...A mockingbird is a harmless bird that makes the world more pleasant. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the mockingbird symbolizes Boo Radley, Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson, who were peaceful people who never did any harm. To kill or harm them would be a sin. Scout's father, Atticus, tells Scout and Jem, “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Atticus is portraying that they are innocent and to harm them would be a sin. The mockingbird symbolizes these three characters because it does not have its own song, the mockingbird only sings other birds' songs and is seen through the other bird’s voices. The people of Maycomb only knew Boo, Atticus and Tom by what others said about them. These characters do not really have their own voice or song, they are only known for what others say about them. Atticus is a lawyer in Maycomb, a typical southern town where racial discrimination is the normal behavior. When he decides to defend Tom Robinson a black man, the people in the town were threatening him for doing so. Though Atticus never showed any sign that he doubted what he was doing. Atticus saw the evil in his world and was only trying to protect his children from it. He simply denied the natural behavior to colored people and fought against it. Atticus took the hatred, pushed it aside, kept his head high and stayed true to himself. He never hurt a soul and was just as innocent as a mockingbird. Boo Radley went through...
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...THE GLENCOE LITERATURE LIBRARY Study Guide for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee i Meet Harper Lee at the same university. In 1949, however, she withdrew and moved to New York City with the goal of becoming a writer. While working at other jobs, Lee submitted stories and essays to publishers. All were rejected. An agent, however, took an interest in one of her short stories and suggested she expand it into a novel. By 1957 she had finished a draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. A publisher to whom she sent the novel saw its potential but thought it needed reworking. With her editor, Lee spent two and a half more years revising the manuscript. By 1960 the novel was published. In a 1961 interview with Newsweek magazine, Lee commented: Writing is the hardest thing in the world, . . . but writing is the only thing that has made me completely happy. To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate and widespread success. Within a year, the novel sold half a million copies and received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Within two years, it was turned into a highly acclaimed film. Readers admire the novel’s sensitive and probing treatment of race relations. But, equally, they enjoy its vivid account of childhood in a small rural town. Summing up the novel’s enduring impact in a 1974 review, R. A. Dave called To Kill a Mockingbird . . . a movingly human drama of the jostling worlds—of children and adults, of innocence and experience, of kindness and cruelty, of love and hatred, of humor...
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...The story To Kill A Mockingbird has many different messages and lessons. For example, throughout the story Scout and Jem learn many things about their town, it’s citizens, and the talk that goes around. Through the process of them learning, they experience situations that end up teaching them lessons. Whether the lesson or message is easy to find in the story or more difficult, there is something that some people don’t bother to pay attention to.Why To Kill A Mockingbird is the title of this story. There isn’t just one way to identify the title, it can be interpreted in different ways. Many characters in the story are compared to helpless mockingbirds that have been injured or destroyed with evil, the reference of mockingbird shows the...
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...Cyrus Never Say Never By. Justin Bieber Imagine By. John Lennon I’m Just A Girl By. No Doubt Letter: Dear Scout I’ve chosen these songs because they describe your character in To Kill A Mockingbird. Like Team represents on how you get along with your brother, Black or White you were supportive of Tom Robinson and believes people should be treated equally, Eye of The Tiger where describes you as a tough, brave, and curious person. Breakaway represents you taking risks to see who you really are, Butterfly Fly Away is describing your close relationship with your father Atticus, Never Say Never is where you won’t let others push you around when word spread about your father defending Tom Robinson. And for Imagine you hope one day...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is a critically acclaimed novel narrated by Scout FInch, following an important three years in her life. This novel became an instant best seller, an Academy Award-winning film, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. This book in some states are part of the English curriculum to be taught in high schools, while in other states it is banned from school libraries. This book arises much controversy because it is based around white supremacy in the South, and how African Americans were harshly treated. It reveals the ugly truth on how society handled cases in the court and the biased verdicts as the result. It also reveals the existence of good and evil in a small town, and how some adults...
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...about 70 % of ”To Kill a Mockingbird, all the way to the end of the 21st chapter. One particular event, the Tom Robinson case where he gets falsely accused of rape, reminded me of one of my own experiences. I was in the fourth grade and we were playing on the playground when a teacher suddenly called me in and accused me of kicking a ball at a girl. I was of course innocent but since the teacher was a relative to the girl, I got detention! My case was obviously not as serious and didn’t involve rape, but the fact that an innocent man gets punished of something he didn’t do is bad enough to me. The main plot of the book reminded me of a movie I saw a couple of years ago, called ”A Time to Kill”. The movie is based on John Grisham’s debut novel with the same name and stars famous actors like Samuel L. Jackson, Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey. The title isn’t the only thing similar to Harper Lee’s novel. The plot is really similar to the trial in ”To Kill a Mockingbird”, where a white lawyer defends a black man and gets treated badly just because his client is black. For example, Atticus gets called nigger-lover by several villagers just because he defends a black man. Jake, the defendant lawyer in the movie, is...
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...Petrina Chan Hr. 2 To Kill a Mockingbird Summer Work Characters Scout Jean Louise Finch, also called Scout, is the narrator and protagonist of the story. She is the sister of Jeremy (Jem) Finch and the daughter of Atticus Finch. She lives with her brother, father, and their black cook, Calpurnia, in Maycomb County. Being the main character, she is involved with all of the major events that happen during the course of the novel, including the Tom Robinson trial. While the story progresses, Scout’s views about life mature. Scout is different than most little girls at the time. She wears overalls instead of dresses and learns to climb trees with Jem and Dill rather than learning manners.She starts to understand how to look at things from someone else’s point of view, instead of only her own, and, “step into their skin,” as Atticus tells her, in order to understand people’s feelings. She progresses from a short-tempered tom boy to an empathetic young girl. Although she is still young, her understanding of the world is progressing rapidly. Jem Jeremy (Jem) Finch is the brother of Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, and the son of Atticus finch. He is four years older than Scout. He is Scout’s playmate and protector throughout the novel. Although he slowly weans himself from Scout’s little games, he remains her closest companion and guardian. He and his views on life are deeply affected by the Tom Robinson trial because of the amount of sheer prejudice and cruelty of the trial. Jem learns...
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...To Kill A Mockingbird: Overview Vanessa Vigneau English 400 March 20, 2015 Cultural and Literary Significance To Kill A Mockingbird was written during the most critical time periods of racial discrimination, the 1930s. During this time racial prejudice was already an issue, especially in the southern states, but during the Great Depression it escalated even more and the imagery in To Kill A Mockingbird allows the reader to fully understand the impact prejudice had on children and adults. To further explore the cultural significance it is important to also realize that the story time period closely related to the time period in which it was published, 1960. During this time, many were trying to fight Jim Crow laws of segregation and were in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. (2007) This story would seem obvious to some as a coming of age story involving the main character and narrator, Scout, but it was much more involved than a little girl growing up and learning to see things from another’s point of view. This story involves the cultural significance of how people lived in the south in the 1930s and how children and adults were affected by the on-going, ugly, violent prejudice. In the story Scout and Jem are taught by their father lessons about courage and tolerance as it is becoming clear to Atticus, he can no longer shield his children from what is happening in their town. He teaches them to stand in someone else’s shoes and consider the world from that perspective...
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...Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama, during the 1930s. It portrays the story of a young girl, Scout Finch, and the obstacles, prejudice, and findings she encounters during her early childhood. Her older brother, Jem Finch, is a usual companion and joins her in most of her wanderings. Their father, Atticus Finch, is a defense attorney and works in the state’s legislature. During the course of the novel, Atticus encounters a difficult case he needs to defend. Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. This case gains lots of attention. Atticus and his children soon becomes the victims of strong hatred and harassment from whites of the town because many believe Atticus should not be defending this case. The family also has a housekeeper, Calpurnia. Calpurnia is black, yet still very educated. Calpurnia is seen not only as their...
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...and unity… TEXT COMPARISON Are we always champions of tolerance, courage and receptiveness to others? By the very definition of humanity, we must be. Humanity: benevolence, understanding and kindness towards other people. It is, arguably, our very human nature to feel compassion, courage, understanding, unity and empathy towards our fellow man. Unfortunately, prejudice and judgement also cling to the human condition like tumorous stains – traits which society still finds hard to surmount. Despite the efforts of governments, groups and individuals, humankind still finds it difficult to trust based on the soul of a person; we are more comfortable making judgements based on skin colour. Nelle Harper Lee through her 1960 novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ and Boaz Yakin through his 2000 film, ‘Remember the Titans,’ are text composers who tackle the ill-defined paradigms of ‘prejudice, courage and unity’ by painting a picture of the confronting face of racism. Prejudice, courage and unity are notions that are dealt with differently by both composers and, through their use of structural and linguistic features, each composer presents this concept in a manner which connects (or weakens a connection)...
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...ENGLISH HANDBOOK -“Welcome to my evil lair…” -Mr. Braiman Brooklyn High School of the Arts www.mrbraiman.com http://handbook.mrbraiman.com “EVIL” Welcome to my evil classroom lair. In order to become full-fledged evil “minions,” you need to read this handbook carefully. It explains everything you need to know. “English,” as you may know, is shorthand for “English Language Arts.” Being that we are in an Arts school, but one where academics must and always do come first, it is important that we approach the subject as what it is: an art form. How does one study the arts? What exactly do we do when we study drawing, sculpture, music, or dance? Well, anyone who has studied the arts will tell you that studying the arts essentially involves two things: • Learning about, and developing an awareness of and appreciation for, existing works of art in that particular form; • Developing the skills and techniques associated with the art form, in order to create our own works. In the case of language arts, much like any other art form, we will be studying existing works of art (i.e., reading books, stories and poems), and developing the skills to produce our own (i.e., writing). That’s what English Language Arts is. We will also be preparing ourselves for New York State’s Regents Comprehensive Examination in English, which we’ll all be taking in June. This two-day, six-hour, four-part exam requires no specific knowledge or content, but it does require the skills to listen, read,...
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