Compare To Kill A Mockingbird And The Help

Compare how the theme of courage is explored in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help?

The novel “To Kill a Mocking Bird” is based in the fictional small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. When slavery and the Civil War were still present in the people’s way of living and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s are far from close. The novel focuses on the Finches: Scout, her brother Jem, and their father Atticus, and the trial of Tom Robinson and how it affected them and the town. Witnessing the injustice of Tom Robinson’s trial changed Scout Finch in many ways. Scout learns that there is more than one type of courage, she learns about race and its complexity, and she also changes how she views the people around her by putting herself

During the 1930’s depression, there was a great divide between black and white America. There were many communities and groups who had been exposed to the same treatment and persecution as the Negroes in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee has used a small town setting, such as that in To Kill a Mockingbird, to illustrate America’s views on white supremacy and the inferiority of the black race. The author has illustrated view that are expressed world-wide through her characters in Maycomb county.

“To Kill a Mockingbird”, written by Harper Lee and “Mississippi Burning” directed Alan Parker can be compared and contrasted with each other. Both texts share many themes especially the theme of prejudice where one group of people had bigoted views against another. It is shown in the form of racism throughout the two stories where whites discriminate the blacks. In the town of Maycomb and Mississippi, there is bias, discrimination and injustice between the blacks and whites. Both Harper Lee and Alan Parker explore this theme of prejudice through what their characters stand for, the events that took place during both text and the context behind both stories.

'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a novel that was written in the 1960s, but Harper Lee decided to set the novel in the Depression era of the 1930s in a small town in Alabama. Lee provided her readers with a historical background for the affairs of that time and in doing so she exposed the deeply entrenched history of the civil rights in South America. Like the main characters in this novel, Lee grew up in Alabama; this made it easier for her to relate to the characters in the novel as she would have understood what they would have experienced during the period when racism, discrimination and inequality was on the increase within the American society.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that takes place in Alabama during the Great Depression. It is narrated by the main character who is a little girl named Jean Louise Finch aka “Scout”. Scout has a father named Atticus who is a lawyer and an older brother. The Finch’s are a white family and when Atticus goes to defend a black man, the whole town is shocked.This novel has tons of racism. Racism is an issue that is still current. Large amounts of racism are expressed in the novel still happens today through racial profiling, police brutality, and segregation.

Discrimination throughout America has created a monumental impact on people of all race, religion, and ethnicity. It has outraged and criticised minorities of the entire U.S population. It might seem like a small deal, but only the people facing discrimination would know. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and the movie The Help by Tate Taylor, are based on similar ideas of how discrimination has made an impact on everyday lives of people who look different and have different beliefs. To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1960 but is based on the times of 1930’s, a time of the Jim Crow Laws. In the 1930’s, discrimination was a big complication. It is based on the racially charged events of the early 1930’s. Similarly, The Help is set in the early years of the 1960’s, mainly focusing on the idea of gender and racial discrimination. The character Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird and the character Skeeter from The Help have both similar and different views and reactions towards discrimination. Scout thinks it is unnecessary and a waste of time while Skeeter comparably thinks it is wrong and that all people should be treated equally.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a complex literary work exploring several aspects of the human condition. Lee’s story is one based in the 1930’s, shortly before the Civil Rights Movement. Her novel ventures into the societal issues, such as racism and gender stereotyping, in their fictional town, Maycomb. One recurring theme throughout the narrative is the social adjustment of the citizens of Maycomb and the human race as a whole. Lee showcases the progress in social justice matters by using symbolism and motifs.

In this essay, both texts, “To kill a Mockingbird” and “The Help”, will be looked at in depth, and the range of literary devices and techniques used in order to portray the theme of racism will be analyzed. The emotional attachment between protagonists, and the positive perspectives shared by characters portray the overall theme of racism and how this is oppressive for all people involved.

To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only novel, is a fictional story of racial oppression, set in Maycomb, A.L. in 1925 to 1935, loosely based on the events of the Scottsboro trials. Unlike the story however, the racial discrimination and oppression in the novel very accurately portrays what it was like in the 1920's and 1930's in the south. Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a poor low class white girl of 19, never stood a chance of getting a fair trial. This can be supported by giving examples of racially discriminatory and

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a powerful novel that explores the widespread racial discrimination in 1930’s Alabama. Throughout the novel rarely is Alabama’s racism bridged, with the exception of three main protagonists Scout Finch, her brother Jem Finch and their Father Atticus. Lee’s use of symbolism, foreshadowing and irony present the consequences of the loss of innocence and the penalties that racial prejudice can have on a community.

There are many similarities between To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch, a 9 year old girl and her brother Jem, sees the problematic behaviour in their fellow neighbours in the town of Maycomb, Alabama in 1933. Their father, Atticus Finch is a well known lawyer who feels morally obligated to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella. In contrast, The Help is set in 1962s Jacksonville, Mississippi, where a young woman named Skeeter Phelan helps a group of black maids publish a book describing their hardships working for white families. Along the way, Hilly Holbrook, an influential and ignorant woman, proposed the "Home Help Sanitation

After watching both movies, I have discovered that there was still strong prejudice in The Help, although it was less severe. In To Kill a Mockingbird, there was seperate buildings, although they still let them in the same buildings. In The Help most of the African American women were maids, and they even had to have their own porter pottys to use the restroom.

In the riveting coming-of-age novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee projects the idea of acceptance of all people, through the eyes of a child. Harper Lee combats the prejudice of social standing when she proves that some of the poorest people have the best of character traits. While racism of African Americans is first and foremost in this novel, the acceptance of white people into the African American community shows racism can be beaten from both point of views. Finally, the disabilities that Arthur Radley portrays, is forgotten, when his actions help him soar above the bigotry of the people of Maycomb County. The most obvious topic is the overt racism based on a person's skin color, however, Harper Lee takes us beneath the skin to show that discrimination occurs in other ways.

Harper Lee’s, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, set in 1930’s Alabama during the depression error creates various representations of different racial and ethnic groups. The hero of the novel, Atticus Finch is shown to challenge the dominant racist and prejudice values of the Maycomb citizens through his representation as courageous, empathetic and carrying as well as his belief in equality. Using a variety of language features Lee skilfully positions the reader to view Atticus positively though his beliefs and actions.