“To Kill A Mockingbird” Character Analysis Essay
In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Mayella Ewell, a young woman as well as the daughter of Bob Ewell, lives a life of insolence and isolation in the town of Maycomb. As a Ewell, which they are familiarized as being vulgar, uneducated, and indigent, Mayella is disrespected by the people of Maycomb as well as by her father. During the court case, Atticus shows courtesy towards Mayella by addressing her as a miss and a ma’am, which is not surprising for his values of equality. Mistaking his manners with sarcasm, she replies with, “Won’t answer a word you say as long as you keep mockin’ me” (pg.181). Harper Lee is demonstrating the amount of disregard Mayella faces in her life, so much that courtesy can’t be identified as just that. Mayella finds that Atticus is ridiculing her for what she doesn’t have, respect from others. With a reputation such as Mayella’s, people treat her like an outcast. Her lonely life can be a reason to explain why she always asked for Tom Robinson’s company, she wanted to experience friendship and perhaps love for the first time. Her loneliness was so clear to see, even Scout, who still has their childhood-innocent mind, can see through it. Scout compares Mr.Dolphus Raymond’s “mixed children” to Mayella because they both don’t know where to stand in their social class, “white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her
Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is an exceedingly powerful novel. It includes many significant minor themes such as racism and hatred which leave the reader to have grown more attentive to the past once they complete the book. The book takes place in Maycomb County Alabama during the great depression. During this period there was a great deal of hate and prejudice towards people of color, in addition to a great regard to social class. The novels protagonists, Atticus Finch a well-respected lawyer and his children Jeremy “Jem” Finch and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch are a few of the towns occupants who respect others regardless of social class or race. For this reason, Atticus has no objections
To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses unhypocritical, more experienced characters like Atticus to expose Jem and Scout to adult knowledge. Their adult influence is what brings about the empathetic growth and maturity of Jem and Scout.
Mayella Ewell has been mistreated her whole life, and it has changed her for the worse. “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a negro cabin” (page 227). The Ewells are the most destitute white residents in Maycomb. Mayella is forced to live in a cramped and unkempt shack along with her many siblings and alcoholic father, and that is certainly not acceptable living quarters for any child. Aside from Mr. Ewell’s poor excuse for a home, he abuses Mayella. She knew that it was wrong of her father to beat her, but she would not admit it to anyone. “My paw’s never touched a hair o’ my head in my life” (page 246), was Mayella’s response to Atticus when he questioned her about their relationship. Mayella was lying out of confusion and fear. She worried what might happen to her father, and she worried what Mr. Ewell would do to her if she
Can you recollect a person that you hate all the time? Is this person rude, not sociable, emotionally abusive, or just plain racist? In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the novel digs deep into the roots of Social Classes. One of these classes, in particular, is “White Trash.” “White Trash” is a class that has the poor white people that don’t contribute much to society and sometimes even make the society worse. There is one character that everyone loathes in Maycomb, and he is Mr. Ewell. Harper Lee portrays Mr. Ewell and his kids as uneducated, racist, murderous pigs because of three reasons. This family disrespects other members of the community in cruel ways, abuses their power by accusing a black man of rape, and tries to kill two
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird and in the movie by the same name have a scene where the character named Atticus must shoot a mad dog coming up the street. In the book, it goes into great detail of the events leading up to the mad dog incident, as stated in To Kill a Mockingbird,¨ “What’s he doing?”
For Tom Robinson, Atticus and Boo Radley life was simple. Boo in the town of Maycomb is what the people call a phantom. Tom Robinson is on trial for rape. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, there are characters that are “mockingbirds.” A mockingbird is a bird that does nothing wrong, they leave the people alone, and they just sing their little hearts out. In the book Atticus, Tom and Boo represent mockingbirds. Why?
Children may be the path to better comprehending society. Having no inherent sense of evil, they may not truly understand bias or discrimination until they have matured. In To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, three young children in the modest southern of Maycomb are forced to witness people at their worst at an unspeakable time in American history. Maycomb’s orderly community is greatly disturbed for the better when Dill Harris, Jem Finch, and Scout Finch create chaos and instill change because of their childhood innocence.
To kill a mockingbird and my mockingbird is an example of racism, and it is explained and represented as a mockingbird inIn the story to kill a mocking bird, it taught us an idea about prejudice and caring. Like the sin of killing mocking bird in the story. One of the most important Mocking Bird in my life is my mom, and every mockingbird needs to be protected, and loved. To love a my mom like loving a mockingbird, I need to keep it away from danger, and do what I can.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, there are various struggles between good and evil. Although there will always be good in the world, evil will always overshadow it. Throughout the story, Harper Lee uses several examples to show how there is both good and evil in the world. Jem and Scout are logically some of the most innocent characters. Since they are so young and don’t understand that some people aren’t as gracious as they seem, it’s evident that they both have some of the most developed characters in the book. On several occasions Jem and Scout have many encounters with immoral characters. One of the first times they encounter the evil of the world is when Atticus takes Tom Robinson’s court case. Despite the fact that Tom is on trial for raping Mayella Ewell, he could also be considered an innocent character. Tom is a very honorable and moral character in the story, and therefore would be considered innocent. Boo Radley would also be thought of as an innocent character. The reason behind this thinking is that since he never leaves his house, never interacts with the townspeople, and has been a hermit all of his life, he hasn’t had the chance to be around the evil of the world yet. Even though there are all of these wholesome characters in the novel, the decisions of others greatly affect how they behave throughout the rest of the book.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story centers on a girl named Jean Louise Bullfinch, but is nicknamed scout she is a curious and ambitious 6 year old. The main idea is how Scout loses her innocence in the process of maturing and understanding the harsh realities of her world like inequality and discrimination in her community. Jem her older brother went through a broken elbow injury but he healed. Though his fears assuaged to never being able to play football ever again. Her father Atticus is a lawyer and protective of her, he taught her all that he knows that's how she became such an intelligent 6 year old. She never knew her mother and does not miss her as much but her brother misses her very much, he said that he adored her. The only kind of mother figure she ever had was calpurnia their cook. Scout could feel her tyrannical presence as long as she remembered. Dill was a curiosity that came to Scout and Jem that summer and gave them the idea of making Boo Radley come out. The Radley place was inhabited by an unknown entity the mere description of whom would make Scout, Jem, and Dill behave for days on end.
People who live in false mindsets only face disappointments in life. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates through numerous actions of various characters, how a positive belief that people will do the right thing, only leads to disappointment. At one point in the story Atticus says, “Serving on a jury forces a man to makeup his mind and declare himself about something. Men don’t like to do that” (p.297). Knowing the events of the novel, everyone with a positive belief expects the men to make the right decision. While on the contrary, a pessimistic group acknowledges the fact that the right decision will not be made by the “white” jury. The guilty verdict of the jury shows that the belief that people are inherently good and if given the chance will do the right thing is a negative characteristic. This same idea is proven several times in the novel, such as when Atticus faces dangerous situations, Scout comes face to face with indirect racism, and finally in Jem showing dismay in negative occurrences.
A great portion of humanity is selfish, a myriad of individuals trying to get by without being victimized by the horrors of life yet they never escape. Harper Lee’s award winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird tells the story of mockingbirds from the perspective of a young soul who comprehends humans are not chaste. This novel shows how cruelty is something cast down people in the town of Maycomb such as Walter Cunningham are accustomed to, how cruelty forces people to make decisive actions which allow Scout to grasp their consequences, and how cruelty occasionally sculptes a kind hearted individual.
In “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Atticus, the father of Jem and Jean, had taken the position on giving Jem and Jean valuable lessons on what they are in. One of those lessons, were Jem being a gentlemen; Atticus taught him by promptly going to Mrs. Dubose’s house and read for a month - after wrecking her garden -, Dubose died, as Atticus told Jem that she died minutes ago and said “she was a great lady,” Jem was confused about why call her a lady after disrespecting him; besides the main idea, the main theme Atticus showed Jem to be a gentle, or otherwise, accept the human dignity; the respect to the human race; to respect in Maycomb County. Therefore, Atticus has the capability of being a good father to Jem and Jean.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird pleads America to embrace the grotesque in order to become a fuller nation. Characters like Boo Radley, Bob Ewell, and Tom Robinson render the warped reality of a Southern town. Lee’s book not only defends people of color, but also uses dainty symbolism to promote the assimilation of both races, and uses the innocence of children not to show ignorance but as progressive, where the future lies in the hands of the children. By the “freakening” of the cast of Maycomb County, Lee shows rationality behind the strangeness of others, the decay of southern morals, and humanizes them in a way only a Southern gothic could.