How is the racial problem of the southern states of USA in the 1930s portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird?
The book is set in the small town of Maycomb, where there are a lot of prejudice and mean people. Many events happen throughout the book and a lot of them show characters as people who don’t do anything wrong but still get some kind of negativity towards them. The mockingbird idea is shown by Tom, Boo, and Atticus.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the segregated South of the 1930’s. The book is told in the eyes of an eight year old girl, Scout Finch. Her father, Atticus Finch, is an attorney who is struggling to prove the innocence of a black man incorrectly accused of rape. The historical context of the book lets one see the social status of different groups during the civil rights era. The story explores who fits into certain societies, who is respected in the community, written and unwritten rules concerning family, gender, age, and race, expectations of certain people, and what conflicts arise out of tension.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about two kids, Jem and Scout, and their childhood in their small town Maycomb, Alabama. In the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout were two innocent kids playing in the summer sun, until school came along. Jem was about twelve throughout the novel and Scout was eight, and considering that Jem was twelve in the novel, he was changing. During the middle of the novel a rape trial occurred, which included a black man being accused by a white woman of first-degree rape. Atticus, the kid’s father was defending the african american man; Tom Robinson. Jem was lost in society throughout this part of the novel, yet towards the end of the novel he had learned more to understand his community. At the
How do we start to understand the people around us? In chapter 12 of “To Kill A Mockingbird” Harper Lee uses setting, conflict, and character in order to develop the theme of coming of age. Coming of age involves us recognizing that everyone has a different perspective. The character Scout, in the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”, learns this theme by realizing the variety of perspectives around her.
Have you ever watched the movie adaptation of a book, only to find that the book is far superior to it’s movie counterpart? Oftentimes when a book is adapted into a movie, there are some differences between the two. Sometimes the differences are subtle, but other times the differences are dramatic and can affect the development of the story. An example of this is the movie adaptation of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To Kill A Mockingbird is a story that takes place during the Great Depression in Alabama. It is a coming of age story narrated by the main character, Scout Finch, and displays the way that she and her brother, Jem Finch, mature. In the movie adaptation of this classic novel, multiple events were changed, which affected the development of the story and of certain characters. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird was better than the movie because the novel developed the setting, the dual plots, the theme of racism, and the character of Jem Finch better than the movie. Additionally, multiple events were omitted from the movie.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scouts changing perspective of Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley represents a coming of age moment because it demonstrates a breaking away from the childlike imagination that had previously explained all of their questions and superstitions about the Radley’s. A coming-of-age moment is the transition of thinking that occurs when someone learns empathy. At the start of the novel, in many situations, Scout and Jem demonstrate childish behavior and thinking when Jem is taunted into touching the side of the Radley home by Scout and Dill. The book reads, “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us” (18). From this portion of the novel we can tell that Jem and Scout clearly regarded the Radley home and its occupants with novelty and even fear. They knew very little about the Radleys and what they did know was simply rumours. This is an example of how their original perspective of the Radleys was. Later in the book we see an obvious change in Scouts thinking and a clear coming-of-age moment when we read “Atticus’s arrival was the second reason I wanted to quit the game. The first reason happened the day I rolled into the Radley front yard. Through all the head-shaking, quelling of nausea and Jem-yelling, I had heard another sound, so low I could not have heard it from the sidewalk. Someone inside the house was laughing” (54). Knowing that Scout at the start of the book viewed the Radleys as
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the term mockingbird symbolizes innocence in a person. In the novel it focuses on the fact that innocence, represented by the mockingbird, can be wrongfully harmed. There are two characters: Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley that are supposed to represent the mockingbird. In the novel, Tom Robinson is the best example of a mockingbird because he is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit. Also, he was judged unfairly based on the color of his skin in his trial. Although some may believe Boo is a better choice for a mockingbird, there is a greater amount of evidence that supports Tom is a mockingbird.
As verbalized by the diarist Anne Frank herself, “‘Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands’” (Goodreads 1). Coming of age is a process depicted through movies and novels through the Bildungsroman plot line. The protagonist, in this form of a plot line, has to face society and its difficulties. The protagonist inclines to have an emotional loss, which triggers the commencement of the journey itself. The story tends to end on the main character being enlightened or also enlightening the society around him/herself. Although To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crucible, and Pleasantville have elements that may suppose the antipode, they are all an example of a Bildungsroman plot because of their connection to the coming of age.
Jem’s maturation process is accelerated by the Tom Robinson trial when he is forced to accept harsh realities. At the beginning of part one, Jem is completely innocent. His actions and his words show that he is immature and that there are many things he does not understand. He has great hubris, or pride, and that clouds his judgement. The first prominent signs of maturation are in chapter 7. The text says, “ ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I filled it up.’ ‘Why’d you do it, sir?’ ‘Tree’s dying.’ … ‘Is that tree dyin’?’ ‘Why no, son, I don’t think so.’ … When we went in the house I saw he had been crying...” (pg 71) Scout and Jem had been finding items in a tree knot, and Mr. Radley filled the knot with cement. Jem realizes that Boo Radley had been leaving items in the
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel about the child hood of a young girl named Jean Louise Finch. It is about the struggles she faced growing up with racial circumstances in the Southern United States. She is often her referred to as Scout Finch through the novel. Scout lives with her brother Jem and their father Atticus in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is a small town where everybody knows everybody.
Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is set sometime in the 1930s in Maycomb County Alabama. The story is told through the point of view of Scout Finch who lives with her father, Atticus, and brother, Jem. The kids like to play pretend with their friend Dill about the man who lives in a scary house down the road, Boo Radley. The kids come in a few close counters along the way during these games in which Atticus does not approve. Scouts’ father, a lawyer, is appointed by Judge Taylor to defend Mr. Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young girl. Atticus is faced with many threats along the way and is shunned in the community for defending a man of such a heinous crime. During the trial Atticus makes many strong arguments and it is plainly
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is a story about inequality, injustice and racism seen through the eyes of two innocent children, Jem and Scout. Jem and Scout live in Maycomb, Alabama and learn these sad lessons through their relationships with their father Atticus, their maid Calpurnia, their mysterious neighbor Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of a terrible crime. Through their relationship with Boo and Tom, Jem and Scout learn about racism and inequality that changes how they see the world. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are two different people who share similar struggles with inequality throughout this story.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel set during the 1930s in a small town in Southern Alabama called Maycomb. The story is told through the narrator, Scout, a young girl who lives with her father, a lawyer, and her older brother Jem. As a child, Scout is portrayed as a stubborn and obnoxious little girl who loves to read, play with her brother Jem, and fantasize about her mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. However, her life gets turned upside down when Scout’s father agrees to do something that is deemed unacceptable in the south; he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a white girl. Instantly, Atticus and his family go from being respected and beloved by their town, to being
“To Kill a Mockingbird “is a coming of age novel. Discuss this statement, with reference to at least two characters.