Innocence and Prejudice in to Kill a Mockingbird Essay

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a multi-faceted novel which explores the principles and morals of people in the South during the 1930s. Mockingbirds are symbolic of the people that society abuse. Lee narrates the events of the novel using Scout’s voice and uses this technique to add emotional context and develop themes. Themes of racial and classist prejudice are developed by Lee to challenge the reader. These techniques are all powerful ways to alter the views of the reader.

In the novel, to kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee presents three very distinct types of innocence that are portrayed by different characters throughout the novel. A good part in this story’s brilliance is that Harper Lee has managed to use the innocence of a young girl to her advantage. She does this by telling the whole story from a child’s point-of-view. By having an innocent little girl make racial remarks and regard people of color in a way consistent with the community, Lee provides the reader with an objective view of the situation. As a child, Scout can make observations that an adult would often avoid. In addition, readers are also likely to be forgiving of a child’s perception, whereas they would find an adult who makes these

Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in the year of 1960, and is one of the few American classic novels awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The racism that is prevalent in many southern American towns in the 1930s is brought to life with profound imagery in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are several characters in the book, yet the true main character is the narrator's father, Atticus Finch. He is a man of great integrity and intelligence. A very heroic figure in more ways than one, Atticus possesses traits like being principled, determined, and, more importantly, he teaches others. When looking at To Kill a Mockingbird, one can see that Lee uses lots of description, dialogue, and actions to portray Atticus as a heroic individual.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a highly successful, awe inspiring novel written by Harper Lee. It guides the reader through the complex structures of the small town mentality in 1930’s America, which is all written through the mainly objective perspective of a young girl named Scout. The major draw factor of this novel is the eloquent yet sometimes brutally upfront way in which it portrays not only racism, but the theme of appearances versus reality too. The choices Harper Lee made in terms of setting, character choice, and language technique cleverly influenced my reactions to the latter theme.

Not only can it be difficult to see the world from another perspective other than your own, but people can be held back from their limited views of the outside world. Small town people, such as the people in Maycomb County, can have inflexible opinions about the outlooks of other people; therefore, this can cause several of the misunderstandings in this book. Understanding the perspectives of alternative ideas of people can be a topic that is brought up more often as we grow up making it a strenuous topic for narrow minds to grasp. Scout, who lives her life as an acutely black or white person, was never taught how to view the world from a “grey” perspective. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout discovers precious life lessons, views

When Atticus asks Mayella ‘who are your friends?’ (p.245) she is perplexed by the question demonstrating to us how she must be ‘the loneliest person in the world’ (p. 256). Furthermore, Lee clearly explains to us she is accustomed to being treated poorly as when Atticus refers to her as ‘ma’am’ and speaks to her politely she believes initially that he is ‘mockin’ me’ (p.243). Reflecting on how Mayella is trapped in her improvised, friendless state with nobody who respects her, we realise it would not have been difficult for her to become fixated on and fantasise about Tom Robinson, as he ‘was probably the only person who was ever decent to her’ (p.257). We are also able to understand why she lies about Tom raping her during the trial when we take into consideration that Mayella is living in fear of what her drunk and abusive father, Bob Ewell, would do to her if she was truthful. As she has already been ‘beaten savagely’ (p.272) and possibly raped by her father, after she ‘kissed a black man’ (p.272), her trepidation is unsurprising. By climbing into Mayella’s skin and walking around in it we see Lee is helping us to learn the importance of considering people’s circumstances before judging their actions.

One’s purity is a prized possession that is difficult to abdicate. Even so, the loss of such innocence allows one to grow up and mature into an individual capable of experiencing new ambitious struggles. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee identifies Jem as the symbolic mockingbird due to the experiences he encounters that cause his innocence to be lost.

People can get away with killing pigeons, cardinals, and blue jays, but it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. A mockingbird wouldn’t hurt anything; it’s only purpose is to sing songs for the everyday people. Jem and Scout had to restrain from shooting the mockingbirds due to their father’s warning. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is written from the view point of a little girl, Scout, in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Her father, Atticus, is assigned a court case where he has to defend an African American that is accused of raping and assaulting a white woman. While her dad is away at work, Scout, her older brother Jem, and summertime friend Dill try to make their mysterious and perhaps dangerous

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a book following the life of a young girl named Scout and her many adventures through her eyes. Set in the 1930s in the state of Alabama, this book portrays how she navigates the world from her own view and learns many life lessons about injustice, inequality, and loyalty. One of these lessons comes from Atticus, Scout’s father, about real courage. As Atticus describes courage, he says, “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes, you do.

To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, that offers a view of life through a young girl’s eyes. The novel is focused on two main themes which are racism and discrimination.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is a novel written by Harper Lee. It is set in America in the 1930s during the Great Depression, a time of economic decline after World War II. The novel follows a young girl called Scout Finch and her brother Jem as they learn about the prejudice and racism within their society of Maycomb County. The children and their widowed father, Atticus have a unique relationship that includes the teaching of valuable life lessons and unusual, maternal nurturing.

Prejudice within the white community is another theme that is explored in the novel. In the novel the member of the white community being singled out is Boo Radley. Boo Radley is singled out by almost everyone in the white community including Scout. Scout singling out Boo is important because it is part of the novels narrative which is that the events are seen from the innocent, non biased point of view (Scout). The innocence of scout is made apparent when she says “I think there’s just one kind of folks” which is her unknowingly occurring the values that Atticus has installed in her. This links to the characterisation of racial divide which is an important feature of the novel. Also as aforementioned this is an example of Scout subconsciously portraying her innocent personality. The quote “when they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things...” , “Atticus he was real nice” Is again an example of Scouts innocence.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is based on a time in the south during the 1930 's. This is a time during the Civil Rights Movement and slavery. The story is looked through the eyes of a girl name Scout Finch. She lives with her brother, Jem; her family housekeeper and cook, Calpurnia and father, Atticus. Atticus is a attorney that tries to get a black man freed of being accused of a unfair rape that he is charged with. Boo Radley is one of the "mockingbirds" the book talks about, and he ends up saving Scout and Jem 's lives. There are several way 's the author used Atticus Finch to represent a good person and father. His character shows, you don’t always have to follow the crowd. For instance, he is always a man of his word, and he 's a great father to his two children. Atticus always treats everyone equally. He doesn’t look for color and teaches his children they should not either. Finally, he does what he believes is right, and not always what people expect him to do.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view”… (Atticus finch, Lee 34). The novel To kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a masterpiece that takes readers to explore how human behave. The feelings, conflicts, meanings, reasons, love, cruelty, kindness and humor within the book is what makes the book a necessity to the reader. Harper Lee showed throughout her book how a damage and cruel society looks like. Lee’s view of the word “morality” is what gives the characters the power to contrast their own beliefs. The story of a childhood in a “normal” southern town and the catastrophe of not knowing what conscience means make the book an unforgettable novel, which readers will feel attach to it. Harper Lee showed the importance of family and unity, the importance of love and understanding, and the importance of morality and principles throughout ONE unforgettable character, Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch is the human statue of “honor and morality”. By protecting and defending a Negro who was arrest for a crime, which he never committed and being the non-typical father in the south, Atticus Finch showed a different perspective of living to his neighbors and his children. Atticus Finch became a hero not only for his children and neighbors, but also for the millions of people who have read To kill A Mockingbird.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has become a mainstay in American high-schools. This is a classic novel that has inspired many people of all ages. It had a big impact on how people viewed and treated each other. This is a story that teaches everyone about the value of honesty, love, friendship and trust. Every word written in this book has a truly deep meaning to it. The time period that the book was written in was during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. This setting was in a small town in Maycomb, Alabama with people who did not get along. During this time there was a lot of segregation within America and different races. To Kill a Mockingbird is about a family who believes in doing the right thing and being honest. There was a