To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a book about the racial tensions and segregation that arose in the 1930’s. The general storyline is about the main characters, Scout and Jem. At the start of the story, Jem and Scout were always discriminating against other characters, especially Boo Radley. The town was split in half due to racial segregation and Atticus Finch, their father, was a lawyer who doesn’t care who he’s representing because he’s a man of integrity and decency. Scout and Jem eventually mature and start to understand the dangers of discrimination after they see that Boo Radley is just a human and not the person that they all made him into.
In the play, it shows Willy is soft and insecure not just a crazy man. Biff, Willy’s son had caught his father cheating on his mother and that made him feel angry at his father. Willy did not know how his son felt; Willy says [directly to Biff] “what’re you doing? What’re you doing?” Biff says [crying, broken] “will you let me go, for Christ’s sake?
To Kill a Mockingbird is an inspiring tale exploring an abundance of flaws in humanity and giving insight into the worst kind of people we can be. The novel covers many controversial topics, such as rampant racism, prejudice, and hypocrisy. The story follows Jem and Scout Finch, the children of Atticus Finch, a lawyer appointed to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white woman in 1930’s Maycomb, Alabama. This forces Atticus to deal with the stress and judgment of defending Tom in a society where no one wants to side with him, while Jem and Scout face a similar judgment for being Atticus’ children. Lee uses this setting to paint an extremely vivid picture of prejudice, which shows just how profound their effects can be.
Harper Lee develops the metaphor of a mockingbird to illustrate how people who defy social norms are critiqued, misconstrued, and discriminated against by others. To begin, Dolphus Raymond is a wealthy white man who has an African American mistress and children of mixed race. He is constantly judged by the townspeople due to the fact that he is constantly in a drunk and prefers to be with the blacks rather than with his own race. During the trial, however, Scout and Dill realize that he actually is drinking Coke and is using it as a cover so the community can justify his actions. His reasoning for this is that "When I come to town… if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond 's in the clutches of whiskey—that 's why he won 't change his ways.
The human nature can be a vile, corrupt, and heinous object that will do anything to benefit itself and put down others. This is the bleak reality of the human nature. LoTF, written by William Golding, and Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini are two books that follow the tragic stories of young boys who lost and sacrificed everything when they succumbed to their evil desires. Lord of the Flies and Kite runner both shed light on human nature by showing the inherent evil that can be evoked, how it can lead to the loss of childhood innocence, and the sacrifices we are willing to make.
Many characters had to face reality to see how people of color are really treated. Other characters lost hope for the white race to recognize people of color as equals. And several other characters used the power of words to restore that hope and help other characters throughout the course of the book. Eventually, the power of words and books like To Kill A Mockingbird made white people face the reality that people of color are in fact their
The fact that Mr Cunningham tells Atticus they want to kill Tom shows that Atticus symbolizes a mockingbird because he is risking his life defending him when he could easily let him die. Although, Atticus’s kids ( Jem and Scout Finch ) were attacked by Bob Ewell because Atticus soiled his already lackluster reputation. Jem and Scout were traveling through the woods when they hear a rustle in the bushes, a few moments later Bob comes up behind both of them with a knife. As Jem is struggling with Bob he breaks his arm and gets knocked out. Before Bob has a chance to kill them both Radley comes to the rescue and kills Bob Ewell.
On the surface, it could seem at first that we are born into a world blanketed with hopeless, moral fog, but throughout the fog, which is created by none other than the forces of conscience and emotion that pumps through our mortal bodies, are the wandering, searching souls of our innocence, praying to emerge unscathed, and our corruption preying on the previously named. Three characters in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” remarkably portray separate, yet very evident representations of the infamous mockingbird and contribute a view that maybe there are more mockingbirds then what is first assumed. These three characters: “Boo” Radley, Scout Finch, and Tom Robinson, resided in the slow, quaint, old town of Maycomb, County, Alabama. In
His feelings towards Tim were like how he took on defending Tom Robinson as well. Then when tensions rose with Tom’s case, so did the nerves seconds before Tim’s last breath. The rabid dog then made his last appearance when representing all the racism and prejudice Maycomb was going through. This dog foreshadowed so many things in relation to the trial and how Atticus would handle them. Even though Atticus did everything he could have, the once innocent black man was now deemed a man guilty of raping a white woman during The Great Depression, and no one could do anything about
This shows loss of civilization and innocence because Piggy was killed by his own peers of the island. Murder destroys innocence, and the fact that the boys purposefully killed him using the boulder shows how far from civilization they have become. Another example of Golding’s use of similes is when Ralph sees the “Lord of the flies”. “He walked slowly into the middle of the clearing and looked steadily at the skull that gleamed as white as ever the conch had done and seemed to jeer at him cynically,”(185). Here, the conch’s power and authority over the boys is compared to the power and authority the “Lord of the Flies” now possesses.
Atticus expresses compassion in To Kill a Mockingbird by acknowledging that Mrs. Dubose cannot control her actions even though she is very mean to his children. After Atticus finds out what Jem has done to her camellias, he shows compassion towards Mrs Dubose by talking to Jem about how what he did “to an old lady was inexcusable” (128). Mrs. Dubose struggled to control her morphine addiction before she passed away, causing her to act mean and aggressive towards Atticus and his children. Atticus wants his children to understand that some people cannot control their actions even though the reason is not apanent.
In conclusion the quote “Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” teaches Scout and the reader that it would be wrong to kill or harm something good and innocent in the world because they are good and innocent, would make the world a worse place, and they do for us it. Finally think how you have treated people who are mockingbirds, how can you do something for them in return, and how can you become one of these people
Remember the days spent dancing with imaginary friends, tea parties with stuffed animals who could talk, then going to bed with the boogie man under the bed? The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about Jem and Scouts journey through their youth as they work to deal with tough subjects such as rape, racism, and the realization that the world is not how they once viewed it. Throughout the story, Lee demonstrates the loss of childhood innocence, which shows that one's true perspective of the world is obtained through maturity. To begin with, all children experience innocence in their youth, but as they grow up, their understanding of the real world betters.
To Kill A Mockingbird is about racism and diversity, Atticus doesn't care about the color of a mans skin and took on a colored mans case and defended him against rape charges. Harper Lee offers several examples of symbolism to explain the themes diversity, racism, and courage. Smykowski explains “ First of all, the creation of the snowman by Jem can be seen as being symbolic of Jem trying to cover up the black man and Showing that he is the same as a white man, that all of mankind is virtually the same.” Jem believes everybody is the same no matter the skin color. If you’re in the right and you’re telling the truth then you're free and innocent.