Dehumanization In Elie Wiesel's To Kill A Mockingbird

When comparing How To Read Literature Like A Professor and To Kill A Mockingbird, many’s first thoughts lead to symbolism. As Thomas C. Foster wrote much of How to Read Literature Like A Professor about symbolism, To Kill A Mockingbird is one huge symbol, including the title itself. By that, I mean that the mockingbird is the overall universal face of this timeless novel, portraying innocence. This theme of innocence is made evident in many instances in the novel by making many characters into that same mockingbird in a way, including the dog, Boo Radley, and Mrs. Dubose herself. However, this theme also includes the innocence of that mockingbird being stolen. In How to Read Literature Like A Professor, Chapter 12 ‘Is That A Symbol?’ , Foster

In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the major themes resides in the fact that while people come and go, rumors last forever. Dill, one of the characters in this novel, has a sudden and profound realization which embodies this idea: "I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... It's because he wants to stay inside" (227). Boo Radley, a prevalent, although often unseen, character in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, was no exception. Throughout the novel, rumors and lies altered the public perception of Boo Radley. Very often, these rumors propagated, as they were distorted further

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the story of a small town named Maycomb Located in Alabama, highlighting the adventures of the finch children and many other people in the small town. The people in this town are very judgemental and of each other and it often leads to people being labeled with stereotypes and people think they know everything about that person however that is not reality. It is not possible to know the reality of a person 's life by placing a stereotype without seeing it through their own eyes and experiencing the things they experience. This happens often throughout the story with many people in the town. People are labeled as many things such a “monster” a “nigger” and many other things that seem to put them in their

“You rarely win but sometime you do.” Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” demonstrates what perseverance is and influence it can change against other people’s attitudes. Within the novel, the protagonist views may cruel realities but simultaneously acknowledges the values of qualities within people. The courage and mettle of fighting whatever comes ahead even if it results in life or death. With the protagonist’s audacity to defend the innocent only through words and persistence. “To Kill a Mockingbird” also highlights the truth towards the whole society can alter the definition of justice. Here, Atticus defends a black man for his words for the right to have a voice within society and not to be misjudged due to racism. Hence, Harper Lee uses the novel to convey the

The bond between a father and a son is perhaps a thing of beauty. It is sometimes what bonds them together to survive horrible occasions, such as the Holocaust that Elie Wiesel and his father went through. Throughout the march to the Birkenau concentration camps, some sons and fathers took advantage of their father's’ old age and used it to steal or betray them. This displays how dehumanization plays a role in breaking apart a family bond that was instilled in their hearts on their first days of humanity.

Sylvester Stallone once said, “The biggest and most interesting crisis in the world is the human crisis… You don’t need a gimmick, it’s just man against man and their intolerance of each other.” This intolerance is shown throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. It leads to inhumanity, loss of childhood innocence and loneliness, all of which are key themes that the characters in the novel experience. Inhumanity is defined by Mr Dolphus Raymond as, “The simple hell people give other people” (P 222). In the novel, inhumanity is the root of many people’s loneliness and the origin of many children’s loss of innocence.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was published in 1960. This novel is a realistic fiction book about a family who lives in Alabama during the Great Depression. This book has a real life plot centered around prejudice ideas that are very relatable to people who lived during the Great Depression era. Prejudice causes many social injustice issues in the novel. Many of them are based on the segregation of whites and blacks in the south during the Great Depression era. Aside from the main racial prejudice, there are two other types of prejudice, one being social class and the other gender. Prejudice is a frequent problem in the novel that really defines the plot and characters.

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee many people in the town of Maycomb are treated very differently due to their skin color, or rumors they heard from people. Arthur “Boo” Radley was treated differently because he was never seen. When truly Boo isn't any of what they think but because people look at the outside of a person they judge them and treat people different because they aren't like them. The author reveals that it is important to recognize that all humans deserve respect regardless of their status in society.

The root of any discrimination is dehumanization, no large group of people can sincerely hate or cause pain to a group of people based off of race, color, sexuality, gender, religion or any other separating factor without dehumanizing them. Every single time in history where people in power have taken advantage of a specific group of people, they have had to dehumanize them. There is no debate about that. Harper Lee not only uses To Kill a Mockingbird as a direct protest against the Jim Crow Laws, but she also protests the reason people allowed themselves to sleep at night.

The novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, was a tragic story about a young Jewish boy, who was thrown into a concentration camp. Throughout the duration of World War 2, Elie, the boy, faced many struggles and felt the worst pain imaginable. This book serves as a memoir of what really happened to the Jews during the war. However, Elie’s story does not start from the very beginning. It all started when Adolf Hitler first came into power in 1933. Hitler’s beliefs escalated quickly to the horrors of the Holocaust. Millions of Jews, homosexuals, and disabled were killed for no simple reason, leaving the rest of the world to remember what truly did happen during World War 2.

The theme of man’s inhumanity to man is conveyed in Night through the Nazi’s horrendous treatment towards the Jews. The greatest and most terrifying enemy in the novel was not the crematories, weapons, or the concentration camps, but the people behind them all. It is painful to believe that Hitler and his followers could have so much hatred for an innocent group of people. Not only were the Jews normal residents, they were fellow neighbors and figures in society. The Holocaust is an excellent example of the epic battle of man versus man, where the Jews are forced to face the Nazis and the other Jews fighting for survival.

Race has always been a part of history, from slavery to MLK, to Barack Obama. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee defines race in the south during the 1930’s. Jean “Scout” Finch, is the narrator of the story. Her brother Jeremy “Jem” and her dad, Atticus, are both main characters. Calpurnia is their house cook and helper, she is also black. Tom Robinson is a black man who is wrongfully convicted of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. This novel goes through Scout's life from when she was 6, till she is 9. She lives in the town of Maycomb Alabama, and lives an innocent life until about halfway through the story, where she begins to ask questions. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout shows the readers that racial inequality creates an unjust society through the African American community, through the people surrounding colored folks, and through Tom Robinson’s Case.

Although it is often criticized and misunderstood, the foreshadowing used in To Kill A Mockingbird is much like the same technique used in various movies and literature today. There are many times when Harper Lee uses foreshadowing in her novel, which is to give clues about what is about to happen next. Part I of the novel is a large example of a foreshadow. While some people claim Part I of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is pointless, Lee uses specific events in Part I to highlight critical ideas in the novel through foreshadowing.

In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee shows that we shouldn’t be too quick to judge another person’s character based on outward appearance and the stories and rumors we have heard. The character Boo Radley is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t be hasty to judge. On the outside, Boo looks like a scary neighbor that lives just a few houses away. “.....he had sickly white hands that had never seen the sun. His face was as white as his hands…..” (Harper Lee page 32 ) Boo’s mouth is described as wide and his eyes look gray. “So gray that I thought he was blind.” (Harper Lee page 32.) But in reality, on the inside, he is a good hearted person.

In the literary works Night, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the “Rwandan Genocide,” many human rights outlined in “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” were violated. Night is an autobiography written by Elie Wiesel, who was a Jew that survived the Holocaust. He suffered in several different concentration camps, enduring the pain they inflicted. To Kill a Mockingbird is a historical fiction novel written in retrospect of fictional events. Scout, the narrator, is a young girl whose family is experiencing the Depression and segregation. Her father, Atticus (a lawyer), is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, from accusations of raping a young woman. The “Rwandan Genocide” is an informational text written to explain what happened