...“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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...How does Harper Lee explore ideas of prejudice in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’? Harper Lee, author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, demonstrates the clear prejudice within Maycomb through the structure of its society. Cleverly painting a picture of injustice and horror, Lee uses the social class of Maycomb and the roles within society given to individuals, along with the discrimination within the trial of Tom Robinson to reveal prejudice in this ‘tired old town’. Lee primarily utilises the town of Maycomb to illustrate the prejudice within the social classes of society during the 1930’s. Through the restricting roles given to those with darker skin in society and through the first-person narration of Scout, Lee highlights the injustice that results from strict social classes and expectations. Calpurina’s role as a house help to the white Finch family, and the ensuing expectation that her children will also be destined to a similar fate is an example of this. As ‘old Tim Johnson’, a rabid dog, is shot by Atticus Finch, it is Calpurina’s son who is sent to dispose of ‘the pet of Maycomb’. Thus, Lee implies that those of darker skin are expected to perform menial or undesirable jobs, while those with fairer skin comfortably watch on. Furthermore, although Scout sees Calpurina as a mother figure, she unintentionally...
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...Robinson in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel, Harper Lee used real life stories as a guide to help her write her novel correctly and accurately. The novel is tied to a few stories such as, Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the issues of racism in that time period. One of the first connections to America’s history of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. To begin, Jim Crow was a racist system that promoted inequality between the races. A bountiful number of people believed the laws were necessary to keep black people in their place. In addition, they used the Jim Crow...
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...I’d like to analyze the extract from a book which is entitled “To kill a mockingbird”. The author is Harper Lee, an American author known for her 1960-Pulitzer-Prize-winning and who is considered now by many to be a literary icon. Harper Lee was born in 1926 in the state of Alabama. In 1945-1949 she studied law at the University of Alabama. Her novel ‘To kill a mockingbird’ which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The book became an international bestseller and was adapted into screen in 1962. The story of “To kill a mockingbird” takes place during a tumultuous time in the South. At that time black people were treated as people of lower level than white people and racial tensions were running high in the South as a whole, especially in Alabama. People all over the US followed events like the Scottsboro incident, 1955 bus boycott and also Martin Luther King’s rise to leadership. Harper Lee is said to have been influenced by these events very much. Though many details of To Kill a Mockingbird are apparently autobiographical she has insisted that the novel is a work of fiction. The text under analysis belongs to the group of fictional texts. The literary trend is realism. The book is brilliant and powerful and it is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The story takes place during three years of the Great Depression in...
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...To Kill A Mockingbird Essay In many situations, stereotypes have been the simplest and most ignorant way to understand someone. Harper Lee displays the limiting effects these judgments have with her novel To Kill A Mockingbird. The pressures of society’s opinions influence the way children grow as a person, and can be used as an excuse to believe something about certain people that is known to be untrue. These cruel judgments can also cause someone to live in isolation because of the ignorance of a community. Stereotypes and judgments pressure the subjects of those opinions to act and live the way others want to see them. In the youngest years of Scout’s life, she was free to be whom she wished. However when her Aunt Alexandra comes to...
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...discrimination and inequality still saturate our society in modern ways. Though racism may be less blatant now in many cases, its existence is undeniable” While Sharpton claims we have come a long way in regard to prejudice of blacks, in the 1930s many blacks and whites who opposed the segregation of blacks felt the hatred produced by white southerners. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, it is obvious that there are many issues in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. In a time where segregation was more common than ever, many southerners began to form bias opinions towards African Americans. This unjust judgment of different...
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...Selecting an Organizational Pattern 3. 1 Outlining the Speech 4. 92 93 103 1 10 PART 4 • STARTING, FINISHING, AND STYLING 15. Developing the Introduction and Conclusion 16. Using Language 1 22 1 23 1 31 PART 5 • DELIVERY 1 Choosing a Method of Delivery 7. 18. Controlling the Voice 19. Using the Body 1 39 1 40 1 44 1 48 PART 6 • PRESENTATION AIDS 20. Types of Presentation Aids 21. Designing Presentation Aids 22. A Brief Guide to Microsoft PowerPoint 154 155 161 164 PART 7 • TYPES OF SPEECHES 23. Informative Speaking 24. Persuasive Speaking 25. Speaking on Special Occasions 1 74 1 75 188 21 7 PART 8 • THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND 230 26. Typical Classroom Presentation Formats 27. Science and Mathematics Courses 28. Technical Courses 29. Social Science Courses 30. Arts and Humanities Courses 31. Education Courses 32. Nursing and Allied Health Courses 33. Business Courses and Business Presentations 34. Presenting in Teams 35. Communicating in Groups 231 236 240 243 246 248 25 1 253 258 262 APPENDICES A. Citation Guidelines B. Question-and-Answer Sessions C. Preparing for Mediated Communication D. Tips for Non-Native Speakers of English Glossary Notes Index 267 268 282 284 286 290 309 323 This page intentionally left blank A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking THIRD EDITION Getting Started ■ ■ Development ■ ■ Organization ■ Starting, Finishing, and Styling ■ Delivery...
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...reassuring to know that many professionals undergo these same strange compulsions before they begin writing. Jean Kerr, author of Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, admits that she often finds herself in the kitchen reading soup-can labels—or anything—in order to prolong the moments before taking pen in hand. John C. Calhoun, vice president under Andrew Jackson, insisted he had to plow his fields before he could write, and Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim and other novels, is said to have cried on occasion from the sheer dread of sitting down to compose his stories. To spare you as much hand-wringing as possible, this chapter presents some practical suggestions on how to begin writing your short essay. Although all writers must find the methods that work best for them, you may find some of the following ideas helpful. But no matter how you actually begin putting words on paper, it is absolutely essential to maintain two basic ideas concerning your writing task. Before you write a single sentence, you should always remind yourself that 1. You have some valuable ideas to tell your reader, and 2. More than anything, you want to communicate those ideas to your reader. These reminders may seem obvious to you, but without a solid commitment to your own opinions as well as to your reader, your prose will be lifeless and boring. If you don’t care about your subject, you can’t very well expect anyone else to. Have confidence that your ideas are worthwhile and that your reader genuinely...
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