Conflicting Perspectives-to Kill a Mockingbird

Understanding perspective is essential to understanding people. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird presents this idea in multiple passages of her writing. It can be seen in the rough, unknown troubles that people face despite their wrongful actions. As well as the rumours that are untrue and give complete false impressions of people. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird uses these topics to illustrate the dangers of judging others before getting to know them.

“I guess tom was tired of white men’s chances and prefers to take his own”. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee It shows the racism between whites and colored people to show how it can affect our day to day lives. Through the character Tom Robinson Harper Lee shows the struggle that colored people go through in their lifetime.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” examines the very central theme of man’s inhumanity to man. The many types of inhumanity, whether it is intentional or not, is seen throughout the novel in its many forms. It is shown through the ignorance and prejudice of the people in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Most examples of inhumanity found in the novel are not as innocent as Scout and Jem’s actions. It is evident that racism of all kinds affects the everyday lives of many people. Although this novel may be fictional, the conflicts are as real and valid in the world of Scout and Jem Finch as they are in reality today. The reader witnesses Bob Ewell’s inhumanity towards his daughter, and pretty much everyone he comes in contact with, the inhumanity shown by the Radley’s as well as the other Maycomb citizens towards Boo Radley and lastly, the inhumanity shown by the white people in Maycomb towards the Blacks.

As the United States “progresses” in economic, educational and technological advancements we still are fighting for racial equality. With more than 50 years since the brown vs. board of education case there is still incidents like Ferguson, Baton Rouge, and Phiando Castile where many questions are still unanswered. However, Harper Lee dealt with these same problems in 1960 when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee created an emotionally confronting story. Lee writes through the eyes of “Scout” a lawyer’s daughter in a small sleepy town of Maycomb in Alabama during the great depression. Throughout the book “Scout” learns coming of age lessons from Atticus and her own experiences. But when Atticus takes on a case defending a black man (Tom Robinson) convicted for rapping a white woman (Mayella Ewell) and is found guilty. “Scout” her brother Jem begin to understand the effects of the prejudices in society. Therefore, Lee applies the literary concepts of diction and tone to revel the truth that prejudices in society negatively affect the way people treat each other in To Kill a Mocking Bird.

The central idea in an excellent piece of literature To Kill A Mockingbird, is open to many different interpretations. This book builds upon the central idea of racism based upon one’s upbringing or location thru the prospective of Jean “Scout” Louise, a child. She witnesses the long-standing racism between both black and white people. In the summer of 1935, she witnesses the stakes for standing up against racism.

Various people believe that, in order to coexist with others, you must be able to see situations from other points of view. This culminates the main idea of the passage. One quote in particular from this excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird is, “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 it.” Atticus told this to Scout after she had a misunderstanding with her teacher; thus, Scout realized this seemingly simple trick may remain the key to getting along with all people. However, I believe in the impossibility of ever fully understanding a person.

To Kill A Mockingbird is an infamous novel in relation to the ideas of social justice and anti-racism, which the author conceptualised throughout the text. Through the use of symbolism, character vocabulary, and setting, as representation of the deprivation of the four key points of social justice; equity, equality, freedom, and human rights, the author, Harper Lee, positions the reader of To Kill A Mockingbird to question what is ethically right or wrong according to personal values and how they are contrasted or contradicted by persons according to the race of others. This illuminates the complexities associated with racism and positions the reader towards re-evaluating right and wrong regardless of colour, to come to the socially just conclusion of ‘anti-racism’, the main idea of the text.

In the article, “Why teenagers can't see your point of view” by Ewen Callaway, it becomes clear “that a teenage mind toils harder when inferring the outlook of others, compared to adults” (2). Children and teenagers have a harder time understanding the points of view of others. However, this does not mean that their views are inaccurate. Children formulate their own opinions about certain aspects of life without acknowledging the thoughts of others. Nevertheless, they do not think too hard about situations, but instead go with their gut instinct, while adults tend to settle with their opinions, and see things for how they appear on the surface.

Within the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, Harper Lee has portrayed the importance of considering points of view from other people’s perspective and not being able to understand them until you have walked in their shoes. Many characters in this book, especially Jean Louise Finch (Scout) and Atticus Finch have shown that walking in someone else’s shoes can be helpful in the worst of times.

Why is it good to view certain things thru another person’s eyes? In To Kill A Mockingbird, you see everything thru the main character’s eyes. Thru the main character, Scout, you can see how she sees things, why she reacts the way she does, and you are given a more innocent point of view. When you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you see what they see; you understand them better. Now we will explore why it’s important to see through someone else’s point of view in To Kill A Mockingbird.

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… but sing their heart out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Harper Lee. The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about how black people and white people in the South didn’t really get along all that well. The main characters: Scout, Jem, and Dill grow throughout the story and learn important life lessons about how to get along with others that are both black and white. A metaphor that Atticus Finch tells his children is that “...it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This is very important throughout the book because it pretty much is the recurring theme that you shouldn’t judge someone until you have walked in their shoes. In this book, there are some characters

Outsiders are something every person comes across in the course of their lifetime. They could be witnessed from the outside, seeing outsiders as a weird uncle or the kid who got picked on during high school. On the contrary, you yourself could have felt like an outsider to the atmosphere and people surrounding you. Either way, we can see how society can create divisions between people, sorting outsiders from everyone else. In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, there are many outsiders who are excluded from different aspects of Maycomb, Alabama's society and standards. Boo Radley, Dolphus Raymond, and Atticus Finch are characters who are contrasting to the norms of Maycomb and are put in the category of being outsiders.

In my opinion, there is one clear winner for the upcoming Oscar for best courtroom drama - To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the few films in the genre which deeply subverts our expectations.

Integrity is the hallmark of human character and incorruptibility that is present in all societies. Harper Lee writes, in a realistic novel set during the great depression, of a racially segregated town in the south. The story is written in the point of view of a young girl whose father defends an African American man accused of raping a white girl. This character, Atticus, develops and greatly influences those around him to question the way the society is being run. A similar character is seen in The Power of One, a film directed by Avildsen. During this film, a young boy, PK, having grown up being of English descent is bullied and abused by older boys at an Afrikaans boarding school. He questions the racism present in the South African civilization, and with integrity, he impacts many throughout the society. Both these stories demonstrate that acting with integrity is defined as maintaining one’s beliefs in order to reintroduce ideas to society.

In this breathtaking novel by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, all of my expectations were hit and more; when reading a story about racism and injustice in the world I learned that the world is in worse shape then I thought. Atticus Finch is a white defense lawyer, who defends a black man that has been accused of raping a white woman. Atticus has two young children; Jem, and Jean (Scout) who are growing up in a society where the color of your skin and the differences you have affect your life.The death of our loved ones brings grief and sadness into our lives, and Murder can be especially hard on the families of those we have lost. In today's society we have experienced many shootings in the past couple of years, many of which shouldn’t have occurred. The murders of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Walter Scott were unnecessary just as much as Tom Robinson’s in To Kill a Mockingbird.