Analysis Of To Kill A Mockingbird, By Harper Lee

Scout begins to notice the change in Jem’s personality and feels offended because she doesn't quite understand. On page 153 the text reads, “Over night, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me: several times he went so far as to tell me what to do.” Jem gets older and begins a long path of puberty. This, Scout does not understand yet. Jem moving towards a more adult like personality upsets Scout. Jem’s loss of innocence is a change but also begins to creates a new daily understanding for both Jem and Scout.

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.

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.

           Furthermore, on morals, Jem takes his father's advice and steps into other people’s places and sees things from their point of view. One example of this would be how Jem comes to the realization that Arthur Radley, the town shut in who is also known as Boo, stays in his home because he wants to. When realizing this, Jem not only creates a moral but also begins to think for himself instead of believing the lies told by the town gossips. In the beginning of the story Jem believes Arthur has stayed in his house all this time because he is forced to. Jem also believes that Boo is insane and has tried to kill his own family. Nonetheless, Jem does step into Arthur’s shoes and see the town from his perspective. By doing this Jem sees the town as a hateful place filled with judge full people and explains it to Scout that Arthur stays inside because he wants too. This actualization of Arthur ensures that Jem uses this technique with many other situations.

The first change we see in Jem is when he is able to see the good in people despite what others have said about them. “I wanted you to see something about her - I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a

Atticus teaches Jem and scout a number of important lessons which will help them in life. However tolerance is one of the most important, because if people tolerate one another then things like war or racism will not exist, and they are two of the biggest areas of conflict in the world. Atticus models tolerance for his children by taking the case of and accused rapist. He defends a black man even though most of the town is against it and treat him discourteously because of it. Scout went against her father’s wishes by not

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 “To Kill a Mockingbird” is set in a small Southern United States community called Maycomb during the Great Depression era. The whole book primarily revolves around segregation and racism and how it relates to Maycomb’s history. It eventually leads to the trial of Tom Robinson where he is accused of beating up and raping Mayella Ewell. Even though it was clear that Tom Robinson did not do anything wrong he was convicted by an all white jury simply because he was black. The trial of Tom Robinson and its verdict shows an example of how segregation in the court system prevents fair trials from occurring.

Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem matures through three important stages of his life. Within these stages Jem’s experiences such as creating plays about Boo Radley, reading to Mrs. Dubose, and processing the Tom Robinson trial all taught him

Jem initially acts childish but starts to think and act like an adult to decisions where he previously would take the immature route. Jem demonstrates his child-like thinking with his vivid imagination. Jem’s imagination has distorted his image of Boo Radley a neighbor with a mysterious past Jem fictitiously describes Boo as a person

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, it is evident that the characters act immorally when put in difficult situations. When good people are put in bad environments, their moral lines become blurred. The Great Gatsby is set on Long Island in the 1920’s. The Roaring Twenties are characterized by their loose morals. Money, alcohol, greed, and lust infiltrates the lives of the characters in the novel. The famous neurologist, Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Personality states that within every individual lies an Id, superego, and ego. Id is one’s primitive instinct and it shows when one is put in a bad environment. The superego acts as guilt to warn the person of the consequence that will be faced if the Id becomes free. The ego on the other hand is the part of the brain that tries to find a balance between fulfilling the Id without the consequence of the superego. It is evident that in this novel, most of the character’s Id are uncontrollable. In the The Great Gatsby, morals are disregarded and ethics are ignored by Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom.

By the middle of the novel Jem changes his perspective towards Boo Radley because he started to think beyond the rumors that people would say. According to the novel, it states “ when I went back, they were folded across the fence....like they were expecting me” (page 58). This explains that Jem thinks that Boo Radley isn't dangerous at all so he feels he is misunderstood because there was no proof. Jem realizes that a person is more than the sum of his parts. He feels sad for Boo Radley because everybody thinks that he is dangerous man when he is not.

Following the devastating trial of Tom Robinson, Jem starts to face the reality of adulthood and figures out answers to questions he has been pondering all his life. While having a conversation with Scout, Jem tells her that “[he thinks he is] beginning to understand why [Arthur] Radley stayed shut up in his house all this time… it’s because he wants to stay inside” (304). Jem realizes this lesson through some unfortunate experiences; he has witnessed the cruelty of the world and concludes this is the reason Author wants to stay inside. After witnessing an innocent man get falsely convicted at the trial shortly before, Jem sees how unfair life can be and is astonished by it. Jem loses his childhood innocence after seeing true racial injustice for the first time. He no longer blames Arthur Radley for not coming out because he understands the dangers of prejudice and hate that exists throughout Maycomb. For better or worse Jem now understands the severity of prejudice in the world. This is an important lesson to learn because if no one addresses or acknowledges the problems they will never get

In addition to Jem’s childish, protective, and playful nature- he is also scheming and possesses a clever mind. He demonstrates this with his knack for avoiding conflict, finding loopholes in regards to the rules Atticus has set for him and Scout, and luring out Boo Radley. This mischievousness sometimes causes Jem to be a troublemaker. Despite his cunning nature- as the novel progresses, Jem changes and develops into a more mature and responsible character as