Analysis Of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

There are countless people who judge others by their image or the words whispered by friends. This has been true since people have begun interacting with one another. Indeed, people feel the need to categorize everything and everyone leading to stereotyping and bias based upon appearances. In today’s society, there are many incidents involving racial and gender inequality demonstrating that little has changed since the 1960s. In this novel, Scout Finch, a young girl, recounts her life as she observes social concerns including racism and prejudice. When her father Atticus, a criminal attorney, agrees to defend an innocent black man, Scout comes to realize that not everything is as perfect as it seems. Appropriately, Scout and her brother Jem learn not to judge others as a result of interactions with three characters that they encounter throughout their childhood. Boo Radley, known as the town’s ‘evil monster’, Mrs. Dubose, an elderly, ill-tempered woman who lives near the Finches and Tom Robinson, an African-American man being accused of raping a white woman that is being defended by their father, all teach the children that character is not a reflection of one’s outwards appearance. As such, through knowing these people and their circumstances, Scout and Jem’s sense of social justice and fairness matures. It is through their eyes that Harper Lee, in To Kill a Mockingbird, demonstrates the immorality of judging others without consideration of who they are and what

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

It has been said that history always repeats itself. One can even go so far as to say that, in essence, history never changes. To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel from 1960, yet the themes that are present within its pages correlate with many aspects of modern society; the theme of prejudice having a strong tie to the present day. Throughout the novel the reader is exposed to many forms of discrimination through the eyes of the young girl, Scout. Not only is prejudice presented in the form of social divide, but also in the form of sexism and racism. When one looks at modern society, there is no amount of denial that can eliminate the fact that even in the twenty first century prejudice still exists, despite efforts to eradicate

The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is one of the greatest works of American literature. It has been reprinted again and again, and is a staple in almost any writing or history class. There are a number of reasons why it can be argued that this novel is one of the greatest ever written, but perhaps the most compelling reason is that the complex, adult issue of prejudice explored in this novel is relayed to the reader through the eyes of a child.

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, has created a complex story about racism, prejudice and family. Many have argued about the main, underlying message,but the message that resonates with me is about the necessity of character development and change influenced by society. Harper Lee shows us this through the eyes of a young girl who doesn't know much about the world and her views are ever changing. The author’s message is delivered to us through a mixture symbols, metaphors and a wide array of diction.

True, pure courage is a erratic thing. One can never know whether the intentions of the person who displays it are sincere and rightful, rather than based on conceited or egotistical reasons. In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee illustrates a variety of different kinds of courage through many of her characters, using pride, morality, impulsiveness, and love as the main reasons for its emergence. Though every one of Lee’s character’s displays of courage is significant in their own way, three characters come to mind when the thought of true courage is presented; Atticus Finch, Scout Finch and Arthur Radley.

Our past influences everything we do; from day to day life, to the creative projects we share with the world. This certainly holds true for Harper Lee and Albert Camus, both of whom are authors of award winning novels. These authors allowed their backgrounds to shine through in their writing. Even though some points are more obvious than others, it is easy to find references to the authors’ lives in their stories.

Harper Lee grew up as a tomboy in a small town in Alabama. Lee’s father was a lawyer and a

Immigrants from all over the world come to America with the idea of freedom in mind. Frequently, people think of the type of freedom found in America as a life without constraints, a place where they can express their opinions and act without judgement. The New Oxford English Dictionary defines freedom as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint” (“Freedom”). The promise of freedom in America brings hope, but this hope is not always necessarily fulfilled. Throughout American history, people have fought for many freedoms. While the government integrates these freedoms into laws, people hoping for a life “without hindrance” may find that many times, they still run into obstacles that challenge their

“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum...There was no hurry, for there was no where to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb.” (Lee 6) In Harper Lee’s classic story To Kill a Mockingbird,

An individual’s beliefs are often a reflection of the expectations placed on them by society, family, friends and themselves. The type of pressure experienced differs according to social status as well as level of education. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee that follows the life of a young girl named Scout Finch and her experiences as she grows up in the small, Southern town of Maycomb. Through Scout and her family; ideas of injustice, prejudice, courage and character are expanded upon as she explores both her external environment as well as her inner self. As she learns about the world around her and develops opinions on its workings, she often finds herself being challenged by her community and their expectation of what her morals and values should be. More often than not, it is these social standards standing juxtaposed to the morals of the Finch family that help develop a deeper understanding of the ignorance that has shaped Maycomb and its citizens. With this ignorance came underdeveloped models of what each gender, age, race and caste should look like, and these models became the standard of normality for the town. Maycomb’s tendency to follow tradition without question only helped to solidify outdated expectations on collectives. As a direct result, the standards held by the community were considered to be correct, and those who thought otherwise were often pressured into altering their beliefs.

“I could take being called a coward for him. I felt extremely noble for having remembered”(102). In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee, explores the racial predicaments of the 1920’s and how the matter affected the community of Maycomb County.

“Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behaviour is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego”. Harper Lee crafts Jem proficiently enough to allow analysts to apply three components to explain Jem’s personal development and maturity growth. The id relates to Jem’s initial self, super ego relates to his learning curve during Tom Robinson's trial and the ego is how he comes to a substantial understanding of the world around him.

One should not be judged by their physical appearance but should be judged by their work ethic and response to problems that occur in their life. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird the main character's father Atticus, is a very respectable man with a very good work ethic. Due to this he is a very well known man throughout the town. In the novel Atticus has many obstacles he must overcome and problems he must resolve. Through all the of these times Atticus uses perseverance to get through them, including raising Jem and Scout, his two kids, by himself. Also Atticus used perseverance to overcome the persecution for representing a colored man in court. When characters persevere they are able to create positive changes for others.

Mockingbirds (Innocence/ morals and values)– The book depicts mockingbirds as innocent creatures that shouldn’t be harmed since they did nothing to harm others. While practicing with their rifles, Atticus tells Jem and Scout that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. The mockingbirds share a connection with Tom Robinson since they are both innocent and don’t deserve to be harmed. However, due to the racist attitudes of southern American citizens in the 1930s, he was killed. Similar to killing a mockingbird, only evil came from it. It prevented nothing bad and presented nothing good, it only served to shake Maycomb citizens’ faith in justice. (Jem and Atticus especially)