Analysis Of Harper Lee 's ' Kill A Mockingbird '

To kill a mockingbird can mean many things. It’s the title of a book that has been bought 40 million times. But, it also has a definition. To kill a mockingbird means to destroy innocence. The theme of my literary analysis is mockingbirds. Mockingbirds in TKAM are innocent things tainted by the skewed society of Maycomb. Some of these mockingbirds are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book set in a small Alabama town in the 1930’s. The main character and narrator is Jean Louise Finch, but is almost always called by her nickname, Scout. Scout, her brother, and her summer friend Dill get into all kinds of mischief while living in the racist society of a 1930’s Alabama town. Scout’s dad, Atticus, is a prominent lawyer in Maycomb and is appointed to a controversial case, and is defending a black man. Scout and her brother, Jem go through many troubles and learn many lessons from the days leading up to, and during the trial. The trail makes their family some friends and a lot of enemies. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story of courage and despair. Throughout TKAM, mockingbirds are used as an example of something innocent being tainted by the skewed society of TKAM. Some great examples of these are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children.

In addition, historical influences are incorporated into To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee was raised in a southern environment where race relations were nonexistent. This was a time period of segregation and extreme racial tension. An example of a historical influence is the case of Walter Lett. Lett was accused of raping a white woman in Alabama in the year 1933. “Not long afterward, however, a group of prominent Monroeville citizens, convinced that

I selected this book because its the best book I have ever read. I read To Kill A Mockingbird last year and my class wrote an essay about this book, since I already know so much about this book I thought it would be a nice and quick read. I thought it would be a great enjoyment to refresh my memory of this epic book. I watched the movie soon after I read the whole book and it was very fun to pick out the not-placed and wrong-worded parts of the movie. To Kill A Mockingbird is about a sister, brother, and their friend Dill finding items in their neighbors tree, soon after this their father was the lawyer of a case on an african american.

Harper Lee's childhood was troubled with many of society's racial issues especially a trial in Alabama referred to as the Scottsboro trial of 1931. Lee was only five years old when the trial occurred but she was deeply affected by the trial. Amasa Lee was a lawyer and so he became very interested in the trial like many other people in the community, which lead to Lee being interested. The trial in the book, Tom Robinson's rape case, is a reflection of

Jem and Scout, throughout “To Kill A Mockingbird,” learn to consider things from other people’s perspectives. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, says “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in” (Lee 39). They learn this through experiences with their neighbor Boo Radley as they mature beyond their years. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout make fun of Boo and assume that all of the rumors going around about him are true. However, later on in the story the children grow an admiration for Boo and learn to understand him. As they matured, Jem and Scout naturally learned many life lessons of appreciation, respect, and courage

Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel takes place during the depression in Alabama with the main character, Scout, viewing her lawyer father, Atticus, defending a wrongly accused black man of rape. The reader gets to understand Scout’s childhood view of this controversial situation. Scout’s character in to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is really the author’s own life playing out in the novel, which is most likely why this novel is thought to be one of the best American Novels of the 20th century.

Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in the year of 1960, and is one of the few American classic novels awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The racism that is prevalent in many southern American towns in the 1930s is brought to life with profound imagery in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are several characters in the book, yet the true main character is the narrator's father, Atticus Finch. He is a man of great integrity and intelligence. A very heroic figure in more ways than one, Atticus possesses traits like being principled, determined, and, more importantly, he teaches others. When looking at To Kill a Mockingbird, one can see that Lee uses lots of description, dialogue, and actions to portray Atticus as a heroic individual.

The first historical influence in Lee’s book is the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow are the rules set upon black people to take their rights away. White folk thought that they needed Jim Crow because they wanted to remain superior. White folk also believed that they were the chosen ones. A few examples of Jim Crow are that black people could never say that a white person was lying, even if they were. Black people had separate, hospitals, ect. If there was any sexual interactions between a black and a white person it was illegal. These are just a few of the unfair laws, but if they broke one of these laws the punishments were unimaginable. The whites believed that violence must be used to keep the whites superior, and the blacks were arrested for crimes they didn't do. If a black person disobeyed one of the Jim Crow laws they would risk their jobs, homes, and their lives. One of the worst punishments when a black person would disobey one of the laws were Lynchings. Lynchings were public murders that were sadistic and hosted by mobs(Pilgrim). The

During the years of the 1930’s, the Scottsboro Boys and Tom Robinson went to court due to an alleged rape of a white female. Throughout the events that took place in both cases, Harper Lee repeatedly presented examples of racism and prejudice. Between the court cases of both Tom Robinson and “The Scottsboro Boys,” many of the featured characters’ actions and reactions were similar in responding to the weak evidence.

Throughout the early 1900’s, segregation and other racial hostilities were executed on African Americans due to the color of their skin, therefore, such ignominies were part of the public’s everyday lifestyle; however, Harper Lee did not agree with such ideologies presented on her daily environment.

The plot of the novel is revolving around a racial issue. It is obvious Lee was heavily influenced by these components, they set up the entire book. The racial issues at the time not only influenced Lee’s writing, but her whole life. She was a young girl when these issues were prominent in the area she grew up in. In the 1930’s south Jim Crow laws were still in place, Blacks were separated from whites, and it would have been a shame to intermix with them.

Lee grew up in the south in the early nineteen-hundreds. The people around her felt blacks were beneath whites and gave them many difficulties to put up with. This injustice was especially prominent in court cases, like the one Lee depicts in her novel. Though Harper Lee accepts that there is racism in the community, she reminds us all her own thoughts by giving advice to Scout that all the readers can take something away from: “‘As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it— whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash’”(Lee 224). Clearly, dealing with the injustices of trials at home inspired Lee to write her book and point out the problems we are turning a blind eye to in our own country. Using her personal background in the oppression of the south, Harper Lee shed light on the issue by depicting the issue in her remarkably well-written

To start, Tom Robinson’s unfair jury ruling displays the court system’s corruption and unfair bias against minorities. Along with this, Lee’s brilliant use of Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s false yet intentional portrayal as an alcoholic displays the way that people are expected to act certain ways based on racial decisions. Finally, Harper Lee’s demonstration of segregation among blacks and whites can be easily related to acts of segregation in a modern society. It is clear that the actions of both whites and blacks are the reason for the continuation of racism in the United States.

Harper Lee’s novel reflects how life was in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930’s. She describes all the racism and prejudice that happens during this time. She wrote a story from the view of a little girl named Scout. While events happen in the story, character traits about Scout become visible. Scout is presented to be a very inquisitive, exasperated, and mischievous girl.

Lee wants to make explicit the consequences of racism and to guide the reader's judgment of this episode in the novel. She accomplishes these goals, in part, by employing Tom Robinson's trial to allude to the famous "Scottsboro Boys" trials of the 1930s. These trials featured nine black defendants accused of rape by