Hypocrisy In To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis

Boo Radley is a ‘malevolent phantom’ and a character that has been shaped by gossips and sustained by children’s imaginations. “Stephanie Crawford, a neighbourhood scold… said she woke up in the middle of the night and saw him looking straight through the window at her.” This dialogue is an example of the gossips and how the legend of Boo Radley developed, lies that persecute his innocence. Setting is used to develop Boo’s surroundings and to summon an eerie atmosphere giving Maycomb reason enough to reject and victimise him for being different. “…rain rotten shingles drooped… oak trees kept the sun away and the remains of a picket fence drunkenly guarded the front yard.” The Radley house has been established as a neglected, out of place and isolated home through Harper Lee’s use of connotative words. This evokes within the reader the same view of Boo as the rest of the town and allows us to understand where the misunderstanding comes from before we

Everyone is brought into this world as innocent and pure. But events that follow a person in life can change their perspective on the world, and make them start to question if the things they have learned about human nature are true. This scenario can be used to describe the life of young Jean Louise Finch (Scout) in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This riveting novel takes place in the time era of the 1930s when the Great Depression was demolishing lives, and racial discrimination was high. Told through the eyes of Jean Louise, readers learn about Jean’s father Atticus Finch.

Being at the top of the social hierarchy has been a must for every American of past generations, but can lead to fatal damages for some trying to obtain that goal and a cause to ruin people’s lives. In a remarkably triumphant story on compassion, Harper Lee explored the horrors of racial prejudice in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Set in the 1930’s, the poor town of Maycomb, Alabama has been hit by the depression hard, which created a vast, complex social pyramid, with distinct families and lifestyles. At the Finch household, composed of a little nine year old girl, Scout, a twelve year old boy Jem, and their father Atticus, proceed through a whirlwind of events throughout the next few years. Atticus, a lawyer who is a hardworking, honest man at the top of the social hierarchy of Maycomb, has to defend a colored man by the name of Tom Robinson. This happened to be very unusual for the time period, as the family has to transcend through the struggles in a racial prejudice town and learn the raw nature of the worst in humans, thus trying to overcome these events through compassion. The author utilizes metaphor, characterization, and mood to describe the situation of Maycomb, it soon then becomes very clear that the dangers of ruining innocence can lead to a vast road of horrors and evils.

As children grow up, they open their eyes to the harsh truths in the world around them that they once did not understand or question. This is experienced by the main characters of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The story is of a girl called Scout and her older brother, Jem, who go through the trials of growing up in the fictional small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Racism is rampant in the mindset of the townspeople, shown when the children’s lawyer father, Atticus, takes the case of an obviously innocent African-American man and they convict him in their hearts before the trial even starts. Through this all, we can see the theme of loss of innocence in the children. Lee uses characterization to portray

To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in small town Maycomb, Alabama, a depression era town where people move slowly and twenty-four hours seems longer.  The narrator of the story is a six-year-old girl named Jean Louise Finch, a tomboy who hates wearing dresses and goes by the nickname "Scout."  Scout's being a tomboy is of no little significance because while we are treated to a sweet and affectionate portrayal of Maycomb at the novel's opening, we will find it is a town where racial prejudice, hostility and ignorance run deep below the surface.  Not only are the majority of the townspeople prejudiced against blacks, maintaining a feeling of superiority to the whole of their race, but

In the Bildungsroman novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the protagonist Jean Louise “Scout” Finch lives in Maycomb, Alabama. In Maycomb, races are segregated and people are alienated; Arthur “Boo” Radley was isolated by most of Maycomb, for example. In the novel, Scout met people in different social classes such as: Robert E. Lee “Bob” Ewell, Tom Robinson, Calpurnia, and Atticus Finch. Through the use of complications, imageries, and characters, Lee implies stereotypes and how a person’s development can be impacted by social classes.

An award winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird was brilliantly written by author Harper Lee, intertwining multiple themes to create a classic piece of American literature to represent white southern ethics of the 1930s. A common theme throughout the novel, hypocrisy is a method for Harper Lee to communicate an underlying message to readers. Hypocrisy reflects how societies, communities and the church benefits from it as a means for being ignorant of oneself’s wrongdoings and sins, placing blame elsewhere as a matter of cynical pride, no doubt hurting others in the process. An example of a character who effectively represents southern hypocrisy is Miss Mayella Ewell, who cynically condemns Tom Robinson to preserve the little remains of her

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.

” Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird " (Lee 78) . One of Harper Lee's strongest themes throughout To Kill a Mockingbird is that the characters are being judged by their appearances rather than who they really are. This misjudgement is shown through damages not only society's eyes, but also their thoughts and actions. In To Kill a Mockingbird , Harper Lee develops the theme that prejudice and misjudgement can be compared to a foggy window where society fails to see past the fog and therefore, also fails to see past the character's appearances. Throughout the novel, Maycomb's community knows to believe that one's appearance plays a much larger role in a person's judgement rather than their reality. This false accusation creates a barrier between the truth and peoples assumptions. As a result, not only does Maycomb fail to understand why others like Mr. Raymond and Boo Radley live the way they do but in the process, also decrease any chance to relate to characters such as Tom Robinson. When Maycomb's society buried their memories of Boo Radley by sending an innocent man to his death sentence and forced another to live in a world of lies where they grew to judge men by their appearance rather than what’s on the inside.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the narrator, Scout, finds truth and compassion through personal encounters and through using the ethics that her untraditional yet wise father, Atticus, has taught her. She gradually strays away from the preconceptions that her town of Maycomb has planted into her mind and understands the world from a more broad perspective. Harper Lee demonstrates the way prejudice is encouraged by being part of an isolated group, the way it is resisted through individual experience, and the way it is overcome by acting with moral courage. Maycomb, Alabama is filled with social people, who have held the same views of the world for years because of their lack of exposure to outside influence; consequently, they spread

In Harper Lee’s widely-praised novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the main character - Jean Louise “Scout” Finch - is lovable from the very start. Her childlike naiveté provides a refreshing perspective in an otherwise ‘heavy’ book. Throughout Scout’s childhood, readers watch key events evolve - petty squabbles soon unfold into a racially centered trial. Through the uses of symbolism and imagery, Lee reveals Scouts gradual acceptance to womanhood as well as her maturation predominantly in chapter twenty-four.

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about a little girl who lives during the time of the Great Depression. She lives in the county of Maycomb where there are many different people that all give Scout a different outlook on life. She faces a lot of hypocrisy as she grows older in the novel. Hypocrites are people who believe in morals that are wrong or do not conform. A part in the novel where she sees hypocrisy for the first time is when Scout joins the missionary circle meet and hears Mrs. Merriweather tell her opinion on how people are treated in the North. Another scene where hypocrisy is found, is when Mrs. Gates teaches the class about Hitler and the act of persecution. One last example of hypocrisy is seen how Aunt Alexandra opinion on Walter Cunningham being friends with Scout.

Harper Lee’s fictional construct of lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird is portrayed as a potential racial hero and advocate for equality. In the text, Atticus was one of the only characters that take action against racism in the Southern American town of Maycomb –a representation reflective of a time during which Jim Crow segregation was prevalent. His actions during these times can be perceived by other characters and readers of the novel as heroic, in particular by Scout as the narrator, Miss Maudie and the Ewells who offer differing perspectives of Atticus’s heroism.

Harper Lee's ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ explores the prejudicial issues which plague over the town Maycomb. Harper Lee uses the trial of Tom Robinson a black man accused of rape on a young white girl, Mayella as a central theme to portray the prominence of racial discrimination in Maycomb. The racial prejudice is also widely shown through the characterisation of Atticus. Having Scout as the narrator allows Harper Lee to highlight the gender inequity through a youthful unbiased perspective. The chauvinistic attitudes and prejudiced views of most of the town’s folk leaves Maycombs social hierarchy in an unfair order, victimising many of the town’s people due to their socially non-conforming habits some ‘socially unaccepted people’ including Boo

The very concept of killing a mockingbird is obviously wrong and immoral, no oppression should be celebrated or even commonplace. During the early stages of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird(1960), the reader is suggested an initial sense of ignorance and fear. The coming of age story gives a reflection of small town living from a young, nonconforming girls point of view. We watch at the pace of a slow southern drawl as Scout and her brother Jem’s world flips upside down. Maycomb has a tendency to create a standard or a system of status that can only possibly fit the people they agree with, these standards cast the oppressed out of society, just as a hunter of ignorance does with the life of a Mockingbird. By witnessing the injustices of the prior generation in Maycomb, Scout learns that differences can be celebrated and that we stand stronger together.