couldn’t afford to hire people. Many people lost their jobs and had no income. Some people had to move out of their homes, and lived in poverty. The people who did still have jobs often didn’t have the money to live the lives that they used to. Harper Lee, in her novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman relates to her readers the social values of racism, kindness and respect during the great depression. In To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, they...
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...prejudice plays what I believe is the most important role in the story To Kill a Mockingbird. Events such as Tom Robinsons trial emphasize this point. Also points such as the game Scout and Jem conjured up to be about Boo Radley’s life. Some points of the book where Aunt Alexandra talks about others as if they are less than them shows that she is basically the living embodiment of racial and social discrimination. These all show the strong tension between the people of Maycomb and those who they believe are different. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee emphasizes the theme of inequality and prejudice through metaphors, tone and characterization. My first piece of evidence to support the theme of prejudice in the town of Maycomb is when Aunt Alexandra was talking to scout about inviting Walter Cunningham (Jr.) over for dinner and Scout is complaining why Aunt Alexandra wont let her play with him and she says, “I’ll tell you why…Because—he—is—trash, that’s why you cant play with him.” This is an example of a metaphor used to describe that Walter is “Worse than them” essentially. This supports the theme of inequality by showing that Aunt Alexandra doesn’t want Scout playing with Walter because she believes they are in some sort of higher “social class”. For my second piece of evidence I have another quote from Aunt Alexandra. This time she is speaking with Atticus about getting rid of Calpurnia because she is black. The quote reads, “You’ve got to do something about...
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...about someone because they belong in a certain group or race Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird both are based on the theme of stereotypes. In the next 3 paragraphs I will talk about stereotypes in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Merchant of Venice, and finally compare the stereotypes in both. There are many stereotypes and these 2 stories contain many that are alike. One big theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is stereotypes. First of all there is a stereotype that scout should wear a dress and act more like a girl because she is a tomboy. Aunt Alexandra says this. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches”(81). This shows that Aunt Alexandra wants Scout to be more like a lady. Secondly there’s Tom Robinson who is black and wrongly accused. Tom was accused of raping Mayella Ewell and in the end the jury voted him guilty even though Atticus explains the evidence is in Tom’s favor “To begin with, this case should have never come to trial”(203). This quote shows that Atticus’s evidence is perfectly clear and Tom isn’t guilty but in the end because Tom is black the jury assumes he is bad and votes him guilty. Finally black people don’t have the same rights as white people. For example Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to church and a lady gets mad and asked Calpurnia why she brought white kids to the black church day. “I wants to know why you bringin’ white chillum to nigger church”(119)...
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...Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, mentions countless lessons that Scout learns while growing up. She learns these lessons from the adults in her life, which includes her African American caretaker, Calpurnia. Without an actual mother around to guide her, Calpurnia becomes the motherly figure in Scout’s life who guides her. The interactions between Calpurnia and Scout affects the way Scout goes about her daily life as a result of what she learns from Calpurnia, like writing, understanding black culture, and keeping an open mind in relation to other people. One of the most crucial lessons that Calpurnia taught Scout was how to write. In chapter two, Scout says, “She would set me a writing task by scrawling the alphabet firmly across the top of a tablet, then copying out a chapter of the Bible beneath” (Lee 18). In this quote, Scout explains how Calpurnia taught her how to write by having her copying chapters from the Bible and writing the alphabet. The fact that she can write, causes Scout to stand out because during her first week of school, her teacher took an immediate dislike to her since she could write. In addition to her teacher disliking her immediately,...
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...about someone because they belong in a certain group or race Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird both are based on the theme of stereotypes. In the next 3 paragraphs I will talk about stereotypes in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Merchant of Venice, and finally compare the stereotypes in both. There are many stereotypes and these 2 stories contain many that are alike. One big theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is stereotypes. First of all there is a stereotype that scout should wear a dress and act more like a girl because she is a tomboy. Aunt Alexandra says this. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches”(81). This shows that Aunt Alexandra wants Scout to be more like a lady. Secondly there’s Tom Robinson who is black and wrongly accused. Tom was accused of raping Mayella Ewell and in the end the jury voted him guilty even though Atticus explains the evidence is in Tom’s favor “To begin with, this case should have never come to trial”(203). This quote shows that Atticus’s evidence is perfectly clear and Tom isn’t guilty but in the end because Tom is black the jury assumes he is bad and votes him guilty. Finally black people don’t have the same rights as white people. For example Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to church and a lady gets mad and asked Calpurnia why she brought white kids to the black church day. “I wants to know why you bringin’ white chillum to nigger church”(119)...
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...others. For example, when people bullies others for being black. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, it shows that fictional texts showing racial discrimination and the negative effects of it can be influenced by real life. Some similar events happen in the non-fictional articles that relates to racial discrimination towards negros, such as Tom Robinson and Calpurnia. They are discriminated by whites. The two negative effects of racial discrimination in the novel and article are violence and segregation. One negative effect of racial discrimination is divisiveness, and it is shown in the article “What Price Diversity?”. Blacks and whites have separate facilities even though it is used for the same purpose. They have separate schools for the different races even though it is used for the same purpose. So your race determines what school you can attend. This article states, “Separate education facilities are inherently unequal” (“Diversity” par. 2). The phrase “separate educational facilities” means that there are schools just for whites and another school just for whites. “Are inherently unequal” means that the schools that are for whites, are better than the school blacks are attending. In To Kill a Mockingbird, blacks and whites have separate facilities that is used for the same purpose. Segregation is one of the negative effects of racial discrimination, but violence is also another one. Segregation is a negative effect of racial discrimination in the novel, To Kill A Mocking...
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...Harper Lee used many historical events to influence her book To Kill a Mockingbird. The Great Depression took place throughout the whole book(McCabe 12). The two words that came to play in The Great Depression were bread lines and debt(McCabe 12). Many people had to start getting free meals(McCabe 13). Many students could not even go to college(McCabe 14). In addition to the Great depression more influences were the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws was a racial caste system(Pilgrim). These laws were only used for the colored people between 1877 and 1960’s. One law was that a black man was not allowed to offer...
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...nowadays. Atticus is a man with many responsibilities, people can follow him and learn how to be beneficial to society from him. Atticus’ importance in To Kill a Mockingbird is by far imperative of all the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird because of the lessons people can learn just from Atticus’ actions in the book. Atticus represents various traits throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, but there is three that stood out the most. The traits that I felt made Atticus a likeable character is consideration, gratefulness, and intelligence. Atticus Finch’s traits of consideration, gratefulness, and intelligence, show how much he impacted To Kill a Mockingbird and other characters in it. The first trait I felt that Atticus expressed throughout To Kill a Mockingbird was consideration. Being considerate is an essential trait...
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...Atticus Finch in “ To Kill a Mockingbird.” Atticus has a great kind heart and his children refer to him as a hero. Boo Radley is kind of like a hero also, like when he put the blanket over Scout by the fire. Calpurnia is also an example of heroism. She stands up to people and defends Jem and Scout. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is absolutely a hero. He does everything he can to end the Great Depression and make other people’s lives better. Atticus Finch brings about many things. He preserves his family, friends, and other people when he knows they did not do anything wrong. He...
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...Brittney Garrison Mrs. Easton English 3-4 Period 7 9 June 2015 To Kill A Mockingbird Everyday people’s lives are judged by others. Why? Because most think they understand what the other is going through when they have no clue. The idea of walking in someone else’s shoes teaches that everyone has things, big or small, going on in their lives and that you should not judge a person until you know the full story. Like in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, a few of the main characters begin to understand other people's suffering by “walking in their shoes” and learning that even the most misunderstood people need attention. One example of this theme is when the children prejudge Mrs. Dubose before they step into her shoes. She is a recovering drug addict who is very harsh and opinionated but the children only notice this and do not understand why. Jem begins to get tired of Mrs. Dubose’s taunts she makes at him and decided to break the stems of all her flowers. Because of these actions, the readers begin to see how courageous Mrs. Dubose really is by attempting to give up the drug “cold turkey” (Interpretation). This...
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...In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many characters represent mockingbirds, one symbolic mockingbird is Scout Finch.In this case, a symbolic mockingbird is a person or thing that has done nothing to be harmed, yet is harmed. This book takes place in the 1930’s when racism was a huge issue and women had certain standards from a young age. Scout’s father (Atticus) was an attorney appointed to cover Tom Robinson (an African American), who was convicted of rape, to insure he had a fair trial.Several times in the novel Scout was put in situations that show she represented a mockingbird such as being picked on by other children,being attacked by Bob Ewell, and being shamed for attending a African American church. Early on in the...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird Tiffin University Lisa Caskey September 28, 2012 Degree Completion Program English 365 Issues in Literature Discrimination and prejudice were very common in the 1900’s. Prejudice is defined in the Webster’s dictionary as “preconceived judgment; or opinion; an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge”. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/). Discrimination is defined as “prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, and or treatment” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/). Discrimination and Prejudice run rampant in Maycomb County, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story based in time of the Great Depression. The book displayed acts of hate based on the color of someone’s skin. Colored people were the main ones discriminated against. But there were instances where poverty stricken families were also discriminated against. The story begins in the summer in a small town called Maycomb County. The story is told from a child’s perspective. The child’s name is Scout finch. She is retelling the story of her and her brother Jem’s childhood. Their summer consists of playing games and acting out scenarios from different books. They also act out stories made up about people residing within their neighborhood. They do this along with “Dill” Miss Rachel’s nephew who comes to Maycomb for the summer. These stories are based on assumptions and judgments of what they believe...
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..."To kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence". In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout narrates the story in first person point of view. The novel shows how growing up in times of depression, racism, and poverty can change an individual or even a society. The story takes places in Maycomb County. The time is set in the early 1930s where poverty and racism plays a major roll in the United States. The tone of the story is very serious and shows the reader a piece of reality. The mood is very sympathetic but the reader may also feel humor from Dill, Scout, and Jim, three of the main characters. The setting plays a major roll in the plot because the racism during that time contributes to the conflicting opinions of...
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